Peninsula Softball was proud to be represented at the over-35 State Championship by (from left to right): Jess Squires, Chloe Humphrey, and Kety Lucic.
The State Championships were played at Blacktown International Sports Park over the weekend of January 24 and 25th.
The MWSA O35s cruised past Penrith (10-3) and Cumberland (14-1) before going down to Pool leaders George's River (7-1). But the team rallied in the evening to edge out Sutherland in a tight game (5-3).
In the play-offs, the MWSA team went down to old rivals, North Shore, who in turn finished runners-up against Championshiip winners, Cumberland.
The full results and report can be found at the Softball NSW website.
The full program for the State Championship can be found at the Softball NSW website, and features Chloe Humphrey on its cover.
As excitingly, following the State Championship, both Jess Squires and Chloe Humphrey were selected to attend the final selection camp for the 2021 NSW Over 35s Women’s Team. The camp will be on Sunday February 28th at Blacktown International Sportspark. This will be the final selection process for the NSW Over 35 Women’s team. Good luck to Jess and Chloe!
Representing MWSA
Kety Lucic, who goes by Ketz, or Ket, plays with Eagles Black in A Reserve, alongside Rep teammate Chloe Humphrey. Both Chloe and Ket have played for the O35 Representative team for a number of years now, and were part of the same team that Club President Sammi Williams played on that won back-to-back Championships in 2015 and 2016 for Manly-Warringah. .
Jess Squires currently plays for the Davidson A Res team, the Dirty Mitts, but she does double time in coaching the Div 1 Peninsula Rebels along with the A Res Peninsula Storm.
When she was younger, Jess played in several Junior Representative and Development teams, She has also been a coach and assistant coach for the O35s. But this was her first year as a player on the team.
Jess Squires pitching for MWSA in Canberra in 1999
Jess pitches for the O35s, while Ket prefers playing left field or will cover 2nd base when she's feeling fit. Chloe is a true utility player, taking up corners and pivots primarily, although in the last 10 years she has also been pitching, and does an outstanding job. Jess also notes that Chloe often bats as lead off, and is a dangerous (and left-handed) batter.
Ket says a highlight for her as a player is winning a couple of State Championships, as well as coming runners-up 3 years running in the o35 tournament. She has also received an MVP and coach's award while winning two championships.
Ket says she is proud to represent our Association and of earning her place on the team. She also loves the lifetime relationships she has formed with her fellow sisters on the team. Ket loves taking the field with her fellow talented players in representing MWSA and likes to think that they are showing the younger players that your are never too old to play great softball.
More than just O35 Representative Players
Jess, Chloe and Kety don't just represent us on the field - they each have contributed to building Peninsula and Manly Warringah Softball into what it is today, and are a part of the rich history of the Club, the Association and Softball in NSW and Australia.
Jess Squires has been involved with Peninsula Softball Club as a player/coach/umpire since about 1995 (as she notes - a long time!!). She played in one of the first A grade teams called “the all sorts” not long after Peninsula entered the A grade competition. Chloe Humphrey was also part of this team.
Jess' parents were good friends with the Williams family and the Hocknell family who founded the Club around 1993. Her sister and she joined not long after they started up the Club, and from then on, the whole family was hooked and they spent all of their Saturdays (and Sundays) at the diamonds playing, coaching and umpiring.
Though Jess has been playing softball for some 28 years now, she loves coaching above all, and considers her biggest and favourite softball achievement was when she coached the NSW Metro team (U15s) for two years in 2016 and 2017. They travelled to WA and to QLD to play at a National tournament. Both years the team came away with a gold medal!
Jess Squires celebrating with her Metro Green Team in 2017
Jess has also been involved with the NSW U17s program with a bunch of very experienced coaches. They also won a Gold medal at Nationals in 2017.
Jess says her favourite part of softball is being able to have these opportunities, and then bring her experiences back to grassroots softball - to help the girls learn the correct fundamentals right from the beginning.
While Ket Lucic has played for a number of years on the O35 MWSA Representative Team, she considers herself a late bloomer because it is her first Rep experience as a player.
But like Jess, Ket has also helped coach and manage some of the Junior Rep teams for MWSA and NSDSA. She is particularly proud of serving as an assistant coach for batting for an U12 State Championship team. Ket has been playing softball for some 22 years now, and she has been involved with Peninsula as a player, coach, manager and umpire. She has also been a part of Warringah, and even served one year as Vice President, playing an integral part in creating a community program and receiving community grant funding. They also received a club of the year award for NSW softball.
Prior to her involvement with MWSA, Ket was affiliated with St Ives Softball Club in the NSDSA, and again was involved as a player, coach, manager and umpire, as well as helping out with all aspects of the Rep program there.
Ket includes among her best memories her State Championship experiences, but also just watching (and helping) the Junior players develop into amazing senior players - and gets a thrill out of playing against them in the Saturday comp.
Ket is committed to keeping softball alive and available to everyone, and says that MWSA is where she will continue for as long as she can and in whatever capacity possible.
Finally, Chloe Humphrey has also been playing softball for years, and played her Junior Representative softball with MWSA from an early age. Chloe played for NSW team in 1994, travelling to Queensland to play in the National Championship. They beat the home side in the Grand Final.
Chloe Humphrey playing for NSW in the National Championships, 1994
Chloe started playing for Peninsula alongside Jess in one of the the first A grade teams called “the all sorts.”
More recently, Chloe has been involved in coaching for Peninsula as her daughter Ella rose through the Junior divisions. Ella now plays for the Division 1 Rebels and the A Reserve team, Storm, where she comes up against her mum's Eagles Black team.
Ella is also following in Chloe's footsteps as an amazing Representative player, and has been catching and playing shortstop for MWSA for many years now including, most recently on the U16 Rep team who came runners-up in a tense State Championship battle against Cumberland in 2020.
Chloe and Ella are popular Peninsula players who enjoy a massive support crew cheering them on at whatever level they play, with Chloe's parents coming along to watch along with her husband Chris, and Ella's two brothers (when they’re not playing cricket).
Many congratulations to Chloe, Jess, and Ket on all their achievements and many thanks, too, for all their service to Softball!