Having a ball
Sluggers heading to New Zealand for second World Masters Games
Audrey Buchanan was nervous stepping back on the ball field after being away from the sport for 24 years.
She left that first softball practice four years ago with a couple of bruises, but it didn’t let it deter her. And she’s glad her persistence paid off.
In April, the Bloomfield resident and 17 of her Subway Sluggers teammates will head to Auckland, New Zealand, for the World Masters Games. “This was an opportunity, now that my kids are grown and I’m an empty nester, to get back into a sport I love,” Buchanan said. “The girls are great. They made me feel so welcome (with their) kindness, big hearts, but also the bantering going back and forth.”
Buchanan got involved in the sport while attending M.E. Callaghan Intermediate School. She went on to play at nationals in Vancouver as well as Newfoundland and Labrador. She left the sport for 24 years while raising her family, but a conversation with a friend got her back in the game. Buchanan was talking with Ginette Plourde about their bucket lists. One of the items Buchanan has had on her list since watching the Lord of the Rings movies was visiting New Zealand. Two days later, Plourde called Buchanan and said her softball team was heading to Auckland and there was a
spot for her, if she wanted it. “(In) two seconds I made up my mind. I said, ‘Yes, I’m going.” The team leaves April 14 and returns May 6 and will spend some time in Australia and New Zealand on each side of
the Games.
The Sluggers decided to go to New Zealand shortly after returning home from the 2013 Games in Turin, Italy.
“It was a very easy decision to make because people really
enjoyed themselves and it was a feeling of great pride to wear that Maple Leaf and step out on the field and hear people saying ‘Go Canada,’” said coach Carol Mayne.
“There’s a tremendous amount of dedication on this team. Our players love softball and that’s why we’re still playing.”
The team has been practising at the indoor soccer facility in Stratford since November in preparation for the Games. Earlier this month Mark Quinn, head coach of the Island’s Canada Games men’s softball team, was by to assist in a practice. The Sluggers are comprised of 16 Islanders and two New Brunswickers. They were all in Stratford to work on their skills during that night in the middle of the winter.
“The love of the sport never leaves you,” Mayne said. “It just a matter of having the opportunity to play, and this has given people that.”
The Sluggers competed in the 35-plus division in 2013. This time around, they will compete
in the 45-plus recreation division.
The team is close to raising its roughly $100,000 budget for the trip with the largest expense being the airfare.
“It’s been a long old journey of four years,” Mayne said. “We’ve been very fortunate with all the support we’ve received in the community and we’re really looking forward to represent P.E.I. and Canada the best we can.”
Buchanan said she is excited about travelling to the other side of the world.
“It’s just like going with all of your sisters on a family trip,” Buchanan said.