WOW! 35 years of the GALS!! Amazing!
Please enjoy the following story on how it all began…… from Charlene, aka The Queen! (make sure to watch the video below for some great playoff moments!)
Softball has always been part of my life for as long as I can remember, playing in grade school, playing in high school and living in five cities through my married life and continuing to play in each one. I was always involved, either forming a team to enter a league or joining an existing team. Many times I found myself on the executive of various leagues.
Moving to Kirkland, Quebec in 1981 and leaving fastball behind, I decided to get involved with a local league there, kids were small and my husband was away most of the year. It was a slo-pitch league, new to me but at least I could be involved in softball the sport I loved.
The league consisted of 8 teams and the majority if not all of the players were from Kirkland. There was a strong feeling of community in the league, it was a great area to be involved in, and lots of community events planned throughout the year very similar to what Glen Abbey was in the early days.
We moved in August 1984 to Oakville and decided to settle in Glen Abbey. In 1985 I took a year off to see if I wanted to get involved with fastball again or just hang up my glove.
It was in that year the local newspaper Abbey’s Own decided to host a pickup game every Wednesday down in the valley beside Abbey Lane School, no diamond just out to have some fun. The majority of players who came out were women, a few teenage boys and very few men. It was through this pickup game that the idea came up, why not have a League of Our Own.
With a bit of knowledge on how to get this started I enlisted the help of 4 other women who were regulars to the Wednesday games. Sue Robertson, Eleanor Goodman, Shirley King and Bonnie Aalbers. Bonnie had been involved in the start up with the Wednesday pickup games and had maintained a list of the players who came on a regular basis.
I spoke with Lars Melander the owner of Abbey’s Own to see if he would help financially and cover costs for advertising and get the word out through the paper, he was glad to help and even offered his assistance as a coach.
In January 1986 we got busy, Sue, Shirley and Eleanor went to the only plaza in existence at the time and managed to get sponsors, OK Smoke & Gift, Petals & Greens, and White Oaks Realty, we already had Abbey’s Own on board, Bonnie provided the list of names in order to contact those who had come out in 1985.
Many hours spent around Sue’s kitchen table sorting out details, rules, signing up players, getting set up with a bank account. I was in charge of dealing with the Town, establishing somewhere to get ball shirts, equipment, etc. and because of my involvement in the past with executive knowledge, the duties of the president. Each of us had our own tasks to take care of and I definitely could not have done this without their help.
Days before we were to start our season we signed up our last player, we needed 56 women, 4 teams of 14 members each. Yes we started with 14, 11 on the field, a Left Rover and a Right Rover, that was the way it was set up in Quebec, eventually we adopted the Ontario style.
I had really hoped to bring that sense of community into this league. When the season started because so many of the women were new to the area, a few had some ball experience but many did not, we would hold a once a week Friday morning practice at Nottinghill Gate Ball Field. It was more centrally located, and there was a nice park for the kids to play. The women who came out got to know one another, we were all so new to the Glen Abbey community.
Those first 56 women, those 4 women who stepped up to help me start this, those sponsors who decided to take a chance on something they weren’t sure would be successful and a newspaper who covered us so much in those early years, it was the birth of the league and also the sense of community I had hoped to develop and why 35 years later we are still going strong.
It was an incredibly successful league back in those early years, to the point that within 2 years the waiting list was so long we had to do something to help with the demand, so we expanded to 6 teams in 1988 and eventually 8 teams.
Over the past 35 years so many wonderful women have come forth to keep the dream alive, we would not have been so successful had it not been for those women who have served on the executive or captained a team through these many seasons.
I must also give credit to the men who have been involved, they have coached and in the early days they were our umps and they make up a good majority of the fans cheering, they have been there supporting us through it all.
I think we have learned that after not being able to have a season in 2020 which would officially have been our 35 year celebration, the love for this league is strong and Covid has not got us down.
Even as some retire, and that will affect everyone at some point, those who have been part of this league maintain contact, there is genuine love and support from past and present players. Where else would you have a bunch of fans cheering all the plays that happen on the field not only the ones that your team make but all the others as well.
So Happy 35th Anniversary Gals, we are a sisterhood, we are a family, we are a League Of Our Own.
Much Love To All
Charlene MacKenzie your humble Queen.
Here is a video showing some great moments from our playoff weekend! Watch til the end for a special musical performance!!
Special Thank You to Marta T for spending the day taking pictures!! GREAT JOB Marta!!