YORKTON - There are highs and lows to every sport and Zoe Hicks from Boissevain, Man. is on that roller coaster at present.
Hicks, a member of Canada Women’s National Team in softball felt a definite high as the team recorded a 7-0 victory against TC Colorado, as Canada clinched the 2024 Canada Cup Championship, a title they last won in 2019.
Team Canada remained undefeated throughout the tournament.
Hicks, who helped Canada to win a bronze medal in softball at the 2023 Pan American Games, said the tournament in Surrey, B.C. earlier this month “was big for us (Team Canada) in terms of prep.”
The event featured a strong Australian squad, “and a really good U.S. team,” offered Hicks, so going undefeated and winning the event was a great way “to build confidence going to the World Championships.”
Hicks, who played softball collegiately with Iowa Western Community College before ending her college career with Louisiana Tech, was in Italy when interviewed by Yorkton This Week on the weekend preparing for the 2024 WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Finals in Castions di Strada, Italy.
Hicks said the event in Italy has been the focus for the team since softball is not part of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. She added that it is exciting the sport returns to the Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles as it will renew attention on softball.
Certainly the sport needs the Olympics so that a six year old girl can watched the games on TV and aspire to be on the Olympic team one day.
In the interim it’s the World Cup, where Hicks said every game will be a challenge.
“It’s the best eight teams going toe-to-toe,” she said, adding it will come to little things who wins and who loses. “. . . They’ll be the best pitchers in the world, so how can we come up (to bat) and execute?” she said.
Part of having success is believing you can come out on top.
“It’s hard to hit if you don’t have confidence. . . That’s definitely a big part of it,” said Hicks, adding at this level confidence can be fleeting if you have a bad game or even a bad at-bat.
So it comes down to working hard, putting in the time, to be as ready as possible, at least for Hicks who said preparation has always been key for her as “I’ve never been the best player on my team. I’ve had to work my tail off.”
Canada kicked off their WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Finals campaign Monday (July 15), against Team USA, losing 5-2, as the roller coaster of the game took a dip.
Once finished in Italy Hicks will head back to Canada where she will switch diamond gears joining the national women's baseball team for the2024 World Cup -- the ninth Women's Baseball World Cup -- taking place in Thunder Bay, Ont. The finals will take place in Thunder Bay, in August. It will be the third time Canada has hosted the tournament. It is also the first time more than one nation has hosted the tournament. Japan are the defending champions.
Hicks is relatively new to baseball – she started with softball at age six – but has found she can excel at both, noting they are similar but also unique sports.
Softball is “this intensity to go pedal to the metal all the time,” whereas baseball is a little more relaxed, with more time to think.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter which one you play, just find one “that lights your fire . . . That gets you primed and out on the diamond and playing,” said Hicks.
