Belize to play Pan Am Women’s Championship in Venezuela
While the jury is out on whether the US President will come to the Jewel, there is one certainty; that Belize is heading to the softball qualifying games. That was the message that the Belize Softball Federation disclosed to the media, this morning when they introduced the sixteen athletes, who will be competing in the seventh Pan American Women’s Championship. This is the fourth time that Belize has been invited to the tournament, but due to the economic downturn—it will serve as the qualifying round for three different games: the twenty-first Central American and Caribbean Competition, the sixteenth Pan American Games and the eleventh Women’s World Championship. The tournament will be held in Maracay City, Venezuela from July thirty-first to August ninth. President of the Softball Federation, Patrick Henry, says that the final selection of the team was based on many factors.
Patrick Henry, President, Belize Softball Federation
“It’s a long time we have not been to a Pan Am Qualifying Tournament and like what I said earlier that we started this process back in 2007 and last year we tested the process for the first time. We won silver at the Central American Championships and a number of our players won individual awards. They had to attend at least eighty percent of the practice session. They had to adapt to the new training program that we put in place—all of the coaches are trained, certified by the International Softball Federation. Two of the three on the National Women’s Team right now are capable of being hired by any other country in the region or in the world.”
Duane Moody
“What kind of trainings have you guys been doing so far?”
Floyd Flowers, Assistant Coach
“We have been doing a lot of physical exercise; we have been going to the gym. We have been bringing the girls upstairs and doing some blackboard work as well. We have been doing a lot of field work and we’re trying to get the whole team in very good condition and form because this is a very big tournament that we are going and we want to make our country proud.”
Duane Moody
“Do you feel that you guys are ready to take on the other teams?”
Floyd Flowers
“Certainly, especially we have a very offensive minded team and as well as defensive and the team is fairly young. They’re strong and energetic.”
Joline Davis, Member, Belize Nat’l Softball Team
“We train hard. We come out everyday, we give our all because we want to go out there and do our best. So we come out and we train as hard as we could. I feel proud, I’m excited, I’m happy to be selected as part of the national team for Belize.”
The federation has mustered twelve of the forty thousand dollars needed to fly the contingent of players, coaches and officials to the games— with help from the Belize Bank, other private sector donors and the public. The National team last placed second in the Central American Softball Games. Before that in 1974, the Belize National Women’s Softball Team banked gold in the twelfth Central American and Caribbean Games and settled for second in the fourteenth and fifteenth games in 1982 and 1986. Belize also placed third in 1979 and 1983 Pan Am games.
