Softball Classic May Be a Mismatch

Game Exposes Interest Gap Between DCIAA Teams, Private Schools

Since moving back to the District in 1997 after his military career, Washington native Gerard Hall has undertaken numerous efforts to promote baseball among the city's youth. Scoffing at the notion that the sport has lost the attention of the inner city, Hall was intimately involved in launching last year's inaugural D.C. Baseball Classic, a day-long event at Nationals Park, which included pitting the city's top public and private schools in a championship game.

Last winter, Hall turned his attention to the city's girls, and proposed a similar event for softball teams. His approach differed, however, because he knew the majority of girls at D.C. public schools lacked substantial interest in the sport. He hopes that will begin to change with today's maiden D.C. Softball Classic, which will be held at Guy Mason Park in the Glover Park neighborhood of Northwest Washington.

"I did reverse engineering," said Hall, the head of baseball and softball operations for the Classic. "The skill level of the girls wasn't there yet. The thought is, I've got to have something to attract the kids, something to get them to focus on. We've got girls playing softball, but not early enough where they can develop it. How can I get more girls on the field?

"If I put them on the field and they go back to school and talk about [the Classic], then the next year, you have something more for them to shoot for."

While there was no mandate to develop a girls' event comparable to the Baseball Classic for the sake of gender equity, echoes of the Title IX debate come through in the creation of the Softball Classic. Chiefly, is the Classic being offered because there is legitimate interest in softball among girls in the District, equal to that of boys playing baseball? Or is softball a sport that has not had adequate exposure for District girls, and, hence, the reason why interest and participation lag?

Maret Athletic Director Liz Hall (no relation to Gerard Hall), one of the Classic's organizers, said she did not receive one reply from a D.C. public school earlier this year when she began soliciting interest for participation in the Classic -- a day-long event that includes the public schools' championship game, a two-hour instructional clinic led by Amber Jackson of the Washington Glory professional team, a high school all-star game, and a championship game matching the public school champion against Georgetown Visitation, which was selected as the top private school.

"Ninety percent of our athletes are basketball players playing softball," said Patricia Briscoe, the assistant athletic director for D.C. Public Schools who oversees softball in the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association. "Most of our young ladies, if they are taught, they will do. But they have to be taught."

Gerard Hall has worked at various community centers in the District with kids of all ages. He believes one reason the interest level for softball is low is because girls don't begin playing the sport until they are older. And unlike basketball, for example, girls are not playing softball year-round.

"Most of the kids in DCPS, their introduction to softball is in [high] school. I have a tough time attracting girls. I don't get enough of them. . . . It's a labor-intensive sport that requires repetition if you want to be good at it. If you don't keep at it, at the beginning of the season, you'll be back at ground zero."

Cedric Johnkins has coached softball the past eight years, five at Carroll and the past three at McKinley, and ran a clinic with Gerard Hall every Saturday from October through January at Turkey Thicket Recreation Center in Northeast. A self-described "softball geek" willing to "coach anyone who comes up to me," Johnkins said the Classic is a bad idea right now for the DCIAA.

"They told me, 'Why not? The boys do it,' " Johnkins said. "But our girls are just learning it. For the Classic, [private school players] are too strong for us. We just don't have the interest yet."

Aside from senior Kathleen McLain, who is trying to lead Wilson to its third consecutive DCIAA title, no other DCIAA pitcher throws traditional fast-pitch.