With Christmas knocking on our doors we’re looking back at 2023 and remembering all the big news items from the year. Safe to say it has been a gigantic year for Softball in Australia!

We kicked off the year with the National Championships as powerhouses New South Wales and Queensland lifting shields across the country.

In April we celebrated the Australian Under 23 Men's team who won the World Cup in Argentina, with pitching ace Jack Besgrove, the pride of Orange, named Tournament MVP.

Fast forward to July and the Aussie Spirit punched their ticket to the 2024 World Cup Finals by finishing second in their Group with a fantastic win over Great Britain and we said farewell to long-serving Team Manager Chrissy Clough announced her retirement from the role.

July was a big month, with Australian teams also participating in the Canada Cup and our new Five-year strategic plan was launched after consultation with members and stakeholders alike.

In October we cheered for the reinstatement of Softball to the Olympic Programme, providing our sport with a long-term goal and allowing us to look forward to the challenge of qualifying for Los Angeles in 2028. The announcement was warmly welcomed by everyone in our community, and we can’t wait to see how that inspiration benefits our great sport.

November was chock-full of international play, as the Aussie Steelers returned to the diamond, this time in American Samoa, along with the Australian Women’s Under 18 team, with both teams qualifying from their Oceania Championships to progress to their respective World Cup Group Stage tournaments in 2024.

In the last international tournament for the year, the Under 18 Men’s team travelled to Mexico where they performed well against a competitive group to inspire our community back home.

After the Under 18 Men’s World Cup, the Australian Men's program was recognised for an incredible body of achievements, attaining the World #1 Ranking for the first time in history. It’s a highly deserved outcome built by a dedicated team of players, volunteers, coaches and officials. The culture you have developed is second-to-none and we are all so proud.

It has also been a pleasure to see our clubs and associations around the country embrace Home Run Heroes, with thousands of kids taking part in club t-ball and softball and school t-ball and softball for the very first time. It takes an army of dedicated volunteers to grow the sport at the grassroots level and I’m convinced that, by working together, we will see Softball become known as a clearly great sport for parents and kids to choose.

I want to thank our partners and suppliers who are on this journey with us. Our most recent commercial agreement renewed completed with Easton increasing their investment into Softball. We also renewed agreements with Virgin Australia, PTP, Sportslink Travel, V-Insurance, La Trobe University and GAME Clothing.

A special thank you to the Australian Sports Commission and the AIS means for their ongoing support so we can continue to develop our high-performance program for our elite women’s program to compete at the highest levels of World Cup and now Olympics.

I’d also like to recognise and acknowledge the Softball Australia board for their support and guidance, my staff across the country as well as all our member State and Territory Boards and CEO’s that have worked so hard to help grow the sport and support our members.  

On a personal note, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many of you since I started in late August, and I can’t wait to see what we achieve together in 2024.

To all our members across the country we hope you have had a fulfilling 2023 and wish you a happy holiday season. May 2024 be a wonderful year for you, and for those travelling during the summer school holiday period to a National Championship - safe travels!

Yours in softball,

From Sarah Loh and the Softball Australia team