
By Patrick Lujan
She’s the leader of the ‘little sister’ team, but boy, did she show up the big sisters.
Madi ‘Bubba’ Nickles is the most senior player of the USA Junior Women’s National Team and what she did against the world’s best softball teams in the World Cup of Softball XII in Oklahoma City this past week was absolutely remarkable.
Against the best in the world, Bubba did the following in the six games she played against USA, Canada, Australia, Philippines and Puerto Rico twice:
.550 batting average (led the tournament)
1.050 slugging (led the tournament)
1.621 OPS (led the tournament)
2 home runs (tied for most in the tournament)
10 RBI (led the tournament)
Asked if she expected to have quite the performance, Bubba told GSPN, “No I didn’t.”
“In all honesty, I was hitting one-on-one with (UCLA coach and softball legend) Lisa Fernandez for about three hours. Everything she taught me in those three hours was on my mind the whole tournament. I was literally paying attention to pitcher’s tendencies and what pitches they’d throw in certain pitch counts and in the end, it helped out studying the opposing pitchers.”
Talk about dialed in!
“Every time I go up to bat, I just have this mentality that they don’t look at me as a little sister. I know my team is just as good as any of those teams in the tournament and we deserve the respect.”
At 19-years-old, Bubba is the only player on the Junior team with international experience…all others are first timers.
As the team leader, her focus was building team confidence.
“We all deserve to be on that field and compete against the best teams. At the end of the day, we did earn their respect from the different teams.”
The Junior team would take 5th place out of the eight teams, which included the top four teams in the world (Japan, USA, Canada, Australia).
The top-ranked team from Japan won its second straight World Cup title with a 2-1 win over #2 USA.
SHORTSTOP
“I’ve always been a middle infielder the past two years (with the Junior Nationals), they seem to be more confident putting me at shortstop. Where ever they put me, I’m just gonna give it my all. I’m getting used to it again because I haven’t played shortstop in a year.”
NEXT UP
After this awesome performance, Bubba and her team will head to Clearwater, Florida for the Junior World Championships (19-below) from July 24-30 where they are considered favorites to win the gold.
All the while, Nickles appreciates the support she gets from Guam. “I love all the support from my homeland from so far away.”


GPS Sports Calendar
March 2023
- SU
- MO
- TU
- WE
- TH
- FR
- SA
Events for February
28th
Events for March
2nd
ISA TRACK & FIELD MEET
IIAAG TENNIS LEAGUE
IIAAG BEACH VOLLEYBALL FINALS
Events for March
3rd
ISA TRACK & FIELD MEET
ISA GIRLS SOCCER FINALS
IIAAG BOYS BASKETBALL FINALS
ISA BOYS BASKETBALL FINALS
Events for March
4th
35th RAINBOWS FOR ALL CHILDREN 3.5 MILER
ISA BASEBALL LEAGUE FINALS
Events for March
5th
MONSTER ENERGY MOTOCROSS ROUND 3
Events for March
5th
Events for March
6th
Events for March
7th
Events for March
9th
Events for March
11th
GSPN PRESEASON BOYS VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT DAY 1
Bank of Guam Block Party 5K
Events for March
12th
Events for March
13th
Events for March
14th
Events for March
15th
Events for March
17th
World Athletics Indoor Championships
IIAAG BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Events for March
18th
PAY-LESS KICK THE FAT 5K/10K
World Athletics Indoor Championships
Events for March
19th
Events for March
21st
Events for March
24th
IIAAG BOYS VOLLEYBALL
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Events for March
25th
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
IIAAG BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Events for March
26th
MONSTER ENERGY MOTOCROSS ROUND 4
Events for March
28th
ISA GIRLS SOFTBALL
IIAAG BOYS VOLLEYBALL
ISA BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Events for March
28th
Events for March
30th
ISA GIRLS SOFTBALL
IIAAG GIRLS SOCCER
ISA BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Events for March
31st
IIAAG BOYS VOLLEYBALL
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Volleyball
VOLLEYBALL KICKS OFF BUSY 4TH QUARTER SPORTS

Volleyball
VOLLEYBALL KICKS OFF BUSY 4TH QUARTER SPORTS
COMING SOON …
- 4th Quarter Sports
QUICK HITS
Guam MTB National Championship: Edward Oingerang and Jennifer Camacho are your 2023 MTB national champions. Oingerang finished the course in 1:13:24 while Camacho won her second straight title in 54:08.
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Kobe Miyashita, with St. John’s coach Arvin Flores, was named the 2023 IIAAG Middle School Boys Volleyball MVP!