Softball player determined to get off the sidelines

It’s been a year of up-and-down emotions for Carrie-Leigh Thomas.

The 22-year-old Cayuga, who lives in Ontario in the Six Nations community of Ohsweken, first joined the Canadian senior women’s softball team in 2012.

This past December, however, she was named as an alternate for the squad for the 2015 season.

That meant Thomas, who primarily plays first base now, would only get to suit up for the club’s most prestigious event this year, the Pan American Games, if another infielder was injured and unavailable to play.

“I was still allowed to train with them and play with them right up until the Pan Am Games,” she said.

Thomas was one of two alternates on the national squad. The other alternate, Brantford’s Logan White, did get to play in the Pan Am Games, because another outfielder, Toronto native Victoria Hayward, was sidelined when she suffered a torn ACL just prior to the tournament.

The Canadians ended up winning the gold medal at the Pan Am event. The women’s softball tourney was held in Ajax, located about a 20-minute drive east of Toronto.

“It was a bittersweet thing,” Thomas said of not being able to take part in the Pan Am Games. “I wanted to play but it’s a good thing nobody (that plays an infield position) got hurt.”

Though Thomas did not get the opportunity to play at the most significant event on the team’s calendar this year, she did don a national team uniform at a pair of other prestigious tournaments.

She helped Canada to a fourth-place finish at the US World Cup of Softball, which wrapped up in early July in Irvine, Calif.

The Americans won that event, while Japan and Puerto Rico placed second and third, respectively.

Canada managed to defeat the U.S. in a round-robin contest at that event.

“That was a very exciting tournament,” Thomas said. “It was the only time we faced the Americans before the Pan Am Games.”

Following this tournament Thomas and her teammates picked up some hardware, placing third at the Canadian Open Fastpitch International Championships, staged in Surrey, B.C.

Thomas got to play in four of the team’s seven tournament matches.

“I understood my position,” said Thomas, who hit a homerun in a contest versus Japan. “And I thought I was lucky and very happy to play as much as I did.”

Japan captured the gold medal at this event while Cuba took the silver.

Prior to the two tournaments that Thomas did take part in with the national squad this season, she also participated in a six-game exhibition series against a women’s club from Stratford, Connecticut.

Despite being an alternate, Thomas was content with her performances this year.

“I had a good season,” she said. “I developed more. And I’m a better player now.”

Earlier this year, Thomas completed her teaching degree from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. While she is still hoping to find a full-time elementary school teaching job, Thomas will be able to pick up some work as a Six Nations supply teacher starting this fall.

Though there are no more national team events scheduled for this year, softball will continue to be a big part of her life.

“We still have to keep up with our training,” she said.

Thomas is hoping to be in top shape for the next national team tryouts, expected to be held in January, possibly in Florida.

“After the next tryouts I want to be on the team,” she said. “I don’t want to be an alternate again.”

Those that make the Canadian squad this coming year will participate at the women’s world championships, which will be held in Surrey next July.

Thomas is also hopeful that one day she will be able to represent Canada at the Summer Olympics.

Women’s softball was last included in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The sport was then dropped from the Olympic schedule and it will not be included in next year’s Olympics, which will be in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

The earliest the sport will be now be added again will be the 2020 Olympics.

Thomas and her fiancÈ, Danny Vyse, an elite lacrosse player, already have a two-year-old daughter named Lyla-Shae Vyse. The couple have decided they do want at least two more children but will hold off for the next few years to concentrate on their athletic careers.

“I want to be able to say that I am an Olympian some day,” Thomas said.