Canadian softball player Yee is an expert on bats — and batting
For Jen Yee of Ottawa, life is all about her bat.
Whether she’s waiting to connect with the right pitch or in her full-time job designing and field testing new bats, the softball player is obsessed with her implement of choice.
And the Canadian senior women’s softball team has certainly benefited from her dedication to hitting.
An 11-year member of the Canadian squad, including the past nine with the senior group, Yee has developed into one of the most productive and consistent hitters in the world. At 28, the second baseman will be one of the key players when Canada chases Pan Am Games glory this month in Ajax, east of Toronto. The Games run July 10 to 26 in the Greater Toronto Area.
“We expect to be in the goldmedal game,” Yee said as she started training camp, hoping to upgrade her pair of Pan Am Games silver medals from 2007 and 2011. The other team expected in the final is the United States, which has won eight of the nine women’s softball gold medals.
Hitting for average and power is hard work for Yee, who moved to Ottawa in February from North Delta, B.C., to work as a bat development engineer for Gloucester-based Combat.
“Lots of practice. Honestly, that’s all it is,” explained Yee, who played for Canada at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (fourth place), three world championships (bronze in 2010) and the World University Summer Games (gold in 2007). “I have done this for a long time. I have had some of the best training in the world — highlevel training and grinding it out.
“Part of it is ability and handeye co-ordination. When you combine with a teacher, you get to the next level.”
Her main hitting coach has been highly regarded instructor Dave Paetkau, who started working with her in North Delta about 12 years ago and has been the national women’s hitting and outfield coach since 2010.
“A lot of my training is studying the pitcher and knowing what will happen before what happens,” she added. “It’s like studying for a test. It’s what highperformance athletes do. It’s not just physical training.”
During the 2008 Olympics, Yee led Canadian batters with a .348 batting average with one home run and five RBI.
In her senior year (2010) at Georgia Institute of Technology, she led all NCAA hitters with a .538 average and a slugging percentage of 1.270, and tied for first with 29 home runs. She was selected the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year and was one of three finalists for NCAA player of the year.
As a junior, she batted .415, had 36 extra-base hits, including 16 home runs, and owned a .813 slugging percentage. In her inaugural season, she was Tech’s third-leading hitter at .343 and punched out 81 hits, while starting all 70 games.
Yee transferred to Georgia Tech from Niagara University, where she was Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference rookie of the year in 2006 and an all-conference firstteam member. She broke singleseason school records for batting average, .466; hits, 62; home runs, 11; and runs 39.
Yee feels she is at the peak of her game and a lot of her latest development has to do with playing professional softball in Japan in 2013 and 2014. She played for the Toda Medical Group.
“It’s where I got an appreciation for defence. It taught me how to field through reps and training,” she said. “I wanted to take my game to the next level and I did. It’s amazing what they do and how much dedication they have as well as having a desk job.”
Toda players, Yee excluded, worked for the company in the morning and played softball in the afternoon.
“I loved it. I love Japan. But I felt I could only do it for so long. I wanted a normal life. When you’re a pro athlete, all you do is play the sport and nothing else. It was great for my game and I’m at the top of my game, but you also get lonely.”
The Pan Am Games contingent from Ottawa and Gatineau, however, will have four current professional athletes representing Canada — Gabriela Dabrowski in tennis, Samantha Cornett in squash, Ian Millar in equestrian show jumping and Phillippe Aumont in baseball.
Dabrowski is ranked 40th in doubles and 186th in singles on the Women’s Tennis Association list, with career earnings of $341,720. Canada’s last Pan Am Games tennis medal was a bronze in women’s doubles in 1999 by Renata Kolbovic and Aneta Soukup. Doubles is Dabrowski’s strength.
Canada’s women’s singles squash champion for the last three years, Cornett sparked Canada to the team gold medal and singles silver medal at the 2011 Pan Am Games.
At the Pan Am championships in 2014, she earned silver medals in both competitions. She is ranked 33rd on the Women’s Squash Association tour, with three players from Pan Am countries ahead of her: Amanda Sobhy, USA, 11th; Nicolette Fernandes, Guyana, 26th; and Samantha Teran, Mexico, 29th. Cornett was ranked 28th in May 2014.
Miller will ride Dixson in his 10th consecutive Pan Am Games. He already has three gold, four silver and two bronze individual and team medals.
Gatineau’s Phillippe Aumont made his Major League Baseball debut on June 19 for the Philadelphia Phillies, which was eight years after the career relief pitcher was drafted 11th overall by the Seattle Mariners. It was rough outing for him and the Phillies outrighted him for assignment five days later. But Aumont declined, became a free agent and will play in the Pan Am Games. He pitched one inning for Canada in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
This is the fifth and final High Achievers column about Ottawaarea sports figures and the Pan Am Games.
Martin Cleary’s High Achievers column appears bi-weekly in the Citizen. If you know an athlete, coach, team or builder you consider a high achiever, contact Martin at martincleary51@gmail.com. For more Pan Am Games notes and the Capital Sports Hub find this story at ottawacitizen.com