STACEY Porter is preparing for a big 2016 on the diamond, sandwiched by a World Championship tilt and a stint in the US.
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The Australian captain was in Tamworth recently as the ambassador for the NSW State U15 Softball Championships, and is back tomorrow night be the special guest at the Tamworth District Sports Awards.
The awards will be held at the Capitol Theatre and highlight the achievements of Tamworth’s athletes and teams over the past 12 months, as well as those behind the scenes helping them reach those heights.
The list of nominees includes state and national representatives, and Porter said she was looking forward to seeing the talent her home town is producing.
She recently signed on to play with the Pennsylvania Rebellion during the next US season.
It will be her first season playing in the US and will fall in the break between seasons in Japan, where she has played professionally with Sagawa Express since 2008.
With the season over there being split, the opportunity has been there for Porter to play in the US, and she has received a few offers over the years, but until now hasn’t taken them up.
“In Japan it’s such a strenuous schedule,” she said.
“Your day is full of softball.
“(But) It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”
It will also be a perfect lead-up for the Worlds, which are in Vancouver in July.
The Rebellion have only been in the National Pro Fastpitch League for two years, and are excited about having Porter join their roster.
She will be there linking up with Australian head coach Kere Johanson.
He is on the coaching staff, which is “how it all came about”.
The Japanese league is regarded as one of, if not the, strongest professional leagues in the world, but Porter is expecting the US league to be just as tough, if not tougher.
Not only because of the talent pool over there, but the season is more condensed.
“It’s a tough gig,” she said.
“In Japan we play 22 games (outside of finals) in six months,” she said.
“In the US in three months we play about 60.”
It’s more of a centralised schedule and they often play four or five games over the course of a few days against one or two different sides.
“It’ll be different,” Porter said, but she’s excited about the challenge.
She’s currently playing up in Brisbane in the local competition there.
“We won the competition last year,” she said.
“We’ve just had a bit of a slow start.”
She’ll head back over to Japan in mid-March, ahead of the start of the competition in early April.
The US league then kicks off in June, although Porter will miss the first couple of weekends with the Japanese league still in full swing.
Then she’s got the Worlds in July before the US league wraps up in August.
