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Softball great, Claudette Busch passes

SportsSoftball great, Claudette Busch passes

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Oct. 2, 2018– As softball fans prepared for the Annual Charles Solis Invitational Tournament this past weekend at Rogers Stadium, news was received of the passing on Friday of softball great, Claudette Busch in Los Angeles, California, USA. Chief umpire at the Charles Solis Tournament on Sunday, Leslie Rogers, who shared a son with Claudette, informed us of her passing.

Claudette, who attended All Saints’ Primary and Belize Junior Secondary School No. 1 (later named E.P. Yorke High School) before going on to the Belize Technical College, spent most of her adult years in Belize as an employee at Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), while enjoying an outstanding career in ladies softball, representing Belize in every international tournament between 1978 and 1987, when she migrated to the U.S.

Starting her senior female softball career in the mid 1970’s with Milport under manager Charles Solis, Claudette later played with Toucan Match Strikers and other teams, where she distinguished herself as the premier catcher in Belize softball, a position she always held on Belize selections in international tournaments – the Central American Games, the Central American & Caribbean Games, and the Pan-American Games – winning several bronze and silver medals along the way. A skilled all-around athlete, Claudette not only won titles for batting average, home runs and stolen bases during her softball career in Belize, but also had a stint in 5-a-side football at Birds Isle.

Claudette first joined the Belize national team in 1978, when Hall of Famer Patricia “Pat” Bennett of our 1974 “Golden Girls” was near the twilight of a sterling career. That 1978 team traveled to Medellin, Colombia for the Pan-American Games, but failed to medal. This morning, Pat, along with Leslie Rogers, shared with us some of the highlights of Claudette’s softball journey.

According to Pat, Claudette was a member of the U-21 National Female Softball Team that won the Gold Medal in a Juvenile Central American & Caribbean Tournament in Mexico under manager Raymond Lashley; that was in 1979. And immediately after winning that tournament, before returning home, the team travelled on to Puerto Rico for the Pan-American Games, where the young Belize team defeated USA, 2-1, behind the pitching of Margaret Usher; and Claudette Busch was her able battery-mate. Recalls Pat, “It was the first loss ever for the U.S., then considered the best team in the world; and it was a real shock for them to be beaten by this ‘Cinderella team,’ as they referred to Belize. The USA still won that tournament; Belize got the bronze; but until today, the US have never forgotten that historic defeat at the hands of Belize.”

Claudette was pre-deceased in 2005 by her son, Leslie Rogers, Jr., whose father, football star Leslie Rogers of 1978 Charger fame, had turned his attention to softball, like another retired football star, Charles “Baabu” Humes (deceased) of 1960s Landivar, pictured above with the 1978 national softball team. She is survived by another son, Dereck Busch, who resides in L.A.

Claudette’s funeral will be at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, October 5, at the Inglewood Mortuary in Los Angeles, California. Our sincere condolences to all her relatives and friends. And on behalf of our Charger teammate, Rest In Peace, beloved sister and softball great, Claudette Busch.

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