It’s been nearly eight years since the International Olympic Committee voted to remove baseball from Olympic s but Sarah Scopelliti is still hoping she will be an Olympian one day.
The Beijing Games in 2008 was the last time softball formed part of the Olympics. It was dumped for London last year, and for Rio de Janeiro in 2016, but there is a bid to get it back into the 2020 Games.
The exclusion from the Olympics meant government funding was cut, but also meant much disappointment for athletes hoping to represent their country in the world’s biggest sporting competition.
Scopelliti, a Thomastown resident, was recently selected as part of Australia’s under-17 girls’ softball team, and has long held the dream of making it to the Olympics.
“We are hoping that softball will get back into the Olympics,” she says. “We think it should in a few years. I’d love to play one day.”
Scopelliti has been busy lately. She has been balancing year 12 studies with softball, playing for Ivanhoe Grammar, Northern District and Victoria.
Scopelliti and her Victorian team mates finished fifth in the national tournament in January.
“It’s really fun playing with Victoria,” says the 16-year-old.
“Us girls have grown up playing together and we did really well, much better than last year.
We put some good pressure on other teams.” It was the fourth time Scopelliti made the Victorian team, but she didn’t find out about her Australian selection until a call from a friend.
“When I heard I was pretty excited. It means a lot, I’ve been training really hard for it. It’s always been one of my goals to play for Australia,” she says.
So committed was she to make it, Scopelliti did extra training with her school, club and state.
“I trained by myself, always doing something extra to push myself,” she says. “I was doing pitching training and fitness work, and a bit of extra batting practise as well.”
Her selection on to the Australian team comes on the back of some impressive performances.
Her school team thoroughly dominated its opposition this past season and in March Ivanhoe beat Wesley College in the grand final.
“We’ve done really well,” Scopelliti says. We’ve been winning by a lot. The girls came together well.
“I haven’t been pitching that much because I pitch at the start of the match and if we get more than seven runs I only end up pitching the first innings.”
