League rounds the bases, turns heads

A new kickball league catches fire in Youngstown.

By ANGIE SCHMITT

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Every Wednesday this spring, like clockwork at 6 p.m., a little schoolyard nostalgia and a kickball game have drawn close to 100 people to the normally quiet fields of Pemberton Park.

There’s a team from Austintown. There’s a team from the law firm of Manchester Bennett Powers & Ullman. Another team works at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Combined, they’re the first members of the Kickball League of Ohio.

Begun this spring by Baltimore native Jim Figlozzi and Youngstown resident Michelle Pascale, almost 100 men and women from across the Valley have taken a turn with the league this season. The sport, combining aspects of baseball and kickball, has been so warmly received, they plan to continue matches during a fall session, said Pascale.

“I have never seen people so excited about playing a sport,” said Pascale, 38, who also plays soccer, softball and golf. “When I go to play softball or soccer, it’s almost like a job. You don’t see them laughing and carrying on.”

Figlozzi calls kickball a “social sport.” Its rules are much like baseball, but batters take aim at a soft, rubber, soccer-size ball rolled at their feet before rounding the bases.

“It's popular because unlike other sports, kickball requires no athletic talent,” said Figlozzi. “This opens it up to everyone and expands the social aspect of the game.”

League beginnings

Nobody knows about kickball’s appeal better than Figlozzi. In 2001, long before anyone had conceived of the Kickball League of Ohio, Figlozzi began the Kickball League of Baltimore with four teams and 60 players. Now, the league has mushroomed to include 172 teams, with a minimum of 14 players each.

Pascale came across the Baltimore league’s Web site this winter on the social networking site Myspace.com. An avid athlete, Pascale thought Youngstown was fertile ground for a league of its own. She contacted Figlozzi and the Kickball League of Ohio was born.

As in Baltimore, Youngstown players contribute $45 each to cover organizational costs, referees’ fees and the cost of printing team T-shirts. Their first match was May 2. The first teams to kick off were “Permanent Solution” and “Defend Youngstown.”

Getting involved

Manchester Bennett Powers & Ullman employee Mike Rigelski, 27, persuaded his co-workers to get involved when he saw a flier advertising the league in a local restaurant.

“It was met with a lot of skepticism at first — they just thought it was a joke,” he said.

Rigelski took part in a kickball league in Washington D.C. where he attended undergraduate school and law school. He said he debated returning to the Valley, for fear there wouldn’t be social activities for young professionals.

“We’re trying to grow young people,” he said. “It’s a great way to get to find other people who are professionals.”

Rigelski’s co-workers are appreciative of the low skill-level required by the sport, he said. His teammates range in age from 24 to 50, he said.

“It’s the great equalizer,” he said. “You don’t have to have skills to play it.”

Fostering interest

Back in April, it wasn’t clear that Youngstown was embracing the gym class throwback. One unseasonably snowy sign-up session in April at BW-3 enticed no registrations. Figlozzi had driven to Ohio to help with the session. He had fronted Pascale the money to post fliers and take out advertisements spreading the word about the league.

The second sign-up event went better. Enough people registered to organize seven teams. Pascale thinks that’s only the beginning.

“When you start something new, you have a lot of people who are sort of on the fence,” she said. “I think that, in the fall, because people are playing and talking about it, it will really take off.”

Will Youngstown be the new Baltimore? “The most important thing is to make it fun for the players and then word of mouth kicks in,” Figlozzi said.

That’s why every team receives a $100 bar tab with registration. That’s why every team gets to take part in the playoffs at the season’s end, he said.

“We are a customer service oriented league and really try to hear what the players want,” he said. “It was started for fun, and each season more and more people played.”

To register, visit kickballohio.com.