The memories are fond, and tucked away with Kimberly Kain. They are of softball, and the sports’ heyday about 10 years ago, when it thrived for women on Kaua’i. “We had many adult leagues back then,” Kain said. “I guess
The memories are fond, and tucked away with Kimberly Kain.
They are of softball, and the sports’ heyday about 10 years ago, when it thrived for women on Kaua’i.
“We had many adult leagues back then,” Kain said. “I guess it started in the mid-1970’s. I remember that some of our games were aired on the radio and everything.”
Recently, some of the women involved in those leagues have suggested to Kain that a reunion be held to celebrate a time that was.
“So, I thought it’d be a good idea,” Kain said. “I just said ‘What the heck, let’s have a reunion.'”
And so they will.
All participants in the women’s softball leagues of the past are invited to a pot-luck reunion April 22 at the Wailua Houselots Park beginning at 1 p.m.
“We’re asking anybody and everybody who was involved beginning in the 70’s and lasting the next 10 to 15 years to show up. We’re talking anybody, players, spectators and umpires.
“And we’re really calling Fig Mitchell to come out.”
Kain credited Mitchell, a former sports editor of The Garden Island, with “perhaps even starting the leagues back then.”
She said he was at the heart of the leagues’ organizational efforts, broadcast the games on the radio and even did some umpiring.
“He was the man among us,” Kain said.
While the leagues were designed to provide an entertaining outlet for the women involved, Kain said that competition was heated.
“I don’t remember there being any fights or anything,” she said. “But we were very serious about it.
“My team was from Kapa’a and I remember one year we ended up going to a state tournament in Maui and winning the thing.
“The county council celebrated us.”
Kain said that teams from Kekaha to Hanalei, and many points in between, were involved in play, and that perhaps “50 to 75 people would come out and watch every game.”
Kain expressed her disappointment that softball leagues are not flourishing on the island as they once did.
She chalks some of the waning interest on the influx of other sports, particularly soccer.
“Soccer may have played a part in the decline,” Kain said. “But it’s true that it’s not quite as popular as it once was. Once in awhile I’ll hear about a league, but we just had them all the time back when I was playing.”
At the reunion, Kain said she’ll don her cleats once again, and encourage others to do the same.
“Yeah, we’re going to play some softball,” she said. “Those of us who still can, that is.”
