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Memories of Down Under

Memories of Down Under

MVP International sent softball team to Australia, eyes next trip
By David Driver, MVP Communications

WASHINGTON – Becky (Anderson) Forbush had plenty of overseas travel experience before she headed to Australia with an MVP International softball team in 2019. The former all-conference pitcher at George Mason University in Virginia had been to several countries in Europe, Canada and India before her sojourn with MVP – an industry leader in overseas sports travel for youth.

“The fact that all of our coaches had traveled internationally definitely helped,” according to Forbush, a four-year starter at Oakton High in Virginia.

Forbush, who ended her college career in 2010, became familiar with MVP International through coaching with Bree Hanafin, a standout at Yorktown High in Virginia and in college at Baylor in Texas and at the University of Maryland.

They are both coaches with Arlington Softball Plus, which began about five years ago, and played against each other in travel softball.

“She had done a trip the year before to Italy, so she recommended it may be nice to put a team together,” Forbush said of Hanafin. “That is where it started.”

 

Becky Forbush (right) was a coach along with Bree Hanafin (left) on MVP softball trip to Australia.

 

“When you look at world standings, the USA, Australia, Japan, and China are usually in the running,” she added. “Those were the countries that were at the top of our list and we decided on Australia. It was amazing; it was so much fun. The team was mainly comprised of athletes we coached with Arlington Softball Plus, returning players from the Italy trip, and some of their teammates who wanted to join. So, we really had a good group of players who came, plus coaches. It was just a great trip.”

During the trip, the MVP coaches and players were able to play at the Olympic softball complex in Sydney. They also went snorkeling, spent time at sand dunes, and held kangaroos and koalas.

 

MVP International softball went to Australia in 2019.

 

Among the players on that trip to Australia was Emma Yates, a catcher at Division I Virginia Tech from South County High in Northern Virginia; pitcher Jamie Martin, another South County product who was part of a Division III national championship team in 2022 with Christopher Newport in Virginia; and pitcher Bailey Misken, from West Springfield High and part of the program at Division I Colgate in New York this past season.

Other players from that trip have also committed to play softball at the college level.

“It brought some of the local girls together, even those that were high school rivals,” Forbush said. “We practiced before we went Down Under and also had a scrimmage before we left.”

Forbush was an all-district player in high school and played travel ball for the New Jersey Breakers Gold and competed in the ASA Gold Nationals at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

She followed the 2021 Women’s College World Series very closely as JMU made a run to the tournament for the first time. Forbush was conference rivals with the Dukes while at George Mason.

While at George Mason, Forbush was a four-year starter and set several single-season school records, including ERA at 1.29, shutouts with seven and she threw the fourth perfect game in school history.

She was ranked nationally in several categories and also started in the infield and outfield while she wasn’t in the circle.

Forbush has a corporate job in finance in the Washington, D.C. area and if her schedule allowed would consider another MVP trip.

Her first one was certainly memorable.

“I would call it a trip of a lifetime,” Forbush says.

Editor’s note: David Driver is the former sports editor of papers in Arlington and Harrisonburg in Virginia and Laurel and Baltimore in Maryland. He can be reached at @DaytonVaDriver and www.daytondavid.com. His book, “From Tidewater to The Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s rich baseball legacy,” written along with Lacy Lusk of Baseball America, is available on Amazon.

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