For the first time ever, Softball Australia will appoint a panel of team managers for their Open Women’s program, with Christine Clough, Jacqui Dunn, and Andrea Mansfield announced as joint Team Managers.

Each candidate brings exceptional experience and knowledge to their shared position, with outstanding dedication and passion for the sport.

Christine Clough has more than 15 years of experience in managing teams at both international and state level, including the Australian Open Women's team, the Australian Under 19 Women’s Team, and NSW Open and underage teams. Like Jacqui, Christine also managed Open Women’s teams at the 2020 Summer Slam and Asia Pacific Cup, while she also managed the Aussie Spirit Squad at the pre-Olympics Camp at the AIS. Her resume includes management experience on tours to the USA, Japan, Italy, Canada, and the Netherlands.

Jacqui Dunn has managed softball teams both nationally and internationally, and most recently was the Open Women’s team manager for the 2019 and 2020 Asia Pacific Cup and Summer Slam tournaments. She also managed the Aussie Spirit in 2018 for the Japan Cup and Japan Tour of 2017, and has experience with under-age teams, having managed the Under-19 and Under-17 women’s teams respectively for the 2016 and 2015 International Friendship Series.

Andrea Mansfield has more than 40 years of softball experience across local, state, and national level, and is still highly involved in the game, having recently been team manager for the Victorian Open Women’s Titans Softball Team. Andrea has also been a team manager at the International Friendship Series for the last four years, and has worked alongside the Aussie Diamonds program. She has further managed Under-18 and Open Women Softball Victoria state teams, and been SSV Team Manager for the past seven years.

Historically, Softball Australia has appointed a team manager for a specific team or tour, with that person solely responsible for preparing and travelling with a team. However, as National High Performance and Pathway Manager Chet Gray explained, implementing a panel of team managers is one of several measures designed to improve how team managers operate.

“We previously published a Position Description that would go out when we advertised for a role, but that doesn’t tell you what to do when someone losses a passport or how to address conflict. So, we firstly developed an online resource to provide more information about the role, and we felt a panel would allow team managers to share the workload and their knowledge.

“It will also make it easier to identify aspiring team managers and identify areas we need to upskill in, and over time we hope to incorporate more people and have a national group that covers the senior men as well as the women’s teams. It’s kind of a pathway.”

Open High Performance & Pathway Head Coach Laing Harrow has first-hand experience of the burden placed on a volunteer Team Manager, and similarly praised the new approach.

“There’s never been more responsibility on the Team Manager in terms of managing the health and well-being of athletes and coaches on tour. So I think the more people we can develop in this role, and the more skilled they are and the more knowledge they have, then the better equipped we are when we go overseas.

“It’s a crucial role, and our sport has always relied on volunteers to carry this heavy lead. But Jacqui, Chris, and Andrea are all keen to be working together, and they are the trailblazers in this regard. We’re looking forward to working with them.”

In another first, Softball Australia will also introduce a development squad to underpin the Aussie Spirit, and bridge the gap from the top tier of high-performance to Under-18s. The development squad will attend events in preparation for senior representation, with the team manager panel covering the needs of the Open women and newly created development squad.