Raelene has all bases covered!

BENDIGO-based softball mentor Raelene Jeffrey has all bases covered through her involvement in every facet of the sport, from coaching complete beginners and rising stars to playing at international level.
The part-time Weeroona College teacher was in Toowoomba a couple of months ago, guiding Victoria’s next generation of elite players in her position as head coach of the state’s secondary schoolgirls’ team.
Jeffrey was leading the squad at the School Sport Australia 17-and-under Championships.
She said the main competition would come come from the strong softball states of New South Wales and Queensland, as well as last year’s winner, South Australia.
“Realistically, we probably looked at finishing fourth or fifth, given some of the other states’ schoolgirls teams I have seen or done some homework on,” Jeffrey said.
“But if we can come together and bat some runs in and be aggressive, you never know.”
This is the second elite coaching leadership role Jeffrey has had in the space of a month.
During the first week of the April school holidays, she was an assistant for Softball Victoria’s under-17 representative side at the postponed national titles in Melbourne.
The team had originally travelled to Brisbane for the carnival in January when the capital was hit by the torrential downpour that caused near-record flooding.
“All the states were up there ready to play when the rain came down,” Jeffrey said.
“We had to get evacuated from the city and the tournament ended up getting cancelled before a single match was played.”
Organisers were eventually able to reschedule the event to avoid disappointing the teenagers chosen to take part, and the Vics ended up in fifth place.
There are no local girls in either state team, largely due to the fact there has been no regular softball competition in Bendigo for many years.
But that is something Jeffrey hopes may be addressed through a new national skills program to be launched in coming months that she has helped pilot as part of her second job, with Softball Australia.
(Article sourced from Bendigo Advertiser website, written by Raelee Tuckerman)
Since this article was published, Raelene has been elected as a director on the board of management for Softball Victoria. We wish her the best of luck with this new responsibility.

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