- Two young ballplayers are part of the team that competes for the medals at the National Youth Games in Cali.
Cali, November 15, 2024. In the capital of Valle del Cauca, winter has declared a truce and without full sun, the mornings are somewhat shaded and in the afternoons the breeze from the Farallones cools and brings the jackets out of retirement.
With this weather and in the preamble to the start of the women’s softball tournament, the Bogotá Team players recognized the Jaime Aparicio Sports Unit stadium and carried out a brief warm-up day, with a view to their debut this Friday against Sucre.
Among the twenty players, two of the smallest and youngest players were called aside by coach Wilmer Bustillo; They, youngsters, barely teenagers, forge their first weapons in this contest because “From an early age, a reserve has been working with 9 nine girls from the city; In the future we want to have a large percentage of local athletes.”
Naisla Daniela: they discovered her at school
There are few educational centers in the country’s capital that have softball as an option in their sports training and perhaps because of that and the lack of venues, the little local contribution is perceived in the novenas of this discipline.
But the case of Naisla Daniela Chacón Ávila was not like that, since one of her physical education teachers (a “Cinderella” subject for many) was her mentor and tutor in the fundamentals and first steps and who recommended her to the Bogotana League where It arrived about a year ago.
At 13 years old, she is one of the youngest athletes in the competition, she finished seventh grade at the IED Rodolfo Llinás, located in the Bolivia neighborhood, in the northwest of the city, and she lives very close to there with her family and pet. .
He acts as an outfielder or shortstop, he feels that his process is progressing by learning quickly and his pride in representing the city at the national level is evident. In her teens, she likes to train, dance (by herself, she clarifies) and listen to music of all genres and now she is getting ready for the great challenge of getting on the medalists’ podium.
Camila: “I don’t like popular reggaeton”
What a surprise such a statement, coming from a 14-year-old teenager, but from one that reveals her origin, with a mother from Cartagena and a father from Bogotá (already installed in the stands of the Simón Carbonell stadium), because she likes to listen to salsa, vallenato and champeta… And take his pet, a canine named Mia, for a walk.
From such a family based in the traditional sector of Los Andes, with a baseball-playing brother, Camila found her path accompanying the baseball training sessions of the Ecopetrol club, on 100th Street with Suba Avenue and hence her rubber for gloves, bats and helmets.
María Camila Vivas Avendaño is in eighth grade at the New England School and arrives at the Bogotá process in a transition from the largest diamond to join the district team since “teacher Wilmer has given me the opportunity and I adapted very quickly” already in his second base role with pitcher notions.
“I am very happy to have been chosen and wear the colors of my city” says this 14-year-old athlete, very talkative and expressive, with a scarf and dark glasses, while she glances askance at her teammates training and with “butterflies in the stomach” before debut.
Women’s softball Team Bogotá in Cali
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