They went from underdogs to champions.
Last month, The New York Havoc, a softball team comprised of women from Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, stepped into the dirt-diamond in Stratford, CT, as a heavy underdog in a division of top-ranked softball teams.
After losing their first two games in the Women’s Major Softball National Championship, these fearless females knew they needed to keep their heads up and hope to turn the momentum.
The Havoc kept team morale soaring – and the pieces began falling into place.
A miraculous turn of events spurred a five-game win streak. The Havoc went home with the trophy, and they were named the national champions.
“The Women’s Major Softball National Championship is something we will always remember,” said the 24-year-old Queens native Liz Strein, who with the crack of her bat, brought home the winning run in the final game. “As a team we were champions, not as individuals.”
This is the team’s first year as being called the Havoc – a name that was derived by the devastating loss of the Empire State Games. Before they were the Havoc, they were the New York City Empire State softball team.
After funding for the entire 2009 Empire Games fell through, these young ladies decided they needed some redemption.
“The girls came over to me and said ‘we still want to play coach’,” said head coach Dawn Gugliaro. “They wanted a gold medal.”
This group of women, whose ages range from 18 to 28, are all hard-working people who had to take time off work, school and other prior engagements to get a chance to play in this established tournament.
“In the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘are we crazy’…we weren’t battle tested all year,” said Gugliaro. “We were just excited to be in the tournament and were going to be playing great competition.”
Some of the women, like Strein, have been playing with the original team for more than seven years. Their commitment level is the factor that guided them to a national title.
“We didn’t want to see this tradition end,” said Strein. “We look forward to the athletic and social benefits that the Games provided, so we found a way to keep it going.”
Fourteen versatile women make up the benevolent Havoc. The new name and team will be back at next year’s tourney to defend their national title.
The coach and team are ready for their first full-year of practices, games and brand new memories with this fresh team.
“We are definitely coming back strong next year,” said Gugliaro. “We were so excited that we won, but we were also depressed because we know that we aren’t going to be playing softball with each other for some time.”
