WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup press conference: “We’re happy to be here”

The WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup opening day tomorrow, Monday 6 December, will mark the return of women’s softball world championships after more than two years. Today, coaches from the eight participating teams joined the virtual press conferences in Lima, Peru, and reflected on their particular preparation process and the ambitions and goals of their teams.

“We started this process in 2019, but it was interrupted by the pandemic. This year we could play some international events, and we won the silver medal at the Junior Pan American Games,” started Nancy Prieto, head coach of the Mexican National Team. 

However, her goals are not small. “As all the rest of the teams, we’re here for a medal, we’re here to fight strong to get a medal. And I hope we’ll succeed.” 

“We had the same issues as the rest of the teams in our preparation, expecially with all COVID restrictions in the country,” added Katya Holas, USA’s head coach. “Once we got to the Pan American Games in Colombia, we used that as our first practice all together as a team.” 

Is USA the favourite to win the tournament? “Every single of our athletes, except for one, have not played at international level, so I would not say there is a favourite. All the other countries have an advantage in the international stage. We’re trying to come and play every single pitch to the best of our ability, we make no asumptions: It’s not the best team, it’s the team who play the best. So we’d never said we’re the favourite.” 

Host Peru head coach didn’t want to put any pressure on her team. “We all know how difficult this pandemic was for all countries,” said Katia Coello. “We have a young team, between 15 to 17 yeas old girls, who just participated in the Pan Am Games in Colombia, and we believe we had a good performance. So our goal is to do our best in every game, every inning and every pitch.”

“We have prepared to the fullest we were able to, especially during winter months in Europe, but we kept on practicing,” told Netherlands head coach, Saskia Kosterink. 

Asked about her team’s goals, the Beijing 2008 Olympian added: “We would like to go for a medal as well, is our top goal. But our main goal is to reach the top five, and then work our way from there.”  

Jamir Iriarte and his young Colombian team are thinking on the long term. “Our main goal is to get international experience in this event. We’re a young team, with some 15, 16 year-old players... they haven’t had so much competition in the past two years because of the pandemic. We have the same dream as all other teams of being here in the World Cup, we’ll try to do our best to move forward the Colombian softball.”

Puerto Rico is also a team thinking on a long-term process: “For us is important to help our young players to get international experience at this age, so they can improve and become part of our senior National Team in the future. That’s why we have only eight players from last week’s Pan American Games playing here, with eight new players joining us in Lima,” explained Carlos León, the head coach from Puerto Rico. However, it doesn’t mean they are here just to participate: “All teams here are great teams, we respect everyone. We’ll have to go out, play and do our best. Our final goal is to advance to the final four, and then finish at the highest position possible.”

Chinese Taipei didn’t have too much internationl competition in the past two years. “Most of our players participated in the U-17 Asia Cup in 2019, where we qualified for this event, and we have also included four young players as well. We’ve improved since then, with inside and outside training,” the Chinese Taipei head coach, Yu-Chun Tsai, said during the press conference.

Finally, Czech Republic is also aiming to make the top four. “We’re happy to be here, because all the process was so dificult with so many distractions. But now we are heare, with all healthy players, and we’re ready to play the World Cup,” said Daniela Viktorynova, Czech Republic coach. “Our goal is to make the playoffs, and a medal is our dream.”