Kiwi Olympians: Gina Weber

By CHRIS RATTUE

For years, she stood head and shoulders above her contemporaries in New Zealand softball.

And when national coach Mike Walsh was preparing his side for the Olympics tournament, he had no hesitation in offering Gina Weber the chance to come out of retirement.

Now, 37-year-old Weber is once again the spearhead of the national women's softball side. With her, the team have a remote chance of a medal, although bronze is probably the best they can hope for.

The United States - the Olympic and world champions - and Australia are the hot favourites. Japan, China and Cuba are in the next tier, with the Kiwis, Canada and Italy given little or no show by the softball pundits.

The White Sox's results in their just completed series in Japan can at best be described as mildly encouraging, and Weber is disappointed in her own form. Still, without a fit and firing Weber, New Zealand would have no hope. If she can hit her straps, they might just squeeze out a medal at the Blacktown softball centre in west Sydney.

Carrying the hopes of the national women's side is a position Weber held for many seasons before she called it quits after New Zealand succumbed to Japan and thus failed to qualify for the 1996 Olympics.

While she still dominated from the mound, New Zealand could not support her pitching in the batting department. Not that Weber herself would ever give that as a reason for her decision to step down from top softball, or any softball at all.

"I just couldn't be bothered doing all the training any more. I felt there wasn't anything to aim at," Weber says at her home in West Auckland.

So instead of churning over the pitches every night after her days as a courier driver, she hit the beach - going out to Muriwai with friends to body-surf and enjoy the good life.

She played in Italy for a few months and even turned out in a tournament for an Evergreen (over-35s) Wellington side before taking on a coaching role with Northcote, which saw her playing more games than she intended.

"I just played the odd game here and there. I didn't think I would ever play the top stuff again. I didn't even think about it."

But Walsh certainly did. The long-time and highly successful New Zealand men's coach had been thrown in at the deep end after the Cheryl Kemp-coached women's side - minus Weber - had bombed to finish 11th at the 1998 world series in Japan.

The top five sides in that series automatically went to the Olympics, and New Zealand had to then beat Chinese-Taipei and Korea in a tournament in Taiwan last year to make the Sydney tournament.

They did that, and Walsh then contacted Weber about a comeback.

"I had approached her about being available for the qualifier in Taiwan, but she wasn't interested," Walsh says. "You can win certain games, but for something like the Olympics, you have to have a power pitcher.

"You've got to have people who can play up to that sort of class, although I gave Gina no guarantees about being selected.

"It's still hard to say if she can get back to her previous level because you are talking about a six-year gap."

So where did the Gina Weber story begin? Her family, father Martin and mother Lena, plus three brothers and four sisters, hailed from Wellington.

Weber was brought up by her grandparents in Huntly until she was 16, when she went back to Wellington to join the family, and find softball.

Some of her family, including her mother, played. But it was her father who brought out the best in Weber.

Former national pitcher Bill Massey provided a lot of technical guidance, but it was Martin Weber who "got me off the couch."

"He would get me out in the back yard, throwing pitch after pitch after pitch," Weber says. "Bill showed me the grips and gave us guidance if I got into trouble. But it was my dad who was always there.

"My sister Carol pitched and played for New Zealand and she gave me advice. My brother-in-law played for Island Bay as well and he always had something to say."

Three years after taking up the sport, she was a back-up pitcher to Kemp and another newcomer, Debbie Mygind, as New Zealand won the world title at Taiwan in 1982.

For much of the next decade or so, wherever Gina Weber went in the domestic game, so did the titles. Auckland, who had some other fine players, were unbeatable for many seasons, with Weber leading the way.

Along with the brilliant infielder and batter Rhonda Hira, she was the dominant force in New Zealand women's softball. She made three more world series appearances which brought second, third and sixth placings.

While shorter pitchers such as Kemp and Mygind used a wider variety of pitches to outfox batters, Weber had extreme power. She shied away from using the curve ball - a dangerous pitch if it doesn't work - and relied on drops and rises, and the ability to hit the spots with power.

Later, she began to use the off-pace change-up pitch, although that had some almost comical results early on when one of the game's great pitchers could be seen looping the ball all around the place.

Eventually, it became a decent part of her armoury.

Her training hit a peak as the New Zealand team tried to qualify for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, but the motivation disappeared when they failed.

Now Weber is training as hard as she ever has. The great New Zealand pitcher Steve Jackson and Weber's partner Mike Herk have been among those who catch for her and fellow Olympic pitcher Fiona Timu at the Auckland indoor cricket centre as they prepare for Sydney.

There are also the long hours of gym and running work. Weber says: "It's a big challenge and the training has been really hard."

Her mother will be in Sydney to see her daughter's farewell, but her father - the man who kick-started her career - will not.

And Weber is hoping the New Zealand supporters will see a vast improvement in her pitching when the Olympics begin.

"To be honest, I'm pitching rubbish at the moment," she says.

"I'll practise harder and hope I've got enough time to turn it around."

While Weber would have much to offer as a coach, she may not go that way when she retires after the Olympics.

"You don't mind coaching, but some kids these days only show up when they want to show up." Beneath the gentle, modest Weber exterior lies a hard competitor.

Walsh says: "She is very modest and doesn't like talking to the media about herself. It's not that she doesn't like the media. She just doesn't want to bring the accolades on herself.

"But as a player she's a different person. Really strong, a great competitor and she's been through the highs and lows in the New Zealand team."

And Walsh, who describes Weber as "a real straight shooter who has the respect of everyone," has paid her the ultimate compliment by naming her captain of the Olympic squad.

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