Hira, 55, gets back on the diamond
Rhonda Hira – New Zealand’s greatest women’s softballer – is dusting off her glove and returning to the diamond to pit her silken skills against players half her age.
Hira, a fit and active 55-year-old and the most capped player in New Zealand White Sox history, will lace up her cleats and play in this weekend’s Fastball 45 tournament in Christchurch as a pick-up player for the Kaiapoi Queens.
New Zealand softball’s player of the decade (1997-2006) still trains at the gym six days a week and ‘‘won’t be rusty’’ because she’s been playing social softball for the tautahi club.
Part of the world softball Hall of Famer’s motivation is the chance to play alongside god-daughters Nerissa and Layla BaileyMcDowell, and their younger sister McKenzie. The trio are the daughters of Hira’s former White Sox team-mate Jaye Bailey, and Kaiapoi Queens coach Mike McDowell.
‘‘Every year, the nieces have been asking, ‘ come back and play,
Aunty’,’’ Hira said. Mike asked me in the pre-season, and I said, ‘ yeah I’ll give it a go’.
‘‘I quite like the [Fastball] format, it looks very exciting, so that was another trigger for me.’’
Hira, who is studying to become a personal trainer, said she was ‘‘actually quite motivated’’ to help the younger Kaiapoi players and, after training with her team-mates, is confident she won’t let them, or herself, down.’’
Since retiring from elite softball in the mid-2000s, she has kept busy playing golf. A former Canterbury Masters representative and interclub player, she won the best nett trophy and longest drive prize at the recent Canterbury women’s champion of champions tournament.
Hira said she was attracted to the Fastball format because it was ‘‘only four innings, or 45 minutes, and there’s plenty of squeeze plays’’, with action from the first inning.
The Fastball 45 southern zone men’s and women’s series starts at Christchurch’s Mizuno Ballpark tomorrow night with the finals on Sunday.
The Christchurch zone winners will qualify for the national finals in Auckland on December 11-13.