Canterbury, NZ - Four Canterbury softballers off to junior world championships
Jackson Watt and Callum Bishop started their softball careers as five-year-olds in a Papanui Tigers mixed tee-ball team.
Now they are both off - 13 seasons later - to the world junior championships in the United States with the New Zealand Junior Black Sox.
Canterbury's four New Zealand Junior Black Sox players, (from left) Bailey Hamilton, Callum Bishop, Reilly Makea and Jackson Watt.
Jackson Watt and Callum Bishop started their softball careers as five-year-olds in a Papanui Tigers mixed tee-ball team.
Now they are both off - 13 seasons later - to the world junior championships in the United States with the New Zealand Junior Black Sox.
"It's been a long run," said Watt, who turns 18 on Saturday. "Bish is one of my best mates, it's been great coming through the grades together at Papanui into the premiers, and now into the Junior Black Sox."
Watt, Bishop, 18, and Canterbury team-mates Reilly Makea, 16, and Bailey Hamilton, 18, will line up at the world tournament in Midland, Michigan in July.
It's a far cry from recent winters when Watt, a lock for Christchurch Boy's High School, and Hamilton, a winger for St Bede's College, were on opposite sides in the Crusaders region First XV competition.
Watt, Bishop and Makea are Papanui clubmates. They currently patrol the outfield for the Tigers' premier grade team and were in the Canterbury Red Sox senior team together this year.
All three have family links at Papanui.
Makea, who is also eligible for the 2018 junior world championships, plays alongside his father, Thomas, a four-time world champion with the Black Sox, who is also doubles as the Junior Black Sox head coach.
Watt's older brother, Nathan, is the Papanui catcher and his parents, Jo Harris, the current Canterbury under-17 girls team coach, and Bill Watt, have coached at the club.Â
Bishop's father, Garry, and uncle Tony had long premier careers with Papanui and represented Canterbury. Another uncle, Michael Bishop, turned out for the Tigers in the top grade while Callum's late grandfather, Harry Bishop, was the last man to coach Papanui to a Canterbury club title some 40 years ago.
Hamilton plays club softball for the PCU Devils as a pitcher or outfielder and has been one of the top performers in the Canterbury premiership this season.
He was fourth on the batting averages after the first five rounds with .407. Â Watt (.389) was seventh and Bishop (.385) eighth.
Hamilton also led the pitching charts with a 2.23 average, slightly better than former Black Sox hurler Penese Iosefo on 2.28.
Watt - whose older brother Sam, an Ashburton accountant, is a two-time New Zealand heavyweight boxing champion - was a runaway leader in the RBIs (runs batted in) category with 21 - seven ahead of the next best. He was also joint top in the home run stakes with three.
Bishop, Makea, who seems to have inherited his father's bullet throw, and Hamilton all have speed around the bases while the versatile Watt, who has played catcher and first base, is an acknowledged power hitter who recently blasted two home runs off a Black Sox world championship pitcher in the same game.
The four Canterbury teenagers all have pitching talent with Hamilton and Makea right-handers and Bishop and Watt left-handed hurlers. Â
Watt is off to North America in June for a season with the Bloomington Stix, a top Illinois club.Â
Bishop, who completed Year 13 at Papanui High School and Hamilton are understood to be considering opportunities in Canada, while Makea is still at Christchurch Boy's High School.
The quartet already have international experience as part of the Junior Black Sox squad that played in a top tournament in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
Watt, who was co-captain for that tour with Makea's Wellington-based older brother Dante Matakatea, said Prague was "an awesome experience", although he admitted to slight stage fright "when our manager handed me a piece of paper five minutes before the first game and said I had to read an [athlete's] oath to the whole crowd".
The Junior Black Sox were the first New Zealand men's softball team to play in Europe and Watt said it was a good opportunity to play a "different style of softball".
"We play a more fast-pace, aggressive game with more bunting and stealing. But we faced some awesome pitching over there."
Watt knows what to expect at the world championships. He and Matakatea were part of the Junior Black Sox's silver medal winning team at the 2014 tournament in Canada.
"I think it could help [having earlier experience] because we kow the standard we've got to be at, but I don't think it's a massive advantage."
Watt believes the Junior Black Sox will benefit from having three former Black Sox world champions, Thomas Makea, Jarrad Martin and Bevan Martin, as their coaching staff. "I don't think you could wish for better coaches; they've been there and done that."
 - Stuff
