U-15 St Ives Softball Stars Make World Cup

The North Shore District Softball Association’s U15 Team Among World’s Best Softball Players.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) has announced that the 2025 WBSC U-15 Women’s Softball World Cup is set to be held in Italy, an exciting competition amongst some of the world’s best young players. The U-15 team list has recently been released, and the North Shore District Softball Association (NSDSA), New South Wales, celebrates the athletes selected from their team to represent Australia. 

The North Shore District Softball Association has a strong representation in Australian Softball, evidenced by four of their players making up part of the twenty-person squad for the Tokyo Olympics. 

After speaking with a member of the Association, they highlighted that the club also currently has four players in the Australian Spirit Squad, three players in the Australian Spirit Futures Program, and three players in the Under-18 Squad. North Shore coach, Kerrie Porter, has recently been appointed to Head Coach of the Australian Spirit Team, and coach Neridah Wearne is part of the GEN32 AIS program – a two-year intensive coach development program – demonstrating the club’s success. 

The St Ives Softball girls selected for the U-15s Women’s World Cup have all been coached by Kerrie and Neridah, gaining invaluable support and coaching to grow their potential.  

U25 WBSC U-15 Women’s Softball World Cup

The 2025 WBSC U-15 Women’s Softball World Cup in Italy will be the second edition of the tournament, following the 2023 competition hosted by Japan. From the NSDSA, the players selected to represent Australia in the 2025 World Cup are: Lola Joffee, Eva Kunce, and Gabriella Nutman. Additionally, Josie Bogle and Kaylee Russo have been selected as the U-15s reserves, who will train alongside the team in preparation for the World Cup. 

All of these girls have played softball since T-Ball, under 10a, except Gabi who moved across from baseball just last year! Eva, Josie, and Gabi all competed in the NSW team that took out the U-16 Nationals in Perth in January 2025, whilst Lola competed in the U-14 Regionals in Melbourne, evidencing the incredible skill and ability of these young players.

A member of the North District Association said, “this is the first time Australia has sent a team to compete at the U-15s World Cup, so this is an exciting step towards providing experience and development for high performance players who might eventually be the ones representing as an open age group and at the Olympics.” 

Throughout the World Cup, Amanda ‘Reggie’ Fairley (SA) will lead the team as Head Coach, providing support and coaching, with Stacey McManus (NSW) as Assistant Coach, Michelle Waller as Battery Coach, and Bec Ireland as Team Manager. Fairley commented “I am both excited and deeply committed to helping these young athletes reach their fullest potential” (WBSC, 2025). The competition will occur between June 27 – July 6, meaning the players will leave for Italy late June 2025.

As a member of the Association said, “this 15s program is a great launching pad for these girls to progress through to eventually be part of the Aussie Spirit program,” which is Australia’s Open Women’s Team. Softball Australia has the team’s full support and cannot wait to follow their journey through the competition!

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