Aussie Spirit captain and three-time Olympian Stacey Porter called time on her international career following softball’s return to the Tokyo 2020 Games, a fitting stage for a player who has dedicated her life to the sport both at home and abroad.

With a record setting 446 games in the green and gold, including two Olympic Medals, Porter’s international softball credentials have seen her earn admiration from fans, teammates, and opponents globally.

While the Kamilaroi woman and Tamworth local is stepping away from Australian duties, it’s far from a retirement as she continues to compete professionally in Japan, jetting back after a stint in Australia to compete for SG Holdings Galaxy Stars.

RBI double by Stacey Porter!!! 🇦🇺 🇦🇺#RoadToTokyo #Softball pic.twitter.com/LqqPcOkJoW

— WBSC #Softball 🥎 (@WBSCsoftball) September 25, 2019

“I’ve been in the sport so long, I don’t think I’d walk away from it completely, I’m still going to play in Japan for at least another year, I’ve said to my family now it’s a yearly thing for me,” said Porter, who’s spent the best part of 15 years playing in Japan.

“Japan is a job and it takes up a fair bit of my time I’m happy just to continue with that.

“One of the reasons I stepped away from the Australian duties is because I’m just ready to spend more time at home.

“Now that I’m not doing Aussie Spirit work that opens that time between Japan even more, generally I’d have then end of the year off then get back into Aussie Spirit, and that’s five days a week commitment, it’s not just travelling to tournaments.”

Outside of family time, Porter hasn’t ruled out becoming retired athlete reality TV royalty a ’la Bianca Chatfield and the Block, Simon Black and Survivor, Paul Gallen and Ninja Warrior, her game?

“The Amazing Race, I’ve already talked this through, I would take my friend and President of our softball club in Brisbane, Tippy, we’ve already spoken about it!

“We watched the last one they did just in Australia because of Covid, so we’d really like it to be here again, so if you can get me on that, keep me posted.”

🥎 19 years
🥎 446 games for the Aussie Spirit
🥎 6World Championships
🥎 3 Olympic Games

Arguably the best to ever play the game, we will miss you and can’t thank you enough for what you have done for our game!

THANK YOU Stacey Porter pic.twitter.com/2YgPDssvuj

— Softball Australia (@SoftballOz) July 26, 2021

Joking aside, Porter said she was heartened by the amount of support she received following confirmation of her retirement from international softball.

As a genuinely humble and genuine character off the diamond, Porter said she wasn’t so aware of the effect she had on the softball community until the outpouring of goodwill hit her following her announcement.

“I don’t think so, maybe a little bit more so now that I’ve announced my retirement and just the amount of messages I’ve received, lot of them are pretty meaningful messages too,” said Porter when asked if she was aware of her impact on the game.

“I was always just that person who played and gave my whole heart and did it because I loved it.”

Porter says her ability to make that switch from humble off diamond persona, to on diamond attitude has evolved into trusting her own ability when stepping into the batter’s box, regardless of who she would be facing at the time.

Removing self-doubt and expectations of her opponents, plus recalling her own performances against certain pitchers all play a role in her processes at bat, contributing to her success.

“I have self-talk, I’m sure all softballers do, and generally I’m a bring it on type of girl.

“I certainly always knew my opponent and what they’d achieved in the sport, so there was probably times throughout my career where I got myself out before stepping into the box.

“I guess you put an expectation on someone to be so good, and when I doubted myself I was at my worst. So in the last part of my career I tried to be better in trusting my own ability in that instant, and part of that is having a good reflection on what I’ve done previously off that opponent.

“I definitely didn’t let that person on the other side of the diamond get bigger than what they were.”

The edict has paid dividends for Porter throughout her international career, and the highlight reel moments she’s shared with her teammates remains her favourite thing about the sport.

There’s no greater feeling in sport than putting one over the fence, especially off the world’s best pitchers.

“As soon as it happens, it elevates you to that person you wanted to be walking into that box, I feel confident most times I’m walking into the box, but you don’t see that until one of those moments happens and you can celebrate it.

“I love celebrating within our game, because I feel like we don’t do it a lot, but we do it when we need to.

“When you can let that inner fire out, I’ve always loved that part of our game.”

One of the most memorable celebration moments came in Porter’s Olympic debut in the 2004 Athens Games.

That tournament was dominated by an all-conquering USA team, un-beaten throughout and no runs scored against them.

Until, of course, a 22-year-old aboriginal kid from Tamworth put one in the outfield in the top of the sixth inning, driving in a run to give Australia a sniff at a Gold Medal.

STACEY PORTER GOES OVER THE FENCE!!!! @AussiePeppersMN now make it a 4-1 game #NPF2019 pic.twitter.com/6dJZCy150g

— Women's Sports Highlights (@WSportHil) July 7, 2019

“We came up against what they now call the Dream Team, the US in that Olympics was just more dominant than it’s ever been, they were smashing everyone through the rounds. So just to be in that game for us was amazing.

“I remember celebrating like we’d won the Gold Medal when that happened, because they hadn’t had a run off them in the whole tournament.

“Sandy Allen who was on second slid into home, probably didn’t have to but she did this massive dive, I still remember that moment, I still remember the pitch and still watch it, they’re the type of moments that keep you going.”

Porter debuted for the Aussie Spirit in 2002, giving her just shy of two decades in the top echelon of the softball internationally, a phenomenal achievement for any athlete in any code.

While obviously keeping her body strong and healthy has helped, she said managing failure within games has played a large part in her sustained peak performance.

“I had a very high level of expectation, which I still have, that’s never changed, but how I deal with failures in our game is what has helped my longevity,” added Porter.

“Because I hated getting out and not performing in a game, I was quite vocal about that when I was young and had to get a few hard lessons along the way, so I definitely think I’ve evolved in that sense as a player, and I always preach that now.

“And there was a lot of reasons for me getting to that point, I think being in Japan for 14 years and how they play the game definitely helped.

“You would never know a Japanese player has just got out, they’re very classy with how they get on with things and dealing with it.”

In a standout career, Porter still holds the Olympics as her greatest achievements, Athens Silver Medal winning team the obvious highlight.

Like many young girls aspiring to represent their country in softball on sport’s biggest stage, Porter too can recall being inspired by those who came before her.

“I remember being in high school in year 10 and watching Atlanta on TV in my PE room thinking that’s bloody cool.

“So that was probably one of the best moments of my career finding out I was in that Athens team.

“I was the youngest, I hadn’t been to a World Champs before that, I didn’t Tour before 2002, they had their qualifier in March and I wasn’t really in the mix for that, but got taken on a Tour after that and then never stopped.”

The Park Planet player @NSP3 of the game is Stacey Porter after hitting her first homer of the 2019 season lifting the @AussiePeppersMN to a 5-2 win #NPF2019 @FloSoftball pic.twitter.com/jJE5OocG9O

— NationalProFastpitch (@profastpitch) June 26, 2019

Four years later and now an established regular in the Aussie Spirit line-up, Porter recalls their Bronze Medal match-up with Japan, a 12-inning epic to advance to a Gold Medal game, as another of her fondest memories.

It was also the final tournament she played before being appointed captain in 2009, prior to that, the Aussie Spirit were led by Natalie Ward, an idol of Porter and a leadership style similar to herself.

“Very similar, whenever I get asked who your softball idols are, I always say Nat Ward, I’ve always admired Wardy,” added Porter.

“Being a Newcastle girl, me being a Tamworth girl they’re similar upbringings work ethic wise.

“She was just so graceful, never made a fuss and just so good at what she did.”

Coincidentally, the way Porter looked up to Ward, her teammates in Tokyo would all hold her in the same regard.

Such is the longevity of Porter’s international career, she even coached and mentored young girls who she would later lead as Olympians.

“There’s a photo with Rachel Lack we actually re-created in Ota City, I remember that clinic I coached her at, I remember her little freckle face!

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Softball Australia (@softballaustralia)

“All these players who’ve lived in Australia their whole lives worked full time and trained on the side, it’s great that you can get those opportunities to go full circle and play with the girls that you’ve coached.”

Now that the dust has settled on the Aussie Spirit’s Olympic campaign, Porter says the core group of the same girls she coached, then later played with, would be better for the experience of stepping into the Olympic arena.

“They’ll all be in their prime, like I said before, the longer you play, the better you get,” said Porter.

“There’s still a good chunk of that group that will be there for World Games, in terms of building towards LA, you need core groups to be there to continue on.

“There’s a lot of learnings from these Olympics that we’ll take out and it will only benefit us moving into another Games.

“You need that core group of experience to stick around and I think they will, so I’m excited to see what can come next for them.”

Aussie Spirit captain Stacey Porter fought back tears last night.

Her 446-game career, which has included silver and bronze medals, came to an end with defeat to Mexico.

One of the best to ever do it.

Thank you, Stacey ❤️ pic.twitter.com/5rlG4JqAL8

— 7Olympics (@7olympics) July 27, 2021

While the results didn’t fall their way in Tokyo, Porter still feels their campaign will still inspire another generation to join the core group, they’ve already seen the positive impact the sport being back in the cycle has had following their last campaign.

“There’s no doubt being back in the Olympic cycle helps, we got back into Australia after the match we lost to get Bronze in 2008, and we were being recognised at the airport just getting a coffee, they knew us as the softball girls.

“I think whenever the general public knows your sport it’s going to raise your profile, and we spoke about it in Tokyo, we heard the feedback from just having the games on TV again was amazing.

“Even old New South Wales teammates from years ago were reaching out saying ‘my daughters loved watching you’ and because they have a connection through their mum, they’re going to school ‘saying I know the softballers’.

“We got people saying their daughters want to give it a crack now, and that’s great for us to hear, and great that it’s happening to our sport.”

Great things happen when you #HaveAGo

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