Regina softball player set to represent Canada on international stage

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Team Canada will have some Prairie pride this week at an international softball tournament in Mexico.

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Kenzie Newman, a 15-year-old Regina product, is set to represent her country at the WBSC Americas U15 Women’s Softball Pan American Championship from Mar. 20-29 in Acapulco, Mexico.

“It was just like a dream come true, honestly,” Newman said of making the team. “I didn’t think that it could happen, but all the hard work that I put in paid off.

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“It was the most surreal feeling because I’ve been working for so long.”

While Newman, a Grade 9 student at Regina’s Martin Collegiate, is the only Saskatchewan-born athlete to make the 16-player roster, White City’s Claire Griffin, also a Martin student-athlete, was named one of two alternates. Callie Bell, who lives in Alberta but previously played in Moose Jaw, is another player with local connections on the roster.

The girls, who play on the 222’s winter travel team, were among the 500 athletes that tried out for the team back in December, before having to wait a month before the official roster announcement was made.

“I was at a ringette tournament in Manitoba, and we just got out of one of our fun activities,” said Newman, who had just celebrated her 15th birthday two days prior. “And I came in the car, and then my mom kept staring at me, and I was like, ‘Why are you staring at me?’

“And she’s like, ‘I have something to show you.’ Then she just showed me the email, and it was so surreal. I was just so excited. I was stunned. I didn’t know what to do or what to say.

“A lot of my friends tried out and didn’t make it, so it was really hard for me to tell them to. I really didn’t know how to. (But) they were very excited for me. I have the best friends in the world. They were very excited.”

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After first playing softball when she was five years old, Newman remembers starting to take the game more seriously when she was eight. By 10 years old, she continued her progression and was moved up an age group.

“I got moved up a year early, and I was like, this is just what I want to do with my life; it makes me so happy,” said the proud daughter of Scott and Carrie. “Moving up the year was struggling for me, so that kind of set me back, but it also pushed me in the best way to where I could believe that I could do anything.”

While the goal is to one day earn a scholarship with an NCAA Division 1 program, Newman, who can begin fielding NCAA offers in Grade 11, has her sights set on performing well for Team Canada, which is sending a team to the championship for the first time.

Canada will be in Group B alongside Colombia, Peru, Puerto Rico and host Mexico. Group A features Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Venezuela and the defending champion United States, who beat Puerto Rico in the 2023 final.

And there’s not only a Pan American championship on the line, but the top four teams at the event will earn a spot at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U15 Women’s Softball World Cup in Italy from June 27 to July 5.

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“We have to finish top four,” said Newman, who will be pitching and playing first base. “So, my coaches were like, ‘Hey, if we finish top four, then we might as well place (top three). And if we place and we might as well just win it all.

“That’s the kind of mindset that we have going into it.”

While the goal is clear, for Newman, getting a chance to wear Canadian colours is a dream come true in itself.

“Not everyone gets to do that,” she said. “I’m really grateful for the opportunity.

“I’m excited to meet all these new people, make great friends and represent the flag well.”

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