Softball: McKenzie pitches up again after weighing her options

By JULIE ASH

Philippa McKenzie has turned into a lean, mean pitching Machine.

Auckland's McKenzie is a member of the national women's side, the White Sox, who are preparing for a four-test series against Australia on Monday and Tuesday in Lower Hutt and Wellington.

After first securing a spot in the national side in 1996, McKenzie took last year off.

However, a year later the 29-year-old is back, 42kg lighter and with a desire to see New Zealand succeed in next year's World Series in Canada, where the top four teams will qualify for the 2004 Olympics.

"My main focus is the World Series, and anything after that I will have to re-evaluate," she said.

After shedding that weight, McKenzie has managed to keep it off .

"It was just a matter of changing my habits. Instead of eating packaged food on the run I had to pull out the bread, cut things up and make a decent sandwich."

McKenzie, mother to 11-year-old Nikita, has given her side motivational talks.

"It is about goal setting and how we think. I lost the weight by myself. I think people just need to have a bit of faith in themselves."

McKenzie's softball career began when she was seven. The first softball representative team she made was the Hawkes Bay under-12 side.

"I played netball and basketball and I was always keen on athletics. I was quite a sporty young lassie for a while, but because the price of everything went up, I wasn't allowed to play so many sports."

McKenzie made her international debut against Chinese Taipei at age 23.

"I was absolutely stoked to have made the New Zealand side that year. After they named the team they then announced we would be going on a six-week tour of the States and the Netherlands."

Memories of her first international game, though, are a little hazy.

"I remember it was down at Papatoetoe, it was a scorching hot day. I can't remember if we won or not, but the big thrill was putting the New Zealand uniform on and being able to play."

She said the tournament in the Netherlands remains a highlight of her career.

"I pitched a no-hitter against Chinese Taipei, my first international no-hitter. That was quite exciting."

After the tour, the White Sox competed in the World Series in Japan where they finished out of the top 10.

"After we had bombed out in the World Series there was a big campaign to get to the Olympics. We had to fund ourselves to the qualifying tournament because we had lost all our sponsorship after not being in the top 10."

New Zealand managed to qualify for the Sydney Olympics - an event that McKenzie withdrew from.

"I actually pulled out, I had just lost Mum and I had to fix myself before I made a commitment to sport. The main goal I had was to qualify for the Olympics and I did that."

McKenzie returned last February, playing for Marist in the Auckland club competition and then Auckland in the national provincial championships. Before long, she found herself back in the national side for a five-test series against Australia this year, which New Zealand lost 4-1.

"It was a big learning curve, we had quite a few younger players, but we could have done better," she said.

Something the White Sox will have in mind when they take on the Olympic bronze medallists next week.

"There are going to be a few familiar faces in the Australian side, but it is basically one of their up-and-coming teams. It is still going to be a tough series. But if we play to the best of our ability we should take it."

While McKenzie is preparing to tackle Australia, her brother Dave is a pitcher in the Australian men's softball side.

"I think it is great. You can change countries now and then because you have a right to," she said. "You always want the Kiwis to win and your brother to do well, but not necessarily win."

A win against the Aussies would top off what has already been a great year for McKenzie.