Three teams in two countries with nearly 100 games of competition.
Okotoks’ Claire Sherwood's commitment paid off in more ways than one with a national medal to show for it after helping the Calgary Adrenaline take bronze at the U15 Canadian Fastpitch Championships, held Aug. 9-13 in Brandon, Man.
“I don’t think anyone was expecting us to go that far, not even our coach, that we would maybe win a couple of games in pool play,” said Sherwood, an Okotoks Junior High student. “But when we finished first in our pool, I think everyone was a little stunned that we exceeded everyone’s expectations.”
In the bronze medal game, they got past a tough Cloverdale Fury squad 11-4 to get on the podium with Sherwood the starting pitcher in the third-place match.
“I like pitching under pressure, that’s one of my favourite things,” she said. “I’ve always been that person that likes being in charge.
“I always feel nerves, but nerves are good because that’s how you know you care. I’ve always been like, what’s the worst that can happen? We have four other pitchers on the team so I’m just going to give it my all out there and not hold back.”
With the Adrenaline, the team trained from October to March for its first competition in Sacramento. The season had its peaks and valleys with a tough finish in league play, she added.
“We had quite a few rough practices on the way to provincials,” she said. “We knew once we got there it was finally our time to shine.”
With the top-two finishers earning a spot at nationals, a silver medal at provincials punched the Adrenaline’s ticket.
Sherwood grew up with softball, her parents Torben and Lea having met playing the sport and helping to establish the local Foothills Fury Fastpitch Association.
“I started pitching when I was probably six, and have just been keeping going with that,” she said. “I played with Fury for quite a while and that was the kickstart for really starting to like playing softball.”
The Sherwoods moved to the Okanagan area for a while where she got her first opportunity to play for regional rep teams in Vancouver and down in Washington state as well.
“I went to the PGF Nationals with the Washington Ladyhawks in Huntington Beach,” she said. “That’s really where I decided that I wanted to play in the States and give it a try and that eventually led to me trying out for this Avalanche team in Montana.”
Since October, Sherwood has played on three teams: the Adrenaline, the Montana Avalanche as well as the 222s winter club based out of Saskatoon.
The Avalanche, who train out of Missoula, are strictly a tournament team.
“For eight weeks straight it’s just come down every weekend to a different city, sleeping in hotels every single weekend and just playing ball,” she said. “It was really fun, I love the sport, both my parents love watching it and it’s not every day you get to play in a different country and play on a team at a really high level.
“It’s a situation where everyone wants to be there, everyone wants to compete.”
Highlights with the Avalanche included a bronze medal in the State at the 14U level and a trip to Oklahoma to take in the Women’s College World Series with the team making the championship bracket at its own nearby competition.
“It’s a totally different game down here, I’ve never had so many people hit home runs off me,” she said. “It’s a lot more competitive and it’s almost like it’s second nature to them and not just a sport, they’ve been doing it their whole lives.
“I really want to play college ball down south, that’s always been what I’ve wanted to do. So I feel like having these high level coaches, they can help me get the exposure I need to go play college ball.”
