Church Softball Not Just for Members

Editor's Note: This is the of four articles in a series about the Heights Church League. 

The Heights Church Softball League features only church teams, but that doesn’t mean players regularly, or sometimes ever, attend church.

Just ask one of the commissioners.

“I’m not a person that regularly attends church, yet I still see the good in it and in this league and the value it has in people,” said John Petre, co-commissioner of the league. “Either helping young people growing up and becoming adults or adults interfacing with other adults within the community. Everybody has a different aspect of what the church brings to them. This is one avenue that I can relate to very well.”

Dr. Charles Yoost, senior pastor at , admits that he would ideally like to see everyone in the league regularly attend church. But he also understands the value of having a league that opens its doors to everyone, just like the church should.

“Later on in life, they may think back to the good feelings they had about the church and the people that were in (the league) and come to church at a different time in their life,” Dr. Yoost said. “It plants the seed even if they don’t become very active right at the time.”

One such person was Daryl Musick of . Musick has been attending Forest Hill since the 1980s, but was never a member. During the early '90s he stopped attending and joined another church. Then Musick heard about the new pastor, Dr. John Lenz, and his brother-in-law recruited him to the softball team. Musick thought it would be a good opportunity to reconnect with the church and meet the new pastor, who played on the team at the time.

“One way to check everything out was to play softball,” Musick said.

Musick joined the church three years later and became a deacon in 2010. The day he was installed is one he will never forget.

“All the new people come to the front of the church, and anyone who has been a deacon or elder lays hands on him. Three-quarters of the church are in the aisles holding onto everyone else, and it forms a big web of people,” Musick said. “You always have to think of a bigger picture, and it works when we’re in a community. The league is an extension of the faith community even if we’re different faiths.”

Others who do not go all in with the church still appreciate the competition and camaraderie that the league provides.

Tom McNamara, a player on Forest Hill team #2, doesn’t attend church. He has no problems with pre-game prayers and enjoys reconnecting old friends like Petre, who coached him when he was in high school.

“I’m open to whatever anyone throws on the table to go meet people and be social,” McNamara said. “You only get that through the church league. I’ve played in seven or eight different leagues over the last several years. You just show up, hit and go home. There isn’t a sense of team like there is in the church league.”

Chris Sweeney is a member of The Church of the Saviour and is currently in his sixth year of playing in the Heights Church Softball League.