Saanich baseball player Tijanne Ross is draped in American colours this week as she joins a U.S.-based travelling all star team for a European tour.
Ross, 16, of the Vancouver Island Impact U16 softball team was selected to represent the USA U19 AIST Select Team for its tour of Munich, Germany, Vienna, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic, from July 27 to Aug. 5. There they’ll face junior national teams as well as some high school teams.
“It’s going to be a great experience just to go and play in Europe, but it’s kind of weird wearing [U.S. colours instead of] wearing the Canadian flag,” Ross said. “I’ll have to wear a Canadian flag underneath.”
Ross is leaving the Lambrick Park baseball academy this year to enter Grade 11 at Claremont, where she’ll study in the Global Solutions and science programs there.
There will be plenty of baseball over the winter despite leaving the daily baseball focus of the Lambrick academy, Ross said.
“With the Impact it’s just practise, practise, practise. We do training and workouts all offseason.”
The U.S. travelling team is pay-to-play but that doesn’t mean it’s open to all comers. Ross was invited based on her playing success – she pitched for Hampton at the Little League World Series last year – while others had to try out for the team.
“I’ve been getting to know some of the players by email, but I won’t know what it’s going to be like until I get there.”
reporter@saanichnews.com