Kicking off: Bluff Park women form kickball league

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Photo by Erin Nelson.

Natalie Fleming, with the 2 Legit 2 Kick kickball team, pitches the ball during a practice.

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Photo by Erin Nelson.

Hannah Dunham, with the 2 Legit 2 Kick kickball team, kicks the ball during a practice.

For the past four years, women in Bluff Park have had their own whiffle ball league, but this winter they’re taking on another sport — kickball.

One hundred and twenty women signed up for the Bluff Park Women’s Kickball League, which is scheduled to play games on Sunday afternoons from Jan. 8 to March 12.

Most of the women are participants in the whiffle ball league, but 36 of them did not play the sport, said Rachael Taylor, the founder and director of the kickball league.

The ladies who did play whiffle ball were able to stay with their teammates, but not all the players from that league signed up, so more women were able to join, Taylor said. Some of the teams needed to pick up one or two players, while others needed more, she said. Some wanted to start from scratch and form a new team. There was a draft for the newcomers, Taylor said.

And there was a lot of interest in joining the league. They filled the 36 spots on eight teams within two hours, she said.

Most of the women range from age 31 to 44, but there is one as young as 26 and at least one who is 55+, Taylor said. Plus, with the draft, they tried to make sure teams didn’t get too big of an advantage from an age standpoint, she said. For example, there’s not a team full of 20-year-olds, she said. “I can’t run as fast as they can.”

Also, there’s quite a mix of athletic abilities, Taylor said. There are some women who have played sports their entire lives and some who have never played anything and are just there for the camaraderie, she said. “That’s what makes it so much fun.”

The kickball games will be played on the athletic practice field at Shades Mountain Community Church off Tyler Road. With eight teams, they’ll have four games each Sunday afternoon, starting at 12:30 p.m. The games will last seven innings or 45 minutes, whichever comes first, Taylor said. They have to stick to a time schedule because they’ll lose daylight, and there are no lights, she said.

The regular season will last eight or nine Sundays, depending on whether any makeup games are needed, and the end-of-season tournament is scheduled for March 12, Taylor said.

Much like they did in whiffle ball, the women tried to be creative with their team names, which include New Kicks on the Grass, Saved by the Ball, 2 Legit 2 Kick, Kickin Grass, Swift Kick in the Grass, Recess Rejects, Kick Please and Balls to the Wall.

The main reason for starting the kickball league is to help the women continue to build relationships with others in the community outside of the whiffle ball season, said Natalie Fleming, co-director of the league.

Many of the women really enjoyed getting together for whiffle ball, but it’s a long time from the end of whiffle ball season in August until practices start back in May, Fleming said. They wanted to find something else to do together, and Taylor came up with the idea for a kickball league.

She had heard about the Go Kickball league that plays at Cooper Green Park in Birmingham and has more than 800 players, but that league is co-ed, and she wanted a league for women only and to keep it in Bluff Park, she said.

Taylor and other organizers visited the Go Kickball league in Birmingham to see how it is run, and the director of that league is going to help the Bluff Park women’s league get started, Taylor said.

Fleming said she hasn’t played kickball since middle school but is really looking forward to it.

“I think this is just a great way to do something fun and get some physical activity,” she said. “Another way to build camaraderie.”

Taylor said she’s not from Hoover and found it difficult to make friends when she moved here from Auburn almost 10 years ago. The whiffle ball league was a wonderful way to do that, she said.

Tammy Prell, another member of the kickball league board, agreed.

“I have been able to build relationships with women I don’t think that I would have ever had otherwise,” she said. “It’s just been really great for us to get together and have a great time together.”

But Prell said she doesn’t think it’s going to be as easy as a lot of them think it will be. There were some injuries in the whiffle ball league, she said.

“I’m one of the older women, but it was all the young’uns that got hurt [in whiffle ball],” Prell said. “I’ve made it pretty good so far.”

Most of the ladies are excited for the opportunity to get back together, even if it will be much colder, Fleming said. “It’s definitely going to be a 180 from when we had a heat index of 105 and borderline heat stroke,” she said.

Taylor said some women were reluctant to sign up because they thought it would be too cold.

“I told them to get their hats and gloves and fleece-lined leggings and let’s be adventurous,” she said. “We’ll do it together.”

For at least the first week, the Southern Coffee & Waffles food truck will be there with coffee, hot chocolate and warm waffles, Taylor said.

She’s excited to get the league started because she’s never felt the kind of camaraderie she feels in Bluff Park anywhere else she has lived before, she said.

“There’s just something about this community that sparkles, not like any other community,” Taylor said. “I just absolutely love this neighborhood. Everybody that lives here does.”

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