“It started with two dads whose daughters said they were going to move into slo-pitch (from fastball),” Randy Hrechka said. “We said ‘just wait.’”
Earlier this spring, Hrechka, along with Karl Smith, approached the Sudbury Minor Girls Softball Association (SMGSA) with a proposition of adding a women’s league into the mix.
“(Before), the league went up to midget, or 19 (years),” he explained. “My daughter, Danielle, is 19. She wanted to move over to slo-pitch because there was no ladies’ division.”
Danielle said she has been playing fastball for as long as she can remember. However, she was ready to head to the slo-pitch diamonds because the level of competition was not up to par with what she was used to.
“(Other players) don’t take it as seriously as I used to when I played in Winnipeg,” she said. “Yeah, it’s for fun, but I take it seriously at the same time.
“After a while, I figured ‘why don’t I go over to a league where I could have some fun with my friends as well?’”
She said the majority of the girls she had played with in the past had all taken the slo-pitch route. But she decided to give her dad’s efforts a chance.
“I’m hoping more girls get into it and eventually get Sudbury (teams) taken seriously,” she said.
Hrechka said he wasn’t willing to accept that the girls could no longer play the sport they loved, simply because they were too old for the existing league. He and Smith went to work on establishing the league, sending out numerous e-mails and trying to put a bug in the community’s ear.
The results?
“We have two teams — 13 girls on the Sudbury team and 12 on the Parry Island team,” Hrechka said.
While it’s not quite large enough to call it a league yet, he said it’s a starting point.
The Parry Island team makes the hour and a half trek to Sudbury each week. To add some more depth to the league, games have also been organized in North Bay. The ladies also play against three of the local midget teams.
“There’s a need for it and a lot of women who want to play,” Hrechka said. “We just need to get the word out.”
Even though the season is already underway, Hrechka said they are still accepting more players. “We won’t turn anybody down. If we have to throw in another team, we will.”
The league runs Monday, Tuesday and Thursday each week, with games set for 6:30 and 8:30 p.m.
“This is the only true all girls league,” John Honse, SMGSA president, said. “We knew of a lot of girls out there who wanted to play, so we said let’s see what synergies we could have.”
Hrechka is optimistic about the potential of this new league.
“We see the ladies league growing,” he said. “We see the women taking over the league eventually.”
Ladies fastball was a part of the Sudbury sports landscape back in the 1960s, with teams competing from Skead, Falconbridge and Sudbury, among others, according to Judy Dunn, who started playing in the league in 1962.
In 1970, the league folded, which Dunn attributed to a lack of interest, due to issues such as family commitments and sponsorships.
“When the league folded in Sudbury, the team which I played for and coached, stayed together and travelled and played in the Espanola league,” Dunn said. “We also continued to participate in the PWSA All-Ontario Playdowns. In 1974, we won the All-Ontario Intermediate championship.”
In 1975, Dunn formed a new league in Sudbury, with seven teams participating from the area. The Sudbury and District Ladies Fastball League thrived until 1994.
In the 1980s, slo-pitch was gaining in popularity in the area, with numerous opportunities for tournament play. The league would not allow women to play both slo-pitch and fastball, and Dunn explained many women chose the former route because of the tournaments.
“Even today there are many good fastball players still playing in the slo- pitch league,” Dunn said. “I personally believe if they were allowed to play in both, fastball would have continued longer.”
For more information about getting involved in the women’s fastball league, contact Randy Hrecka at rhrechka@persona.ca
