Three members of the Missouri S&T softball program spent the summer touring Austria as part of a USA Athletes International softball squad.

Head coach Don Kennedy, infielder Becky Davis, a junior in applied mathematics, and catcher Kassi Deibert, a sophomore in business and management systems, took part in the five-game tour of Austria as part of a national team that had several players with ties to the Midwest. That team was coached by Saint Louis University head coach John Conway and included two players from his own squad, Northwestern University pitcher Lauren Delaney and University of Missouri- St. Louis catcher Casey Dierkes.

“This was a great cultural experience for everyone involved,” Kennedy says. “Not only did we get a chance to see how softball is in another part of the world, but we got to experience how the people live there as well.” The U.S. team won all five of the games it played in Austria, including a win in a game against the country’s national team. In addition, the travel party got to see a number of sights in both Austria and the Czech Republic, including the home of Mozart, a World War II prison camp, and the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague that took more than 600 years to build.

“I can remember Becky saying one time that we should have our own architectural engineers come over and see what this is like,” Kennedy says. “This is the sort of trip I would recommend to any student-athlete who has the chance to do it.”