In Wisconsin, softball players are ‘making history’

The day’s drizzly weather had moved on as softball supporters from around the area arrived at Sunny Vale Softball Complex in Wausau, Wis., on June 13, eager to see a bit of history.

“It’s definitely a big talk of the town right now, which is great,” said Claire Coushman, an incoming senior at Wausau East High School and a member of the first Legion Softball team sponsored by the city’s Montgomery-Plant-Dudley American Legion Post 10.

This year is the first season for the Department of Wisconsin’s Legion Softball program. But the program has been in the works for awhile.

“Coming out of COVID, hearing all the (success) stories from North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, I thought it was maybe time we try (a Legion Softball program),” said Roger Mathison, the department’s state commissioner for Legion Baseball and Legion Softball.

We’ve had a lot of success with the baseball (program),” Department Commander Julie Muhle said. “There were a lot of people that were asking us, what are the next steps? So we decided that softball would be the logical next step to bring in the girls so they would have the opportunity to play ball as well.”

The inaugural season of Wisconsin Legion Softball includes 30 teams; department officials call it a successful start and have high hopes for the program’s growth.

“There’s a big demographic of girls that are getting kind of missed between travel ball and once they age out of the 14U programs,” said state program coordinator Jen Swenson. “I think this is going to be great for the girls who can’t do the time commitment of travel ball, or the financial commitment of it.”

The softball program also expands The American Legion’s presence and recognition in the community.

“I heard my friends and family talking about (Legion Softball) and my coach brought it up to me. I thought it would be a great opportunity,” said Mackenzie Herdt, an incoming freshman who plays for the Whittlesey Lions of Post 147.

“Americanism at its simplest form is love of America,” Muhle said. “Baseball embodies that, and softball is the next logical step to encompass more children into the Americanism program, and what we hope to do with Americanism is of course to teach our young people citizenship and rules and how to act as adults. Sports is a great way to do that, it’s rules-based, it helps them with discipline and it also helps them with their skills.”

The June 13 event in Wausau brought together six teams to celebrate the kickoff of the inaugural season.

“It’s one of those things that blew up into something bigger than we thought it would be,” said incoming Post 10 Commander Tony Nardi.

A member of Post 10’s Children & Youth Committee, Nardi volunteered to organize the kickoff celebration, which included the post’s color guard and comments from Muhle, Mathison and outgoing Post 10 Commander Bob Weller.

“This (program) gives them a chance to not be watching history, but making history on their own,” Weller said.

While other departments have created Legion Softball programs, Wisconsin officials acknowledged there are challenges that come with creating a program from scratch.

“We have an incredible softball committee who put countless hours into traveling to district conferences, monthly Zoom calls, reaching out to coaches and athletic directors across the state to get the word out further, and hours of behind the scenes work on the structure of the program,” Swenson said. “Derrick Standke, Josh Navis and Jim Wickert have been instrumental in getting this program off the ground.”

“The biggest challenge we faced was how much it would cost the department, how we could afford it. The other thing was getting the word out,” Mathison said. “Once we got that established, and found it wasn’t going to be that expensive to get a team organized — we got insurance coverage to mirror what we have with Legion Baseball, from the same company, and keep the registration fees very affordable.”

At the post level, Nardi emphasized the need to start planning right away when the drive to create a Legion Softball program arises.

“As soon as we heard about this last summer, we started planning. And our main goal was to give the girls the opportunity to play, so our post committed to fully funding the team for two years. We paid for everything,” Nardi said.

By taking on the costs — as well as setting up friendly schedules — it provides more opportunities to play for more girls, Nardi said.

“There’s a lot of travel softball and AAU softball that takes place in the summer. So what we decided to do with our program was make it a weekday program, where our players are going to play on weeknights, and still be able to compete with their travel teams on weekends, and we received a great response to that. We filled our roster in our first year, which was beyond our hopes,” Nardi said.

That turnout enabled Post 10 to essentially field two teams this summer — one for the older players, and a “futures” team for younger players to develop.

“We don’t want to be a one-time shot,” Weller said.

“This being the first year, I’m just really honored to be a part of it, because in how many years is it just going to grow and get bigger and bigger and represent softball, it’s going to be great to see how it’s going to impact youth in sports in our community and communities throughout Wisconsin,” Coushman said.

Officials said the program has drawn support from high school coaches, who can see their players get extra time playing together during the Legion season.

“One of the advantages of having a Legion program, instead of having kids splinter off in different travel teams, they can stay together as a team after they’ve been through the high school season and grow, create more teamwork, more sportsmanship, build character, get the strong work ethic going into the next season,” Mathison said.

“We’re just looking forward to getting this going,” Muhle said. “We have great support from our Legion posts in the area, they’re out here helping. … I think it’s going to be an opportunity to grow for the posts and the community.”

The inaugural Wisconsin Legion Softball season will culminate with regionals July 21-23 and state finals July 28-30 in DeForest, Wis.