Helen Townsend
Helen Townsend(born 16 August 1969[1]) is a New Zealand secondary school teacher and Olympicsoftballplayer fromChristchurch.
Townsend was born in Christchurch and started playing softball from age 14.[2]She represented New Zealand in softball in the New Zealand Under 19 team in her final year atBurnside High School,which she attended from 1983 to 1987.[3]For ten years from 1990 she played in the Senior Women's team, and represented New Zealand at the senior world championships in1994and1998.[2]The team missed out on qualifying for the1996 Olympics,but made it to the2000 Olympicsat Sydney, where it camefifth.[2]She played in Italy for a year and then in Canada for a year,[3]and retired from playing softball after the 2000 Olympics.[2]
Townsend graduated from theUniversity of Otagowith a Bachelor in Physical Education, and after playing softball in Canada was appointed as a full-time physical education teacher at her old school, Burnside High.[3]After the Olympics, she was a video analyst for theNew Zealand men's national softball team[2]and while in that role, the men defended theirworld championship title.[4][5]She remained video analyst for the men's team until 2009, when she was inducted into the Softball New Zealand Hall of Fame, along with three others.[6][7]
References
[edit]- ^"Helen Townsend".Sports-Reference. Archived fromthe originalon 29 September 2015.Retrieved13 August2015.
- ^abcdeAsh, Julie (1 January 2004)."Softball: High-tech eye on Black Sox".The New Zealand Herald.Retrieved13 August2015.
- ^abcO’Connor, Paul (2009).Choosing the Right Path: Burnside High School 1960–2010.Christchurch: Silver Fox Publishing. p. 201.ISBN978-0-473-15685-5.
- ^"ISF X Men's World Championship".International Softball Federation.Archived fromthe originalon 25 February 2014.Retrieved13 August2015.
- ^"ISF XI Men's World Championship".International Softball Federation.Archived fromthe originalon 4 March 2016.Retrieved13 August2015.
- ^"Honours Board".Softball New Zealand.Retrieved13 August2015.
- ^"White Inducted into ISC and New Zealand Halls of Fame".GoDucks. 23 September 2009. Archived fromthe originalon 14 August 2015.Retrieved13 August2015.
External links
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- 1969 births
- Living people
- New Zealand schoolteachers
- Softball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
- Olympic softball players for New Zealand
- New Zealand softball players
- Sportspeople from Christchurch
- University of Otago alumni
- People educated at Burnside High School
- New Zealand sportspeople stubs
- Softball biography stubs