When Hawke's Bay's multiple national title-winning age group softball coach Kevin Gettins embarks on his second Junior World Series campaign tomorrow it will be the first time he has a daughter in the New Zealand team.
Before anyone starts labelling the father-daughter link (his daughter Courtney is one of four pitchers in the team he is assistant coach of) a recipe for disaster they should consider the success of previous teams they have been involved with. Gettins has coached and Courtney has pitched for Hawke's Bay U13, U15 and U17 teams, the latter twice, to regional, North Island and national titles.
When quizzed on his and head coach Venita Hokai's chances of emulating Hawke's Bay's successes with the Junior White Sox at the July 1-7 16-team Junior World Series in Brampton, Ontario, Canada Gettins replied, "We've got a tough draw. But a top four berth in our pool is the initial goal as that will put us into the top eight playoffs. If we can achieve that then we can aim for a top four finish overall."
The Junior White Sox are seeded third in their pool in the wake of their sixth placing at the 2011 tournament in South Africa - Gettins' first stint as assistant coach of the national side his eldest daughter and long-serving White Sox catcher Mel Gettins played for in 2007. They are in the same pool as defending champions, the US and Canada, their opponents on Independence Day.
"Both the United States and Canada select their teams from pools of 50,000 players, ours is picked from a pool of 50 players. But we've learnt a lot from last time," Gettins said.