Linda Wood

7-474

Linda began in journalism in the early 1990s as a secondary school’s sports correspondent for The Evening Post, the capital city’s afternoon daily. Linda impressed with her enthusiasm and commitment to her craft to earn a staff sport’s writer’s position.

Linda enthusiastically embraced softball as one of her key rounds, developing a deep affinity for both men’s and women’s softball. Over several years, she built a considerable knowledge, made a broad range of softball contacts throughout New Zealand and was a familiar face around the diamonds where her cheerful grin and quick quips made her many friends.

Linda was respected in the sports journalism industry and won the NZ Softball Writer of the Year award in 1996.

For many years, she covered college sport for the Wellington newspapers, a task she undertook with her trademark diligence and dedication. It could be a challenging role, with schools vying keenly for coverage of their students’ success, but Linda showed a knack for highlighting the most notable achievements with sensitivity and knowledge.

Linda’s love of softball manifested in a staff job with Softball New Zealand as Office Manager from 2006 to 2013.
She never lost her high regard for our sport, often messaging softball friends about the game’s latest developments right up to, and beyond, the recent men’s World Cup in Auckland.

In fact, Linda’s tenacity for journalism and her love of softball was never better illustrated than her appearance at the 2004 World Series in Christchurch. Sensing the Black Sox were on the verge of an historic threepeat, Linda managed to get a gig as the “Kiwi Correspondent” for a local newspaper based out of Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, Canada. When a Canadian player was evicted for fighting in a game, it turned out he was in fact a policeman from Moose Jaw, and Linda was right there on-hand to get the international scoop.

Throughout he career in Journalism and her passion for softball, one thing remained constant in her life – her incredible love and pride of her son Jesse’s achievements.