SEATTLE – This summer, on baseball diamonds around the area, you can find Catholic men and women playing softball and building community in a special CYO Athletics league.

“Sports are a great way to connect, even later in life,” said Danny Bailey, who coaches the Eastside Disciples, which fields players from St. Madeleine Sophie and St. Louise parishes in Bellevue as well as Holy Family Parish in Kirkland.

Bailey, who is a youth minister for St. Madeleine Sophie and St. Louise, said the adult softball league helps allows him to interact with parishioners he doesn’t usually encounter in youth ministry. It also builds connections among many different circles at parishes, Bailey said.

The 13-team league has west, east and south divisions, with players from parishes in Snohomish, Shoreline, Seattle, Burien, Bothell, Woodinville, Kirkland, Bellevue and Mercer Island. The league includes two teams from the UW Catholic Newman Center — the Newman Cardinals and the Dominican Dogs, which recently won its first game in two years.

Softball games on summer evenings foster community and friendly competition among Catholic men and women who play in a special CYO Athletics league. (Photo: Jean Parietti)

“We call ourselves the fun team,” said the Dominican Dogs’ coach, Dominican Father Chrysostom Mijinke, assistant director of the Newman Center at the University of Washington.

“Our whole strategy for young adults is to do things they want to do naturally,” Father Mijinke said.

And there’s time for fellowship after the softball ends.

“We normally go out for ice cream or a beer afterward,” Father Mijinke said.

Diversity of ages, athletic experience

The history of adult softball in the archdiocese goes back to at least 1976, when a softball league was formed among some north Seattle parishes, according to the archives of the Catholic Northwest Progress, the precursor to Northwest Catholic. 

The coed league has been around has been around since the early 1990s, said Paul Parietti, a longtime member of St. Monica Parish on Mercer Island who is coaching his parish’s team. Before the pandemic, the league had 22 teams, he said.

The CYO Athletics adult softball team from St. Monica Parish on Mercer Island includes coach Paul Parietti, second from left in the front row. (Photo: Courtesy of Paul Parietti)

“We’re trying to add as many teams as possible,” said Will Woodworth, assistant director of CYO Athletics, which is familiar for its youth sports offerings, but also offers adult softball and volleyball leagues. (Registration for adult volleyball closes Aug. 5.)

The softball league has a new team this year from St. Alphonsus/St. John the Evangelist parishes in Seattle, Woodworth noted. With the creation of parish families through Partners in the Gospel, Woodworth said he hopes more parishes will field teams. CYO officials are also reaching out to parishes that had teams in the past to see if they’re interested in rejoining the league, he added.

League games are played each week in three locations — St. Luke Parish in Shoreline, St. Bernadette Parish in Seattle and St. Monica.

“You get to meet a bunch of different people,” Parietti said of participating in the league. “You get to know your parishioners better.”

The teams have players with a diversity of ages and athletic experience.

A player for the Eastside Disciples team hits the ball during a game in 2019. (Photo: Courtesy Danny Bailey)

Parietti, who is 64, also pitches for the St. Monica team, which he said has about 20 players on its roster — the oldest is 69. Several team members played baseball or softball in high school and a few have never played softball, Parietti said. One woman on the team is from Australia and played cricket, he added.

The Eastside Disciples team, formed in 2015, has a roster of 16 players in their 30s and 40s, with a nice mix of veterans and new newcomers, said Bailey, who previously played on a team formed by the Mass Consumption young adult group in Tacoma.

The league’s regular season goes through early August, with a tournament slated Aug. 10 at the North SeaTac Park ballfields, Woodworth said. Games that day begin at 9 a.m., with the last game starting about 6 p.m., he said.

Parietti said he is looking forward to the tournament.

“I get to see some of the players who have been in the league for a long time,” he said.

For a list of teams in the CYO adult softball league and current standings, click here.