Now 12 years old, the West Philadelphia-based Philadelphia Adult League Softball is dedicated to expanding the sport on a global scale, writes Nigel Thompson for KYW Newsradio.

“We started with just eight teams on Tuesday night, and we’ve grown to now we have four days and nights that we do it and approximately 37 teams,” said co-founder Steve O’Connor.

Along with Kelly O’Connor, Steve has dedicated themselves to young people in the communities in which they serve.

Beyond their work in West Philadelphia, the O’Connors more recently founded a philanthropic arm called Change Up Sports.

Kelly sees both softball and baseball as tools for broader youth developments.

“Softball and baseball is amazing. It’s great and it encourages teamwork. It encourages perseverance. It gets kids active, having fun, trying new things. But really, we also view it as a tool to connect kids with other youth development initiatives,” she said. 

This summer, members of the Philadelphia Adult League Softball will take an outreach trip to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where more than three dozen young women will learn the sport and receive various resources to help toward education, personal health care, and overall well-being. 

Read more about how the Philadelphia Adult Softball League is growing the game of softball beyond Philly and the United States in KYW Newsradio.

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