Fast pitch captain to help Canada at Pan Am Games

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/hicks.jpg” caption=”Brittany Hicks was called to help the Canadian women’s softball team at the Pan American Games after an injury to an outfielder left the team short a player. Hicks hopes to make an impression on the team’s coaching staff and one day make the team as a starting player. Photo courtesy Brittany Hicks.”]Softballer Brittany Hicks is hoping to help Canada win gold at the Pan American Games
this month.

The third-year kinesiology student from Dundas had to hurriedly pack her bags after
coaches asked her to take the place of an injured outfielder on Canada's women's
softball team. The squad is competing at the Games, being played in Guadalajara,
Mexico.

“It's very exciting, and nerve-racking,” said Hicks. “It's the highest level of softball in the
world.”

Hicks has played for McMaster's fast pitch team for the last two seasons, serving as
captain, and was part of the 2009 team that won gold at the Ontario Intercollegiate
Women's Fast Pitch Association finals. In 2011 she was named the team's most valuable
player.

Last summer she was invited to participate in Softball Canada's senior women's national
team camp in Yukon.

“It was a great experience to train with the team,” said Hicks. “I really learned a lot.”

Typically a shortstop, Hicks won't be a starting player at the Games but hopes to
impress the team's coaching staff when she does see playing time.

“It's a bit of a jump to such high-level competition, so I want to adjust well and show
the coaches my potential,” she said. “One day I want to be a starting member of the
team.”

A ballplayer since childhood, Hicks said she considers softball a “very intellectual” sport.

“I've just loved it my whole life,” she said. “I want to keep pushing myself to the next
level.”

Canada's women's softball team opens the tournament against Puerto Rico on October
17 at the Pan American Softball Stadium in Guadalajara. The team has won three
straight silver medals but has not won gold since 1983.