It is not too often that a senior fastball team gets the chance to go head-to-head against one of the top teams from another country, but the Rosebud Royals got to do just that on June 16 when they welcomed the New Zealand International Softball Academy U19 team to town.
The stop in Wadena was part of a tour for the New Zealand squad, which will see them tour Western Canada from June 13 – July 1 making stops in Delisle, Wadena, Shellbrook, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Fleming, Winnipeg, Cross Lakes, Kahkewistahaw First Nation, Early Grey,
Bonnyville, and Camrose, before making the trip back to New Zealand.
New Zealand team manager Craig Waterhouse notes the trip is a great way to provide life experience for the players.
“The billeting experience is quite humbling really… they stay in hotels sometimes but they make lots of friends as a result of their billeting. One of the players as a result of touring came back and is now playing in Alberta for a team. One of the other players is actually playing on Vancouver Island. So it’s a real development of their maturity as kids.”
Wadena was added to the list by Saskatoon Softball, says Waterhouse, with the stop being part of an exchange, which will see the Wadena Bantam Wildcats club travel to Australia and New Zealand in February.
“Our kids are super excited about going over to New Zealand and Australia,” noted Rosebud Royal and head coach of the bantam team Darin Faubert.
“It’s getting to meet people from other places of the world, it’s learning about other places in the world, and doing it with your friends and playing a sport for fun, so you can’t really beat that.”
While Faubert says he and the players are excited to visit New Zealand and Australia, he notes they were equally excited to be able to play host to the New Zealand squad.
“It’s just a neat experience to be able to play against a team from the other end of the world… it’s great to have them in Wadena, we look forward to billeting them tonight, showing them a little bit about the area and Saskatchewan in general.”
On the field it was a tale of two contests, with New Zealand grabbing game one 12-2, and the Royals game two 9-8.
Waterhouse noted that the chance to play against the men, was great for the team, saying the players typically play men’s fastball in New Zealand, but they have not done much of it as a team.
“(June 15 in Delisle) was our first game, this was our second so every game gives them an opportunity to advance that little bit more, mature a little bit more. Most of those kids are 17, 18 year olds so they need game time to mature and playing guys like this is quite good for them.”
While the games are about learning for New Zealand, the Royals were also able to learn a thing or two from the New Zealand side, with Faubert noting they learned very quickly that the players are fast.
“They’re from a country where softball is huge. They’re the centre of the softball world… anytime you’re playing a team whose country takes pride in a sport… you know it’s going to be tough and that’s exactly what it is today. They’ve got great players, and they’ve got great coaching and you have to play your best game or they’re going to give it you.”
Off the field Waterhouse was blown away with the support, noting the hospitality in Wadena was great.
“This is amazing for these kids to come here and see a relatively small town and they have three enclosed diamonds. On parks in New Zealand, we play a lot of softball on open diamonds. You wouldn’t go to many parks in New Zealand that have three enclosed diamonds, even the big cities,” he said noting by his memory there is only one park in the whole of New Zealand that has three enclosed parks.
Despite that, Waterhouse says there was not much of an adjustment to playing on the parks in Wadena, noting tournaments are typically played with two enclosed diamonds, and one open one.
With that in mind, and the rules being the same, aside from the intentional walk rule, which in Canada requires the pitcher to throw four balls, while in New Zealand the batter could just take the base, Waterhouse says the biggest adjustment was to extreme time zone change with Auckland New Zealand being 18 hours ahead of Wadena.
“The kids do it better than we do. I slept in the back of the car, and I think I fell asleep during the game, I still haven’t adjusted,” he laughed.
Overall, Faubert was impressed with how the event went over, noting he was surprised by the response from the community.
“You can put on an event but you just never know for sure how many people are going to come and to be honest with you we never expected this many people to come and be here. It’s fantastic to see this kind of support for the game of softball… it’s absolutely unreal. And it’s great to have everybody here.”
