Whanganui’s softball scene is continuing to grow, with interest in the sport at an all-time high.
Saturdays at the Whanganui Softball Association’s Ballpark on Puriri St are a traffic control nightmare, association president Kay Kotuhi-Brown said.
That is because of the growing participation numbers across all grades.
Kotuhi-Brown saidthere were many reasons why softball had been gaining traction over recent years.
The new junior and representative programmes, committee structure changes, social media, skill clinics and interest from schools had contributed to the growth.
The softball season is at its halfway stage, with the second competition set to return after the representative season at the end of January into February.
“It seems to be going really well this season and in the past couple of seasons. The competition is good and everybody is on the same path,” Kotuhi-Brown said.
The Whanganui Athletic Softball women's team won the championship trophy in the first half of the 2025-26 season.
In the 2025-26 season, participation has increased across the junior, men’s and women’s grades.
There are now seven men’s teams and three women’s teams in the competition.
The men’s grade had four when Kotuhi-Brown got involved in 1999.
It is also the first season Whanganui has been able to take eight representative sides to national events across several grades.
In previous years, there was only capacity for two or three sides.
The under-13 boys representative team had 28 boys turn up to trial.
The association was measuring success by the number of kids wanting to play, Kotuhi-Brown said.
“We’ve had to put a quota on teams entered now because we can’t cater for the number of teams on the diamonds we’ve got.
“Over the past 10 years, I’d say 90% of the teams have been from the schools but now we’ve had a big increase with clubs putting in junior teams from teeball into intermediate grades.
“That’s been a big contributor to the upskilling of these young kids because clubs, apart from schools, are coached by softball parents so they get taught the basics properly.”
Having Whanganui players progress to New Zealand representative honours had been good for others to look up to and play with or against, she said.
In 2025, the under-17 girls team became the first Whanganui female age-grade side to reach the national final.
As a result, three of the girls made the New Zealand Junior White Sox Invitational team and the team’s coach, Fiona Campbell, is the Junior White Sox assistant coach.
She became the first 15-year-old to make the team since hall-of-famer Melisa Tupuivao (nee Upu) in 1990.
The Hāwera Hawks joined the Whanganui competition for the first time last season with a men’s side.
Hāwera Hawks Softball Club (in dark blue, pictured with Athletic Softball Club players) entered a women's side in the Whanganui Softball Association competition for the first time this season.
Previously, players travelled to Palmerston North to play in the Manawatū competition, which was inconvenient.
Hāwera Hawks co-ordinator Vincent Nuku said the club introduced a women’s team for the first time this season off the back of the interest shown in the men’s team.
“Once people started hearing that we were playing and practising, they were like, ‘oh yeah, I could give it a go’,” Nuku said.
Now, the players have formed a bond with each other and the wider softball community.
“All of us here have pretty much become a whānau and when we go to Whanganui, their community embraces us as well,” he said.
“We’re a whole community that comes together and we are able to talk to get to know each other really well.”
Nuku said the goal was to introduce an under-11s team for younger grade teeball players, who participate in a South Taranaki competition, to keep them involved in the sport.
Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.
