The international fastpitch tournament, Canada Cup, held at Softball City in Surrey BC last week was especially exciting for us. Our daughter Nicole joined players from Australia, Venezuela, Holland, the US and all over Canada.
Teams from all over the world all competing for the Canada Cup. There are 5 divisions to the Canada Cup and our daughter, at only age 15, played in the Showcase division. Nicole is the catcher.
Watching your kids excel at sports is more than exhilarating. Learning to be part of a team and applying the discipline can also bring great opportunities. At 15 years old, Nicole is being scouted for colleges and has the potential to play at the national or even international level.
There are some potential health hazards that go along with any sport you should be aware of. They are easy to prevent if you know what to look out for. We discovered the horror hiding in smelly sports equipment the hard way several years back. Catching equipment needs to be dried and aired out like hockey equipment. This may sound blatantly obvious, but although we all know you sweat tons while playing hockey, we didn’t really think about the sweat in the equipment from playing ball. Let me assure you that catching equipment for softball can smell WORSE that hockey equipment. Teenage boys aren’t the only ones that smell.
Nicole is a catcher. It’s pretty much the same equipment that you use for hockey. Chest protectors, shin guards and cleats, all of which can develop an awful odor when used often.
One evening after warming up some pitchers prior to provincials, Nicole had a minor rash on her legs. The next morning, it was sore and oozing and very gross. We discovered that she had a fungal burn. Shin guards are worn over long cotton socks and the fungus attacked the skin through them! It took weeks for her legs to heal. Nicole is permanently scarred from the burn and it was easily preventable.
This was an expensive lesson from a financial perspective too. We had to replace the shin guards, because when the fungus gets that bad, there is nothing that will completely remove it. Leaving her softball equipment in her bag had been a very dumb thing to do. Much like hockey equipment, or any sports equipment for that matter, the bag needs to be opened; the equipment removed, aired out and dried out.
We also now use SportzGemz as they assist and speed up the drying time. Now there isn’t even a smell to the catching equipment because when the equipment is dried out properly it doesn’t have a chance to form. Airing equipment is a great start. Protect your son or daughter. Lay a SportzGemz pouch on each shin guard. The equipment dries even faster and the fungus and bacteria never have a chance to grow.
Having the SportzGemz in Nicole’s bag also has a secondary advantage. The pouches are powerful enough to remove all the other smells that linger in the car, from wet clothes or umbrellas or shoes or whatever other stuff travels with us to the ball field.
