Of those that attended the Athlete Ambassadors meeting at the beginning of 2009, six (above) were participants from the Olympic softball competition in Beijing in August 2008. (ISF photo)

2009 YEAR IN REVIEW
2009-12-31

In a year when the biggest news for softball came off the field, there was still quite a long line of tournaments vying for attention of the on-the-diamond variety.

Here’s a look back at the busy 2009 for the sport of softball internationally.

The year began with another edition of the Indoor Cup in the Netherlands, where teams from the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and USA competed over three days in January as arena (indoor) softball continued its growth and popularity – particularly in Europe.

Around the same time, some international softball athletes gathered at the International Softball Federation’s world headquarters in Plant City, Florida (USA) for the initial gathering of the BackSoftball Athlete Ambassadors.

ISF President Don Porter sits behind the desk upon the opening of the world governing body's new European office. (Photo by David Pretre)

The 16th National Sports Festival in Nigeria took place in February with (women’s fast pitch) softball as one of the 30 sports contested there. The ISF had sent equipment to the African nation for those games.

Off the field the ISF made news by opening a European satellite office, in the “Olympic capital,” Lausanne, Switzerland.

Africa was again making news the next month when the national championships – for both men and women – took place in South Africa in mid-March. Shortly thereafter, over in Asia, the Chinese National Games were held with softball a part of that multi-sport event.

April saw the 4th Central American Junior Male Championship take place in Guatemala.

A Colombian pitcher at the 8th Senior World Cup played in June in the USA. (Photo by Bob Gray)

In May the attention shifted to Australia where the 10th Arafura Games took place, with women’s softball among the 23 sports played over nine days in Darwin.

It was time for the senior softballers to get some of the limelight in June when Salem, Virginia (USA) hosted the 8th Senior World Cup. That event annually draws upwards of 60 teams competing over three days, with age categories as high as 70-plus! The 13th of June marked the fifth straight year of celebrating “World Softball Day."

The first place trophy is awarded to Australia for winning the ISF XII Men's World Championship. (Photo by Shanon Melnyk)

On-field activity seemed to peak in July. The 16th Canada Cup took place in British Columbia, and the 18th Maccabiah Games (in Israel) once again included men’s and women’s softball. Plus, women’s fast pitch softball returned to the World Games (held this year in Taiwan) and the USA hosted the World Cup of Softball 4 invitational tournament in Oklahoma City, with the month culminating in the ISF XII Men’s World Championship in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada).

Four other tournaments started at the end of July and carried over into August. That quartet included the 6th Japan Cup, the VII Pan American Softball Championship for Women (held in Venezuela), and both the XVI European Championship Women “A,” in Spain, and the VIII European Championship Women “B,” in Belgium.

Japan celebrates following their gold medal victory at the Youth World Cup in Prague. (Photo by Martin Salajka)

August brought with it the International Olympic Committee Executive Board’s announcement about which of the seven candidate sports for the 2016 Olympics would be on their shortlist of two to be recommended to the full Session two months later. Softball, unfortunately, was not in that final pair.

Meanwhile, on the playing fields in the Czech Republic, Japan was defeating the Netherlands for the Easton Foundation Youth World Cup title.

In September the annual Zone 6 Championship was held in Zimbabwe. Botswana and South Africa finished first and second, meaning they qualified for next year’s ISF XII Women’s World Championship. The same two finished first and second in men’s play as well at the event three months ago.

ISF President Don Porter (right) expressed his great pleasure with the job that Venezuela Softball Federation President Jesús Suniaga (left) and many others did in organizing the XXIV ISF Congress. (Photo by Pablo Barrios)

The softball world converged on Margarita Island, Venezuela, in October for the XXIV ISF Congress. The proceedings resulted in the election of new officials and the adoption of a new constitution and new playing rules, plus the selection of new ISF Hall of Famers. Those meetings followed an even bigger gathering a couple weeks earlier in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the IOC Session approved golf and rugby sevens as the two new sports to be added to the 2016 Games programme, closing the door on softball’s return for the Summer Olympics in Rio.

The face of the ISF changed in November when a new logo was unveiled, accompanied by a switch of the Web domain to www.ISFsoftball.org (instead of www.internationalsoftball.com).

The year closed with the 4th Asian Junior Women’s Softball Championship in Malaysia, which was a qualifier for the ISF’s 2011 Jr. Women’s World Championship. The three berths went to Japan (first place), Chinese Taipei (second), and China (third). Nine teams in total had competed in Kuala Lumpur, including – for the first time in such an event – Iran.

The ISF also announced in December that the XII Women’s World Championship had been reassigned to Venezuela, for June 23-July 2, 2010.

For an even more in-depth “look back” at some of the key developments from 2009, check out the May-August and September-December issues of World Softball magazine online. Additional resources include this year’s newsletters, press releases, and homepage articles/latest news archive.

Then stay tuned for more such news in the New Year!