That is the reality for rising Otago softball star Phoenix Wardell-Mao, who has been named in both the New Zealand Junior Black Sox and Developing Sox squads.
The 14-year-old Otago Boys’ High School year 11 pupil, the best pitching prospect to emerge from the province since the classy Ben Watts, is well under the average age for the Junior Black Sox, but that has never bothered him before.
He first represented Otago at under-15 level, when he was 10, and dipped his toe into Dunedin senior softball when he was 13.
Wardell-Mao was with the freshly named Otago Whatukura men’s team earlier this season when it broke a 28-year drought and won the Jefferies Cup in Christchurch.
He got to play alongside Watts, one of his idols of the diamond, and pitch against current members of the Black Sox squad.
The youngster had actually been named in the Developing Sox, for under-15 players, a year ago but that team was unable to assemble due to Covid.
It is deja vu for the Developing Sox as they were supposed to play in the Easter Classic this year but that has been cancelled, and team management is trying to find alternative ways for the players to get some time together.
The Junior Black Sox are scheduled to assemble in Palmerston North in April to play in a televised quad series involving the White Sox women’s team, after which they will have a training camp.
The junior squad will then be reduced to prepare for the Junior Men’s World Cup in 2023.
Otago’s most recent player to earn national selection was Josh Forrester, in the Junior Black Sox in 2020.
