About myself

I am a mum to two boys Hayden and Cameron (the Schmidtys) who play softball. We have been a part of ECB United Softball since circa 2009 when Hayden started playing in the U7 Comets. The following year Cameron started playing in the U5 Tiny Titans. The next season Glenn started coaching and I was managing Cams team and they became the Barracudas. It has been a blast and we have made some awesome friends in that time.

Prior to joining the softball fraternity, I have been involved in Coastguard where I was a volunteer.  I was also club president of a scuba diving club for almost ten years.  Spending a number of years in medical equipment sales, I started a wardrobe company with Glenn, which we have been running together for 17 years. During this time, I completed courses on leading volunteer organisations, recruiting and retaining volunteers.

I have been a member of the committee on and off since then, in rolls such a schools development officer, Junior Club Captain, Club Captain, and gear steward. I have managed the Barracudas for the past 12 years and have managed NH Rep teams.

After a long trying process I managed to get softball introduced into one of our largest primary schools and also Long Bay College where Glenn and I have committed to taking a team to the high school competitions and converting players to ECB.

As a Club Captain, I have been responsible for organizing training clinics including utilizing one of NZ’s top pitching instructors, coordinating the allocation of players into teams, coaches etc. As part of our promotional campaign, I introduced billboards that are strategically placed around our catchment area at registration time.

The Future

I have spent the last year talking to Auckland Council, Watercare and Waka Kotahi about the old hockey facilities at the southern end of Rosedale Park.  With the aim of securing them so we have our own (or maybe shared) club rooms. Somewhere we can gather with ease and display our trophies, have access to training facilities all year round. This is an ongoing process, will keep you posted.

I have great a great vision for our club. Thanks to our hardworking committee and all the wonderful players, coaches, scorers, and umpires, we are now the Softball New Zealand Club of the year for 2022/23 season. We need to keep going with that upward momentum.

This last season we finally had a Prem and Prem Reserve team at ECB.  North Harbour have created an opportunity for us to have a Women’s Prem Reserve team for the upcoming season. I have spent the last 6 months working on getting these teams the best coaches possible. During the off season, I have been talking to lots of people, including other clubs researching how they recruit and appoint coaches.  Part of this has also been looking at how we provide our coaches and teams with the resources they need to be successful.

To me success is player development and enabling players to become the best players and people they can be. Secondary to that is winning. As part of this I have organized a resilience in sport speaker to speak to our players.  The most Important thing is that nobody is excluded and everyone has fun at the level that is suitable for them.

 I feel to take our top teams to the next level of success, I needed to step down as Club Captain to make way for someone with more experience, skill and contacts.  I believe that I have found the right person to fill that role. This leaves me available to put my hand up for the Club President position.

As a club president I believe in leading from the front, selecting people for roles that have those skills to fulfill them, empowering people to be able to meet targets and achieve great things. We have had an awesome committee of hardworking people and I would love to be the rudder that steers that ship.