Still 17 weeks shy of her 18th birthday, pitcher Jocelyn Cater has had to change the way she pitches when wearing the Team Canada jersey.
The Maple Ridge native, preparing for her second Scotiabank Canadian Open Fastpitch International Championship tournament at Surrey’s Softball City in two weeks, is now using her head more than her arm.
“This year, I have a more mental attitude. Last year, I just threw the ball,” said Cater, a student at North Delta’s Seaquam Secondary. “I’m more positional with my throws, I watch the batters and see where they like to stand in the box, and study what pitches the left-handed hitters struggle with.”
Batters struggled with her fastball a year ago, but she is relying on more than just her speed this season.
“I’ve developed a drop-ball/change-up,” she said. “It’s about 10 miles and hour slower than my fastball, which is good because you have to slow your pitches down every now and then.”
Cater, who made her debut with the senior national team at last year’s Canadian Open, is looking forward to this year’s event.
She will join the national team tomorrow for the week-long selection camp in Oklahoma City, then prepare for the June 28 to July 2 World Cup of Softball in the same city.
Then it’s back home for the Women’s International tournament July 4-9, part of the Canadian Open competition at Softball City.
“Last year was harder, I didn’t know anybody and wasn’t sure what to expect,” she said of her first experience with the national team. “They wanted us to train 23 hours a week, and in Oklahoma, it was 40 degrees all the time.”
And while all the travel is nice – Canada will head north for the Women’s world Championship July 13-22 in Whitehorse – Cater prefers to be at Softball City.
“Playing at home is so much better, you see people you know in the stands and they support our team,” she said. “I watched the Canada Cup (forerunner to the Canadian Open) at Softball City when I was a kid, so I always wanted to play in a tournament like this.”
A member of the White Rock Renegades club team, Cater will be in Seattle by the end of the summer, preparing to join the University of Washington (UW) Huskies.
“My dream was always to go to the Pac-10 (now Pac-12) league, because most of the schools are on the West Coast,” she said. “And Washington was voted one of the top 20 programs in the United States.”