Ottawa, Ont. – The Canadian Women’s National Softball Team is kicking off its 2018 season with a two-week Japan Tour that will include fourteen 14 games against several local Japanese teams between June 14-26. The team just completed a 12-day training camp held at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif. and will head overseas with a roster of twenty-one (21) athletes.
Following the Japan Tour, Team Canada will travel back to California to rest and train before competing in the USA Softball International Cup (previously known as the US World Cup of Softball) from July 9-15 in Irvine, Calif. immediately followed by the Canada Cup from July 17-22 in Surrey, B.C. After the Canada Cup, the team will return overseas to train in Japan ahead of the WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship that will be played August 2-12 in Chiba, Japan.
Canada’s 17-player roster for the WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship will be announced after the team returns from the Japan Tour.
The WBSC World Championship will determine the first team(s) to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo as the Gold medalist will earn a direct berth to the Olympic Games. In the event host Japan wins Gold, the Silver medalist will also earn a spot at the 2020 Olympic Games. Regional qualifiers will determine the remaining four entries for the six-team Olympic Games field with dates and locations to be determined later. The Americas region will have two entries, while Europe/Africa and Asia/Oceania will each have one.
WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM SCHEDULE
The twenty-one (21) athletes who are travelling to compete in the Japan Tour are:
| FIRST NAME | LAST NAME | HOMETOWN |
| Kara | Bilodeau | Cumming, Ga. |
| Kristen | Brown | Levittown, N.Y. |
| Jenna | Caira | Toronto, Ont. |
| Emma | Entzminger | Victoria, B.C. |
| Larissa | Franklin | Maple Ridge, B.C. |
| Kenzie | Friesen | Saskatoon, Sask. |
| Jennifer | Gilbert | Saskatoon, Sask. |
| Sara | Groenewegen | Surrey, B.C. |
| Victoria | Hayward | Toronto, Ont. |
| Karissa | Hovinga | Edmonton, Alta. |
| Kelsey | Jenkins | Delta, B.C. |
| Danielle | Lawrie | Langley, B.C. |
| Janet | Leung | Mississauga, Ont. |
| Joey | Lye | Toronto, Ont. |
| Sara | Plourde | Baker Lake, N.B. |
| Erika | Polidori | Brantford, Ont. |
| Kaleigh | Rafter | Guelph, Ont. |
| Jenn | Salling | Port Coquitlam, B.C. |
| Nicole | Schroeder | Yorba Linda, Calif. |
| Holly | Speers | Surrey, B.C. |
| Natalie | Wideman | Mississauga, Ont. |
COACHING STAFF
| POSITION | NAME | HOMETOWN |
| Head Coach | Mark Smith | Falmouth, N.S. |
| Assistant Coach | Melissa Basilio | Pickering, Ont. |
| Assistant Coach | Russell Cooper | Tahiti Bay, NZL |
| Assistant Coach | Dave Paetkau | Abbotsford, B.C. |
| Performance Analyst | Hubie Basilio | Oshawa, Ont. |
| Performance Analyst | Glenn Boles | St. Catharines, Ont. |
| Strength & Conditioning | Kiri Langford | Collingwood, Ont. |
| Mental Performance | Lauren Tashman | Pennington, N.J. |
| Athletic Therapist | Natalie Ghobrial | North York, Ont. |
| Team Leader | Melissa Finley | London, Ont. |
