Playing with the professionals
Andrews’ American adventure Amy Jackman talks to New Zealand women’s softball captain Lara Andrews about playing professional softball, guns and going to an American university.
How did you softball?
I played a lot of sports. I got sportswoman of the year every year at Sacred Heart College, but softball took me the furthest. I made the women’s national team, the White Sox, at 15 and I toured Japan soon after. You can imagine what a 15-year-old was thinking suddenly being on tour with the best female softballers in the country. What do you love about it? When I’m playing softball all I’m thinking about is what I’m doing at the time. It takes away all the stress of school, missing my family, everything that’s in my mind. Also, I love the challenge. Softball is an independent team sport. It’s you, the batter, against nine players.
Why did you move to the States?
I was working fulltime in Wellington and one day I looked at my computer and thought, ‘‘I can’t do this for the rest of my life’’.
I made a list of what I was good at, which was school and softball. I googled what I could do that involved those things and up came all these websites about college softball in the States. What do you study? I’m doing my masters in human services and family studies at University of Delaware. I look at how parenting affects children in sports. The parenting in the States is very intense. Often it’s not supportive, it’s more expectations put on the child. I look at how that affects the child – do they thrive or quit? What was your family like? All of my family played sport. My grandmother played for Hutt Valley, as did my dad and mum. Michael Campbell, the golfer, is my cousin and another cousin, Anna Andrews, played for the New Zealand indoor netball team.
What impact has softball had on your life?
Heaps. I’ve been to 11 countries, played in three world series and lived in the United States for six years. Softball has been my key to the world.
It has taken me to more places than I thought existed. I consider myself very lucky.
Where’s the best place you’ve been?
Definitely Venezuela for the 2010 world series. It was the biggest cultural difference we encountered as a team – the food,
get
into the people, the way of living. We got escorted to every game by six police officers on motorbikes. There were men every hundred metres on the highway with big guns, guarding it. I was 21 and was gobsmacked that people lived that way.
The United States is big on guns as well.
Having a gun is normal over there. My friends in the States carry guns in their bags at school or in their car. It’s scary for us because we don’t know what it’s like to live that way. If you hear someone doesn’t drink coffee in the morning you’re like, ‘‘What do you mean? Everyone has coffee in the morning.’’ That’s how they view carrying a gun.
You’re the first New Zealand women’s softballer to get a pro contract. How did that feel?
Before I looked into it, I didn’t really know there was a pro league in the States or a college league. I feel humbled to have made it. Now I want to help open the door for other New Zealand softballers.
How big a deal was getting the contract with the Pennsylvania Rebellion?
About three million girls play softball in the States and in the National Pro Fastpitch there’s only five teams – maybe 100 players total. Every year the teams might only need three new players each, so there are only small windows of opportunity. Making it is hard, but staying there is harder. Once you make the White Sox or a pro team, the real work begins. In my position in Rebellion I’m competing against a girl who has been to three Olympic Games. What are the fans like? It’s nuts. People turn up to the game and have my name and number on the back of their shirts. We sign autographs for more than half an hour each game and people give us gifts. People there love sport. What are your goals? I like to dream big. I graduate from my masters programme in May and I’m applying to do my doctorate. My goal from there is to complete my doctorate, play in the pro league for four more years, qualify for the 2020 Olympics and captain the White Sox there with a Dr in front of my name. People say to me, ‘‘Softball’s not back in [the Olympics] yet’’. But I can’t just decide to have that goal a couple of weeks before the tournament. I’m going to train for it and dream about it, until the door is shut in our face.
What is it like being a female athlete in the States?
In New Zealand little boys can turn on the TV and see basketball, rugby, league and more. Little girls turn on the TV and they don’t see anything except netball or mums or nurses, so they start carrying around dolls and aren’t as interested in sport. In the States we are viewed as athletes. For me that’s awesome because I know what it’s done for me.