From Palmerston North to the World Stage - Steven Deans

This week the club welcomed Steven Deans, head coach of the New Zealand Under 23 Men's Softball Team, who took members on a journey from local diamonds to armed escorts in Colombia, and shared his passion for keeping young people in sport.

Steven is a local through and through. He grew up in Palmerston North playing softball and rugby in the winter and cricket in the summer, like so many of his generation. When his playing days wound down, he looked at how he could stay involved. Umpiring did not appeal and administration held no attraction, so he chose what he cheerfully called the easier option: coaching. His first appointment was with the Manawatu Under 15s, and he has been learning ever since. Away from the diamond, Steven bought his business around 15 years ago from Steve Lange, a very successful local businessman, and carried on the customer service focused approach that had made it thrive. As a business owner as well as a coach, he sees little difference between the two worlds. Both are about motivating people and creating an environment where they want to be the best version of themselves. Get that secret sauce right, he told us, and you are probably onto a winner.

To test himself at the highest level, Steven shifted to Hutt Valley, where he played senior softball alongside some of the best in the game. He was honest about his own playing ceiling. He was never quite good enough to be a Black Sox, but he learned an enormous amount from the world class players around him, among them the legendary Mark Sorenson, regarded in his day as the best player in the world, and those lessons carried into his coaching.

While coaching Hutt Valley he took on a couple of Danish players, and that connection led to an unexpected chapter: he interviewed for and won the head coaching role with Denmark, moving overseas to lead them through two international series, mainly against China. In 2017 he was appointed coach of the New Zealand Under 23 men, a role he has held ever since. The team's first World Cup was in Argentina in 2021, and just three months ago they competed at the latest edition in Colombia.

Not knowing quite what to expect in Colombia, the team based its preparation in the more familiar surrounds of Houston, Texas, where locals helped with training and warm up games in 35 degree heat. Along the way the squad visited schools to share New Zealand culture. The haka, the singing and the dancing all went down a treat, although Steven noted with a laugh that what the students really wanted to talk about was The Lord of the Rings.

Colombia itself made a deep impression. The team had armed guards around the clock, police escorts of six or seven officers whenever they went out, and further layers of security at the venues. Yet Steven said he never once felt unsafe, and the Colombian passion for sport was extraordinary, with crowds of up to 10,000 turning out for night games.

On the field, the young Black Sox did New Zealand proud. They qualified for the medal rounds, beat Mexico during the tournament, then lost the bronze medal game to the same side by a single run. They also fell to eventual champions Japan by just one run, finishing fourth overall behind Japan, Australia and Mexico. Around half the touring party had parents or family in the stands, a reminder of how much these campaigns mean to softball households.

A sobering thread ran through the talk: money. Every national campaign costs each young athlete around $10,000 to $12,000, and a full team trip can be a $200,000 fundraising exercise. Families with several children in the sport feel it hardest, and Steven confirmed that finances have forced players out of teams. Ahead of one World Cup, three players withdrew simply because they could not afford to go.

High performance funding is tied tightly to results. When the Black Sox, proud seven time world champions, finished eighth at the 2022 World Cup in Auckland, their Sport NZ funding was cut. A silver medal in Canada last year, a campaign Steven was part of, restored both confidence and support. Even so, around $300,000 across a four year cycle does not stretch far. The next journey begins with qualifiers in Christchurch next year.

Steven also touched on the pathways question. Young women now have real opportunities through softball scholarships at American colleges, gaining an education and life experience along the way. The men have no equivalent, beyond a short professional league in the United States where the top players, including three New Zealanders, can earn around $30,000 over two months.

For all the World Cups and medal games, what animates Steven most is participation. Sport, he argued, teaches resilience, and he worries that young people who are not involved in team sport miss out on that. With participation numbers falling across many codes, his message was simple: it matters less which sport young people choose than that they get out and play something. His job, as he sees it, is to remove every possible barrier standing between a young person and the game.

A lively question and answer session followed, and members thanked Steven warmly for a generous and eye opening insight into life at the top of amateur sport.