Seven B.C. players make Olympic softball team
Team Canada roster for Tokyo unveiled as sport returns to Games for first time since 2008
Mark Smith swears he won't be taken offtask.
Smith is the head coach of the Canadian women's softball team and on Wednesday he named his 15-player roster for the Tokyo Olympics. The roster includes seven players from B.C.
It's the first Olympics for the sport since Beijing 2008, due to softball being voted off the full-time Olympic schedule before that competition. It could be the last Olympics for softball for awhile, since host countries beginning with Tokyo are permitted to add sports that are popular in their region, and Paris 2024 organizers have already said they won't be including softball. Los Angeles 2028 could bring it back.
That can be a lot to ponder. Smith, though, said he and his team will avoid all that thinking.
“We're ultra-focused on our own preparation and what we can do to be the best team in the world in the last week of July,” said Smith, who's from Falmouth, N.S. “All the other things are just distractions. They're just noise. We aren't going to talk about another Olympics. We aren't going to talk about what happens after these Olympics. We've got six games at the end of July and we're worried about making sure that we're prepared for them.”
Left-hander Lauren Bay Regula of Trail is part of that B.C. contingent and one-offour returnees from Beijing 2008, along with right-hander Danielle Lawrie of Langley, infielder Jenn Salling of Port Coquitlam and catcher Kaleigh Rafter of Guelph, Ont.
Bay Regula, 39, sounds something like Smith. She said she's not keeping a watch on the COVID-19 numbers in Japan. The Games have already said they won't allow fans from outside of Japan because of the pandemic. And there's been continued suggestions the Olympics shouldn't take place because of COVID-19.
“All that is out of my control,” she said. “What we have to do on the field doesn't change. We're putting our heads down and getting to work. We're starting to sharpen that saw a little bit. We're worrying about peaking in July.”
Softball is one of six sports being added for Tokyo. It was voted out initially in 2005, and firm reasons why have never been given. The fact that it's been a sport frequently dominated by the Americans has always been among the speculated reasons.
Emma Entzminger, 25, of Victoria, is an infielder who was named to Smith's team Wednesday. She wasn't even playing softball in 2005; she played baseball until she was 13. She also focused on hockey as a youngster.
“Representing Canada was always a goal of mine. I hadn't decided what I wanted it to be in back then,” she said
Wednesday.
“Today has been a pretty incredible day. Seeing the posts on social media and people reaching out, it's been emotional all-around. It's starting to set in with the final 15 being named. And I'm sure it will set in more-and-more each day.”
Smith took over the program in 2009, and it seems he's brought a confidence and a higher level of expectations. It used to be that you would hear Canadian softball teams just happy to be in the mix, but this group is openly speaking about chasing the gold medal in Tokyo.
Canada won gold at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, beating the Americans in the final. Canada took thirdplace at the 2016 and 2018 world championships. The team booked its Olympic spot after finishing in the top two — along with Mexico — at a 2019 Americas qualifier at Softball
City in Surrey.
“That's what we live and breathe every single day,” Entzminger said of aiming for first. “It's not like just getting to the podium is enough. We're making it about winning gold, about making history. We want to be the best Canadian team ever.
“We're going to be the most-prepared team at the Olympics.”
The Canadian team, which also features infielder Kelsey Harshman (Delta), outfielder Larissa Franklin (Maple Ridge) and right-hander Sara Groenewegen (White Rock), has some time off before beginning an exhibition schedule based out of Marion, Ill., on May 28.
The six-team Olympic softball tournament opens July 22.