Rebecca won the Kath Correll award for the SA’s most outstanding player on two occasions.
As is the case with most athletes, Rebecca Strapps responded exceptionally well to intensive training.
The year was 1989 and the new State coach, Yo Arvizu designed an innovative program for the SA squad to lift their performances at the upcoming Australian championships.
From the Utah State University where she had earned All-American recognition, she came to SA as a former pitcher and second base.
This is where Rebecca Strapps comes in.
Arvizu selected 16 players to form the training squad – based on their performances, commitment to the six-month program of weights, running and skill training and their general professionalism and enthusiasm.
Pitcher to pitcher. Rebecca Strapps absorbed everything she could from the All-American pitcher, resulting in her first Kath Correll Player of the Year award in the 1989/90 season.
She has been described by those who know as an “intelligent pitcher with good fielding skills”.
Rebecca Strapps won her second Kath Correll award in the 1994/95 season, coming off her final year as a State representative, a fine way to finish one’s interstate career. She was also SA’s vice-captain in that year.
As a teenager and having impressed coaches at the national Under-19 championships in the mid to late 1980s, she was first selected to the Australian Under-19 team for a Canada series and then again for the 3rd World Under-19 Championships in the US in 1987.
Australia would lose out in the bronze medal game to finish in a creditable 4th place.
Rebecca Strapps is a member of the Softball SA Hall of Fame.
