Championship game all in good fun at softball league

Championship games, no matter what sport, are played with an intensity, purpose and drive that is unmatched throughout the respective sport’s regular season. 

The clichés are rampant: There is no tomorrow. It is win or go home. Every play counts.

But last Sunday, in A League of Our Own’s (LOOO) senior league World Series, that atmosphere and that mentality were non-existent. Not because the players did not care, but because the league is about much more than just winning. It is a girls’ softball league that prides itself on building friendships, teaching the game and having fun. 

“I think there’s two things that are important,” said Nina Bruder, LOOO’s commissioner. “One is for the girls to have a place for them to feel their athletic power and feel very supported and encouraged in their athleticism. The other piece of it, especially in the junior league, is the instructive nature of the league. The idea really is for kids to have fun and to learn.” 

The nature of the league lends itself to an enjoyable time for the girls, who get to build strong bonds with their teammates, many of whom are their same age. Like the Kosher Little League in Riverdale, LOOO was created for Orthodox and Conservative Jewish families that observe the Sabbath and therefore cannot play on Saturdays. 

Named after the 1992 film “A League of Their Own,” LOOO is split into two leagues. The junior league is made up of third- through fifth-grader students, while the senior league consists of sixth through eighth graders. 

Most girls already know each other from the Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy, which is how Paris Stulbach, mother of three daughters who play in LOOO, heard about the league. 

“It’s common knowledge in the community,” she said. “We live in Manhattan, but it’s common knowledge in the school community that if your daughter is over second grade, this is a great option for her.”

LOOO has been a terrific option for Ms. Stulbach’s daughters, so much so that she joked that she often fears they are just using the league as a hangout.