Softball Australia has announced a 30 member squad for the Aussie Peppers team which will play in the National Pro Fastpitch season in the USA.
The current squad represents a long-team for the Aussie Spirit – Australia’s national team, which will be trimmed down to 17-members in advance of the Olympic qualifiers which will be held in China next September.
In the meantime, the 30-strong squad will all be eligible to represent the Aussie Peppers of Minnesota in the NPF season, which is just the second time that Australia’s best have played collectively in the league.
In 2018, the team played under the banner of the Aussie Spirit, but in 2019, they will base themselves at Caswell Park in Minnesota under the Aussie Peppers branding as the team seeks to maximise its high-level preparations ahead of September’s all important Asia/Oceania Olympic qualification tournament for Tokyo2020.
The long-team includes three Western Australian athletes with national team veteran Leigh Godfrey joined by Verity Long-Droppert and Leah Parry. The squad also includes WA born but Queensland based athlete Chelsea Forkin.
Softball returns to the Olympic sports roster in Tokyo for the first time since Beijing in 2008. The sport has featured at four Olympics, ranging from Atlanta in 1996 through to China 12 years later. Australia has medalled on all four occasions it has been staged.
With the Spirit currently ranked seventh in the world, they will fancy their chances of qualifying for Tokyo with a talented team blending a core of experience with a fringe of youthful exuberance.
The squad will converge for a training camp in Canberra next month, before commencing their NPF season in June.
