A local woman has added a national championship and a Pan Am Games title to her already-impressive softball resume.
For the third year in a row, Drayton native Victoria Rumph was chosen to represent Canada at the international and national levels.
Rumph, a catcher, played with the sliver-medal-winning Canadian women’s national team at the Pan Am Games in Puerto Rico in 2013 and has been an alternate on the team the past two summers. In 2014, she participated in training camps in Ontario prior to the World Championships in the Netherlands.
For 2015, Rumph was again selected to be an alternate on the national women’s team.
“Although I was an alternate this year, I was given the opportunity to travel with the team throughout the summer, specifically to British Columbia and play in some games in the Canadian Open Fastpitch Championship with the team,” Rumph told the Advertiser in an email.
When not participating on the diamond, she was the bullpen catcher, warming up relief pitchers. The team placed third at the Canadian Open.
After the bronze medal win the team traveled to the Pan Am Games in Toronto. Again, Rumph filled the role of bullpen catcher and had access to all the facilities at the games.
“The Pan Am Games were one of the most amazing experiences of my life, especially playing on home soil,” she said. “We have the opportunity to play in British Columbia every year, but it was also great to be able to play in front of friends and family from Ontario and our team had great support throughout the entire games.”
Rumph will receive a championship ring to keep as a memento of the gold medal victory Team Canada achieved at the games. After facing a strong U.S. team three times throughout the games, Canada managed to defeat the Americans in extra innings to win gold.
The last event in Rumph’s busy summer schedule was the Senior Women’s Canadian National Championships in Prince Edward Island, in which she participated as a first-year member of the Whitby Eagles. After round robin play, Rumph was selected as the Most Valuable Player.
In the playoff round, Whitby faced tough opposition but in the championship game the team defeated Quebec 1-0. This was the third year the Whitby Eagles won the gold medal, making the team eligible to be inducted into the Softball Canada Hall of Fame.
“I have been to multiple national championships with different teams. This is the first time I have won a gold medal at a Canadian National,” said Rumph.
“Unlike the Pan Am victory, I was behind the plate for the championship game and got to experience the last out of the game on the field; something I will never forget.”
Rumph is a graduate from and assistant softball coach at Muskingum University, Ohio. She is pursuing a master’s degree in adult education and is looking forward to future coaching opportunities. She also hopes to someday play softball in the Olympics.
“This summer was a crazy gold-filled experience for me and I was sad to see it come to an end,” she stated.
Rumph was recently named to the pool of potential players for the 2016 Softball World Championships in Surrey, BC.
