Los Al Girls Softball League begins it 49th season this weekend so I thought I’d trot out this article which was originally published in Local Sports in March 2002 (when the headline read “39 years ago”. I’m in the process of up-dating it and as soon as I collect additional photos, etc. I’ll post more information. If you have any old photos or information please feel free to contact us.
While youth baseball has gotten much of the publicity when it comes to on-the diamond accomplishments, the achievements of the local girls softball leagues leave nothing to be ashamed of.
From its inception thirty-nine years ago, the local softball teams have been a force in Southern California softball which is unquestioned as the most competitive area in the country.
Although some local girls had traveled to Buena Park and Anaheim to play for teams located there, the first local Organized youth softball league began in 1964 when area parents formed the Los-Moor Softball league, a unit which was affiliated with Bobby Sox Softball which had only recently been formed in Buena Park for girls up to fifteen years of age.
By its second year over 200 local girls ages 9-15 were participating in the league, which played its games every night at 6pm at Rossmoor School and on Saturdays at 12 and 2. Eight teams competed for the Major title and another eight played in the minors.
It wasn’t long before the league had moved its main operations to the empty fields at what is now Rossmoor Park, but what was then called Wilson Park – from the name of the proposed school which was once intended to occupy that site.
Not only was the regular season competition keen, the postseason squads were even stronger as the Los-Moor all-star team quickly came to be a bitter rival of the previously unchallenged Buena Park contingent.
With a strong core of athletes anchored by pitcher Mindy Allen, (who would become one of the top pitchers in the nation and one of the first signed by a women’s pro softball league which was formed in 1976), the local team finished fourth in the state championships in in 1965, and second in 1966.
In 1967 the team again progressed to the championship game against Buena Park. On that August Saturday, Tammi Leviton opened a fortune cookie which said “You will have a wonderful Saturday.” The cookie was clairvoyant as the Los-Moor girls came out of the losers bracket to defeat Buena Park and win the state title in 1967. Tammi is now a counselor at Los Al High, and mother of two LAGSL alums, Traci and Erica, and her
husband, Bart Lundblad, was a two-term President of the league)
Besides Allen, other members of that team included Susan Best, Cathy Chantler, Shelly Deaton, Jo Baird, Katherine Eriser, Tammi Leviton, Paula Matthias, Pat Neprud, Robin Kahn, Virginia Vena, Lisa Pantier, Shawn Burke, and Laura Rice.
Per Bobby Sox rules the manager of the team had to be a woman and that year’s head honcho was Mary Betty Eriser.
Controversy (yes, even then) reared its head in 1968 when the locals felt the Buena Park-based Bobby Sox group fudged the brackets to put all the top teams in one bracket and Los-Moor was eliminated in early round play.
The following winter, that action and two other, probably more important factors (the National Bobby-Sox organization wanted to change the Los-Moor league boundaries; and the Bobby Sox rule prohibiting girls older
than 15 from playing) induced the Los-Moor Board to end its ties with Bobby Sox and instead to affiliate with the American Girls Sports Association.
The Board also voted to give itself a new name — the Los Alamitos Girls Softball league.
Under the new setup, which resembled Little League, girls in fourth, fifth and sixth grade played in minor leagues, and there was a major league for seventh through ninth grade (which at that time coincided with the junior high grades).
Major all-star teams regularly reached the AGSA section and district level competitions, usually held at McFadden Park in Westminster, and the new senior girls squad, called the Express, continued its pursuit of excellence.
In their very first season in the Inter-Communty Travelball League, the Express won the championship, posting a record of 14-1, against teams from Downey, to West Covina. The win advanced them to the Southern California Regional Tournament where they lost only to the seven-time national champion Orange Lionettes.
With school attendance in the area leveling off, the “Wilson School” site was deemed unnecessary by the Los Alamitos Elementary School District, so in 1977 the residents of the unincorporated community of
Rossmoor purchased the land from the district and the country appropriated $360,412 to officially construct and landscape the park into its present configuration.
The Rossmoor Park fields quickly became among the best in Southern California and the caliber of softball remained high.
Some of the top softball players in the area would grace the newly landscaped Rossmoor Fields, among them Carrie Dolan who would go on to pitch the University of Arizona to a national championship in 1996 (winning 35 games and earning her second straight All-America berth). Carrie currently teaches pitching to many of the local youths.
Others who earned local recognition who went on to play college softball included for their on-the-field efforts were current LAHS coach Renee Bergeron (New Mexico), Michelle Schneider (Stanford), Amanda Peterson (Northwestern), and Kristin Farber and Phelan Wright.(Arizona State).
By the 1990s LAGSL teams were playing a full-fledged ASA sanctioned schedule.
As the quality of play continued to improve, so did the number of girls who left to play gold-level travelball.
But enough girls remained “at the park” to keep Los Al teams competitive.
Adrenalin, a 16-&-under team made up of locals won the Western National championships in 1998, but the following year had to be the highwater mark when four teams in the 10 & Under, 12 & Under, 14 & Under and 16 & Under divisions all qualified for their respective Western national championships. (ASA does not sponsor true national championships for community rec leagues such as LAGSL, although beginning in 2000 they did consolidate the “national” tournaments into just two, a Western and an Eastern).
The 12s traveled to Vancouver, Washington and came out of the losers bracket to win five straight games on the tournament’s final day to win the national championship, beating Vista twice to take all the marbles.
It was to be the first of three straight national championship game meetings between the two teams with Vista winning in the bottom of the seventh in the 2000 14&U title game in Midland, Texas, and again edging the Los Al girls to win the title last year at Spokane, Washington.
Meanwhile a new generation of local ladies took up the banner for Los Al as the 10 & Under squad put together a series of comeback wins to capture the SoCal State title and then take home a fourth place trophy at the Western National tournament in Texas.
PARTIAL LIST OF LAGSL PLAYERS TO GO ON TO PLAY COLLEGE SOFTBALL:*
(For convenience I used HS graduating year. All players Los Al HS unless noted.)
1995
Carrie Dolan – Arizona
Rene Bergeron – New Mexico
1995
Amanda Petersen – Northwestern
Michelle Schneider – Stanford
Caroline Wilson – Pacific. Fresno State
1996
Jennifer Slaney – Fresno State
Mandy Rockwell – Cypress, Louisville
2000
Darcy Brown – LB State
Kristin Farber – Arizona State
Emily Foltz – Loyola Marymount
Sarah Kahler -
Phelan Wright – Arizona State
2001
Kim Dillon – UC Riverside
2002
Caitlin Carroll (Rosary) – Sacred Heart University
2003
Kristin Crenshaw – Arizona State
2004
Caroline Howe – George Washington
Lindsay Taylor
2005
Natalie Mickelson – Azusa Pacific University
Brittany Murphy – Long Island University
Stacey Nelson – Florida
Tina Rowe – UC San Diego
Brook Ruiz – Florida Atlantic
2006
Kelly Hannaford – St. Mary’s
Heather Johnson (Mater Dei) – Notre Dame
Meghan Mawn – Miami (Ohio)
2007
Anna Cahn – SLO
Jordan Wheeler – Northwestern
Jessica DeMatteo – LB State
2008
Danielle D’Ecclis – Sonoma State
Molly Khalil – Dartmouth
Jacquie Ristow – Quinnipiac
Annie Wethe – UC San Diego (played soccer for 4 years, only playing softball her senior year)
2009
Taryn Devich – Azusa Pacific
Katrina Metoyer – Western Kentucky
Brittany Spalding – Tennessee Tech
Channelle Spalding – Tennessee Tech
2010
2011
Allison Brown – Mississippi (Ole Miss)
Alexa Coffing – Colorado Christian
Dana Rex – Colorado Christian
Mandy Sugita – Puget Sound
Gabby Thury – Colorado Christian
Alicia Walker – Penn
* If you have some additional names, let us now.
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The team that traveled to Vancouver, Washington to win 5 straight games, beating Vista to win the National Championship was the 14 & Under team coached by Dean Welch, Bob Crenshaw and John Kilgore. Pitching the winning game was Tina Rowe. It was a fabulous day for all involved!
I remember the girls…in fact many of them including Mindy Allen, Susan Best, and a few others used to join the boys to play pickup baseball during long summer days at the “Park” on Baskerville. They were equally competitive with us and we never minded their presence. In fact, you knew you were getting a good player when they showed up. Another name that comes to mind is Lynn Shoopman…a great athlete.