By Joshua Koch
Public Communications
As Cali Chapman was just days into her senior year at Summer Creek High School, she was spending time decorating her car with chalk with her mother Christie when her phone rang.
With her mom by her side, Chapman, who has dual citizenship between the United States and Canada, answered the call and put it on speaker.
The next few minutes proved to be some of the biggest of Chapman’s young softball career. After two rounds of tryouts, Chapman had been named one of 16 players to the roster of the U-18 Women’s National Softball Team for Canada.
“It was great,” Chapman said about sharing the moment with her mother. “One of her goals was to play in the Olympics and she didn’t really get there. So, I think she wants me and my sister to reach that goal and she can do it with us.”
The Canadian U-18 Women’s National Softball Team will play in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup next week in Dallas, Texas. Team Canada will be playing in Group C with the United States, Ireland, Mexico, Philippines and Australia.
Pool play begins on Thursday, August 29, with Canada facing Mexico in the opening round at 3:30 p.m.
“You can bet we are going to find out how to stream it and cheer her on and let her do her thing out there,” Summer Creek coach Gabe Castillo said with a smile.
Team Canada is set to face the United States on Thursday, August 30 at 6:30 p.m., and then Ireland and the Philippines on Saturday, August 31 at 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., respectively. The team will wrap up Pool Play on Sunday, September 1 against Australia at 9:30 a.m.
Chapman was born in the City of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada and lived there for about three weeks before moving to the City of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada where she spent the next few years of her life before moving to Houston when she was four.
Growing up, softball wasn’t a sport that she played even though it was a big part of her family’s life. Chapman's mother, Christie, played softball growing up and went on to play at the University of Southern Florida.
As a child though, Chapman focused on soccer and played it vigilantly until about the sixth grade when softball took hold of her. And the move paid off.
Last season for Summer Creek, Chapman was named the District 21-6A co-Utility Player of the Year, first-team, all-district and academic all-district.
“She’s poured everything into it, so it doesn’t surprise me that she’s reached this level,” Castillo said. “I think she’s barely at the tip of the iceberg because there’s so much more she’s going to do. Watching her grow from freshman to now starting her senior year, we’re excited to see her do great things.”
Chapman added: “Summer Creek’s a great place, great people, great coaches. It’s just exciting to bring that to a world stage.”
This past summer, Chapman, who has verbally committed to play softball at her mother’s alma mater USF, decided to take a chance and try out for the Canadian U-18 Women’s National Softball Team for the first time.
The incoming senior traveled to Vancouver in June for the first tryout and then got called back for a three-day tryout in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at the beginning of August which led to her making the team.
“I’m just excited to be around Canadians,” Chapman said. “They’re all good people. It’s just going to be a good environment and this is a new thing. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, just being around people from different cultures. That’ll be cool. It’ll be like being in an Olympic village.”
Speaking of the Olympics, it has already been announced that the 2028 Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles will see the return of softball to the games.
With Chapman making the U-18 Women’s National Team for Canada now, she does have the seed planted of that Olympic dream.
“That would be cool,” Chapman said. “I’ll be out of college by then and that would be the next step.”
