World Cup of Softball opens today, Romero sisters make history for USA

Submitted by justingoblue on

The World Cup of Softball kicks off in Irvine, CA today with Puerto Rico currently playing Argentina, and the USJNT playing Argentina at 7:30 and the USWNT playing Mexico at 10:00. Streams can be found here, and livestats here but I haven't seen anything about TV coverage yet.

Michigan female athlete of the year and three-time All American Sierra Romero will be joined in Irvine by Oklahoma signee and sister Sydney, who will play for the US junior team. According to SI, two sisters simultaneously on US national rosters is a first in the 50 year history of USA/ASA Softball:

On those dusty southern California fields, the Romero sisters could always be spotted from a distance. Their American-themed headbands and helmets—staples in their softball attire for many of their early days in uniform—were signifiers of not only their presence on the softball diamond, but also of their national team aspirations. “Sydney was four and Sierra was seven when they first started dreaming about playing for Team USA,” says their father, Michael Romero.

At that time, the sisters talked together about what it could be like to someday wear USA across their chests on a softball diamond like their childhood heroes Jennie Finch and Lisa Fernandez. When they could call the USA their team and not just their home. When the Olympic gold medal glory of Atlanta, Sydney and Athens could be similarly theirs.

“When the girls would talk about it, I remember saying to my husband, ‘Could you imagine one day if they ever played in the Olympics for Team USA and got to wear the red, white and blue for real?’” says their mother, Melissa Romero. “At that time, those dreams seemed so far-fetched.”

The national team plays the junior national team Wednesday at 8:00.

ಠ_ಠ

June 29th, 2015 at 2:29 PM ^

I think Romo's sister committed to Oklahoma when she was in eigth grade. I remember @ing her in a tweet by mistake when Romo was going into her senior season in HS. I caught it and apoligized, she was very nice and I wished her luck at Oklahoma. Hope she does well there.

Anyway, competing against Oklahoma / Florida for softball recruits is similair to competing against Kentucky / Duke for bball recruits. Florida has the top two ranked senior recruits in the country and Oklahoma has something like four of the top ten. Softball recruits do tend to commit very early though, so there may be a bit of rankings bias towards those schools. In any case, Michigan's incoming class is fantastic, ranking be damned. I will have a thing up in a week or two with a lot more about that.

oriental andrew

June 29th, 2015 at 5:05 PM ^

Given how competitive she is, I'm guessing she probably wanted to carve her own path and be known for her own accomplishments, not as Sierra's little sister. 

Although neither of us were/are elite athletes, I followed my sister to Michigan and, for a good portion of freshman year, was known as "Jane's brother" by most of her friends. That got old quick.