Geraldton teenagers represented regional WA on the big stage at the national softball tournament

Fifteen aspiring athletes were chosen for the under-18s State softball team, 13 came from the city while two were closer to home with two Geraldton boys taking home medals. Fletcher Harrison and Eli Etherton both travelled to Melbourne last week for the Western Australian Schoolboys team, to compete against the rest of the country, managing to bring home bronze. The pair of 17-year-olds have been playing the sport for most of the life, first playing tee-ball together at the age of six. Although they are not on the same team during regular competitions, the boys have spent plenty of time together trying out for the state teams. While not their first year playing at a State level, this was the first time playing for WA. “Last year was my first year, where I represented Victoria,” Harrison said. Both Harrison and Etherton played for the Victorian team last year, even though the pair lived are from West Australia. “We trialled for the WA team but didn’t get picked up, but as they hosted the comp last year, they could put players in for other States to pick them up,” Harrison said. While the experience was good, playing for the home State was what they really wanted and finally managed this year. “It’s pretty cool, it’s better than playing for Victoria,” Etherton said. Getting bronze was quite the achievement for the WA team, as well as having an 8-1 win against the powerhouse Queensland team. “We probably weren’t one of the better teams going into it, I think the second day, we beat Queensland and they’re always good, and we beat them by a lot,” Etherton said. “I’d like to say we’re confident we can at least get a medal, but New South and Queensland are both pretty strong, so that would have been hard to knock off the gold or silver.” The young athletes certainly put in the work to earn their spots on the team, training most days with either their team or doing speed training with athletics coach Jacko Whitby. “These boys improved out of sight in four weeks of training. . . those two, the teams are hard to get into, it is hard for those guys to get in there and do what they’ve done,” Whitby said. The State team is mostly composed of Perth boys because of the exposure they receive, which is why the pair had to make weekly trips to Perth. “I played pretty well, I reckon Fletcher did too, but because we’re country boys, we don’t really get as much of a chance,” Etherton said. “We had to go down for trials and the selectors don’t watch us play locally, so the effort to go down there and play in their club to get our names out,” Harrison said. The boys were supported by the Josh Kennedy Foundation, and will make the trip to Perth this weekend to compete again.