Gloves, catchers masks, bats, bases, and buckets upon buckets of neon yellow softballs crowded not only Kevin Monahan’s garage, but also the lives of the entire Monahan family for nearly three decades. Last Friday, after 27 years as commissioner of the former CYO, and now All Dorchester Sports League (ADSL), Girls Softball League, Kevin ‘The Commish’ Monahan hung up the clipboard and passed the torch to a new committed group of parents, coaches, and volunteers.
“It’s pretty rare to have a garage in the city, and I never got a car into my garage until I was 63 years old because of all the softball gear,” said Monahan with a smile. “It was pretty nice to finally get the car in there for a snowstorm and it was all clean the next day and I didn’t have to shovel it off. Took a long time for that to happen.”
Monahan said he and his wife Elaine are in the process of moving to Boxford to be closer to their new grandson, and he felt it was the right time to step away from softball and let others steer the ship. Although Monahan specializes in computers and technology as a profession, and was a pretty good hockey and baseball player growing up in South Boston, in Dorchester he has been known as the point person for softball. Whether it was the CYO league several years ago, or the transformed ADSL girls league now, it has always been Monahan who carefully guided the ship and picking up talented coaches and volunteers along the way.
“I believe strongly that the girls need a league of their own,” he said. “In fact, I feel very strongly about it. I’ve spoken up over the years about that and some people didn’t like it, but I’d do it again…I have felt strongly for many years that the girls have been slighted. For me, when CYO was crumbling and falling apart, ADSL rescued the program…When CYO fell apart, the boys had something else going, but the girls had nothing.”
Monahan began with softball some 27 years ago in the CYO league that encompassed so many Dorchester and city parish teams. He coached with St. Brendan’s, later taking on the remnants of a team at St. Ann’s, but he soon found the entire league faltering.
His late father-in-law, Jim Collyer, had been a big ADSL supporter since its beginnings in 1983; he was also a huge baseball ambassador – widely known as the guy who would hand out baseball cards to everyone around Dorchester. Monahan said that Collyer “dragged” him into ADSL for the transition from CYO to an ADSL softball program, and he couldn’t be more grateful in hindsight.
Former ADSL Director Jared Blandino, Angela Cruse, Kevin Monahan, ADSL Director Candice Gartley, Kevin George, Xavier Andrews, and Mike Joyce.
“CYO was pretty much being run out of my garage,” he said. “ADSL agreed to take the crumbling CYO program and put it under the ADSL umbrella…Once I got into it, I could see what it could be. I watched CYO decline and once CYO fell apart, we moved to ADSL. I think it’s grown very well since then and there is a lot of momentum now. The fact that politicians are now chasing us for sponsorships is a big deal.”
Monahan worked with three ADSL directors, including Joe Clougherty, Jared Blandino, and the current executive director, Candice Gartley. All three have helped provide background support and recruit parents and volunteers. There are now about 250 girls on 18 teams, including about 40 girls annually in what is believed to be the only all-girls T-ball program in Boston.
“Our T-ball being the only option for girls is another example of girls getting the short end of the stick,” he said. “I’m a big believer in girls playing against girls. When they play with boys in Little League, it starts out as a good mix, but eventually they get moved to the outfield and then off the field and they no longer want to play. Girls just don’t come back or don’t find the success they want…We’ve been growing and adding more every year and I think there’s a lot more to go.”
Kevin and Elaine Monahan (center) with some of Elaine’s siblings, representing 7 of the 11 children of the late Jim and Peggy Collyer.
Success wasn’t always that easy, though.
Finding a place to play has been very challenging. The revived league started at Hemenway Park when there were only a handful of girls in an instructional program – with most not knowing the basics of catching and throwing. Victories have been many, but Monahan said getting Toohig Park on Gallivan Blvd. for the girls was a momentum shift. That change came after Elaine was conducting a practice on the field one evening, and a boys’ team came down and told the girls they had to leave. That was where and when they made their stand.
“We said that couldn’t happen anymore,” he said. “Cedar Grove gave up Toohig and gave us that park. That was a major turning point for the league. It’s a girls’ park now. We were always told there weren’t enough girls, but the school data doesn’t show there are no girls. The girls are there, they just weren’t down at the park. You have to ask why on that one. ADSL has made that happen – getting the girls there at the park.”
The neighborhood-only league now also plays some games at Walsh Park off Washington Street to accommodate the growing numbers. The fight remains still to ensure that space for the girls isn’t overtaken by boys Little League, adult flag football, and high school soccer. However, Monahan said he is confident the coaches and volunteers that are now the backbone of the organization will pick up the fight for him.
He listed coaches like Ann Walsh, Matt and Noreen Kelley, Kevin George, Nicole Porter, Neil Janulewicz, and so many others – not to exclude the new high school girls mentoring program – that will carry the load.
Coach Kevin Monahan (center) with the new softball high school mentors, including Avery Dillon, Lauren Dillon Caroline McCarthy, and Ava O’Brien.
Monahan also said it will be important to keep in mind the roots of the program in that ADSL is a league for both those who can hit a home run and those who struggle to catch a ball.
“It is important that we have sports for people who don’t know how to put on a glove,” he said. “That’s really how we transform lives and give girls confidence. I want a super team and to kick butt all over the city like everyone else, but you can’t take your eye off the kids whose lives are being changed just for being part of the team.”
So now with a home in rural Boxford, and a garage that’s free and clear of ball gloves and bats, Monahan said he confidently leaves ADSL Softball knowing it will only grow stronger.
“I’ve been working really hard the last six years to become obsolete,” he said. “It can’t sustain itself with one person. The ADSL transformation – what they’ve done with softball – is a key part…My grandson is 16 months old and…it’s so much fun being a grandparent. That was part of knowing it was time to pass the torch, and knowing the strong foundation we’ve built with this league.”
