From Grand Lake, Halifax Co., Todd King is one of the most versatile softball players Nova Scotia has produced – having manned every position at the senior level except pitcher in his career – and establishing himself as a fierce competitor who forced opponents to game plan around his world-class contact hitting, speed and defensive skills.

He began playing softball at age five and got his first taste of success on the national level in 1987, when he was named an all-star at the Canadian Midget Boys Championship tournament.
It was with the formation of the Halifax Keith’s senior program in 1993 that King started to gain notice as an elite-level player.

He earned all-star honours at the national tournament that year, but it was the following season where he broke through on the national and international stage. Suiting up for the host Summerside 94s at the International Softball Congress tournament (considered the world championship for club-level teams) in Prince Edward Island, he led all hitters with a .500 average. The Keith’s came back from nationals in Saskatoon in 1994 with a silver medal, with King taking home qualifying round MVP and top hitter awards.

This success drew the attention of national team coach Terry Baytor, who brought King onto the Canadian roster the next year. King, used primarily at third base for Team Canada, didn’t have to wait long for success internationally, as Canada brought back a gold medal from the 1995 Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

In 1996, King joined the Tampa Bay Smokers program and won an ISC championship. Also that year, he was part of the Canadian entry that earned silver at the International Softball Federation championship in Midland, Michigan.

In 1997, King was among several Keith’s players who formed the Halifax Jaguars program, with the goal of building toward the first Canadian senior men’s championship tournament to be staged on Nova Scotia soil in more than a quarter-century the following year, at the newly renovated St. Croix Recreation Park in Hants County.

That season, King achieved success at a level few before, or since, have been able to duplicate. The Smokers went on to win a second ISC championship and, with a full house of about 3,000 spectators in attendance in St. Croix, the Jaguars became just the second Nova Scotia entry to win a Canadian senior title, edging the Keith’s 1-0 in the only all-Nova Scotia final in tournament history, with King receiving another all-star award.

King followed that up with more Pan American Games gold at the 1999 tournament in Winnipeg, as Canada defeated the United States in the final in front of 5,000 fans and a national television audience. With a professional career as a chartered accountant blossoming, King would wrap up his playing days with the national team after the 2000 ISF tournament in East London, South Africa, and at the club level with the Keith’s following the 2001 Canadian championship in Summerside.

Bio courtesy of Jody Jewers