Sporting a glove and bat, Chelle Stewart is ready to play softball. Already on three teams, one women’s rec league team and two tournament teams, Stewart also fills in when team rosters are short.
Stewart said the only thing that will keep her from playing is if her kids have something scheduled. Her daughter Austyn is 11 and her son Tyler is 8.
“(Softball) doesn’t leave me much free time on the weekends to do anything,” Stewart, 32, said. “But, if my kids have something to do, I do say I can’t play. Then we go and do their event, and if I have time, I’ll try to come back and play.”
Stewart has played softball ever since she could remember, saying that she was probably 5 for 6 when she started playing in both baseball and softball games. She wasn’t on a baseball team, but would play whenever teams needed an extra player.
“I love the sport. I’ve played it forever, my friends play and everything,” Stewart said. “I’ve made so many friends playing it. It’s just something we do.”
Stewart said she started playing in the adult leagues when her older brother Craig’s team needed extra players.
“I was 17 or 18 and they needed a girl and another guy, so they got me and my twin brother (Mike) to come over and play for them,” Stewart said. “Then other teams picked us up from there.”
Since then, she has been playing every summer. With the Iola women’s league team, it’s the same girls playing every Sunday.
“On the tournament teams, we can play on different teams,” Stewart said. “They’re on the weekends in different towns. Whenever a tournament comes up, we just throw a team together and play in those.”
Growing up in Moran, Stewart didn’t get to play high school softball because the school didn’t have a team. She was able to make the best of it.
“They have it now,” Stewart said. “We got it a couple years after I got out of high school. But, we were able to play summer league ball until I was 18.”
Stewart loves to play on as many summer league teams as she can. The recruitment process is pretty simple.
“People see you playing and ask you to play on their team” Stewart said. “It’s a like a whole, little family this co-ed softball world.”
Stewart said she plans to play for as long as she can.
“I might play until I’m in the nursing home,” Stewart joked. “We might start a nursing home team.”
Softball a summer tradition for Moran woman
