Hutt Valley Dodgers Brad Carson has to raise $7500 to represent New Zealand. A pitcher, he recently won two awards at the Hutt Valley Softball Awards.

 

ORIGINAL STORY by Nicholas Boyack

Softball is arguably New Zealand's most successful sport but for players like Brad Carson, representing your country is a major financial challenge.

The Stokes Valley-based 17 year old was recently selected in the Junior Black Sox team to attend the July World Series in Canada.

His selection was confirmed in a letter from manager Wayne Small.

"Brad's attendance at the tournament is dependent upon funding raised by Brad and his family."

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Like the others selected, Brad has to find $7500 and for an Upper Hutt College student who has to rely on mum and dad, that is a lot of money. His club, Hutt Valley Dodgers, is also helping out.

His mother, Michelle Mikara,  works as an officer manager and his father, Rick Mikara, is a dispatcher.

So far they have organised a quiz night and a barbecue but Rick said finding the money would not be easy.

Softball has a record in New Zealand that is only challenged by rugby. The Black Sox have seven world titles, the women one world crown and at a junior level, we are consistently amongst the best.

Small agrees that asking teenagers to raise $7500 is a tough ask but it is the reality of being a top softballer in New Zealand.

"It is definitely not an ideal situation."

Although the world champion Black Sox get funding from High Performance New Zealand, it is the only team that gets any government support.

As the manager, Small keeps out of fundraising and said it was up to the players, their club, association and family to find the cash. The team was selected on ability and no one had pulled out for financial reasons..

Softball New Zealand Chief Executive Tony Giles said not only did he have the job of trying to find money for the nine New Zealand teams heading overseas this year, he also had   stepson Kody Clueard, in the Junior Black Sox.

Most world series are played in North America, where softball receives funding from national and local government.

In the case of the Junior Black Sox, they can't just fly to Canada and play in the tournament and fly home, Giles said. To be competitive and acclimatise, they had to have warm-up games and in total they would be away five weeks.

SNZ has put some money into the team and with sponsorship from heat pump company Temperzone  that had reduced the overall cost by $80,000.

Giles said his staff worked with associations and clubs to help them access  sponsorship and funds from  grants organisations. 

Although players had to find a lot of money, he did not believe it was damaging the sport. New Zealand, especially in the men's game, had a tremendous record. For women there was the added incentive of the Olympics and winning scholarships to US universities.

In the last World Series, the junior Black Sox were second and Giles said for players like Brad, winning a world title and then stepping up to Mark's Sorenson's Black Sox was a a real possibility.

"This team has the opportunity to be the best team in the world and that is a massive, massive incentive."

 

 

 - Stuff