Albury-Wodonga Softball Association (AWSA) has had its most successful year to date on the junior front with 12 local players making Victorian state teams.
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The successful youngsters were announced during the Victorian cap presentation at Waverley, Melbourne, after a recent state team round-robin event.
Joanna Garoni (Wodonga Softball Club ) and Julia Ball (Bears Softball Club), both 13 years of age, are heading to the national championships in Perth from January 15-21 in the under 15s girls division.
The group of under 15s boys to get the call-up were Wodonga Softball Club quartet Tynan Purtell, Clae Reddy, Liam Williams and Ethan Patrala, who will compete at nationals at Redlands, Brisbane, also from January 15-21.
In the under 17s boys, Declan Patrala and Stephen Martin, who both play for Wodonga Softball Club, along with Nash Livy and Locky Spinelli from Bears Softball Club, will represent the state in Canberra from January 2-8.
Spinelli will back-up a week later at the under 19s event alongside Brad Nicholson (Tigers Softball Club) and Alex Clayton (Phantoms Softball Club), also at Redlands, Brisbane, from January 15-21.
The ever-improving Spinelli has earned caps with a number of Victorian representative teams, which led to his first ever call-up to an Australian squad when he made the under 17s team in February.
The teenager’s performance at a national tournament in January got him selected on the under-17s Australian squad for the International Friendship Series in July in Blacktown.
Spinelli has also been earmarked as a candidate for the national men’s junior squads that will travel to Canada in 2018 for the world championship.
Wodonga Softball Club’s Keith Quinn, a highly-experienced mentor of the game locally, has been named assistant coach for the under 17s boys.
Jenny Scott, from Bears Softball Club, is the manager of the under 15s boys, while Catherine Garoni, of Wodonga Softball Club, will also make the trip with the players as the statistician for the under 15s girls team.
All selected players head to Melbourne to train once a week and work together as a group regularly to save the extra travel.
Those selected were initially scouted at the state championships and invited to attend trials in July.
AWSA had almost 20 players gain selection before the final 12 were successful in making the various state teams across the four age groups.
