About CSWSA

History of CSWSA

One evening in 2019, Mary saw a post on social media about why Colorado didn’t have a senior women’s softball league. She started a group chat with some old softball girlfriends, social media contacts, and began looking around. Several avenues were researched to no avail...
  • Colorado Senior Softball Association (a league for men that allow women to join a team) had discussed an all-women league in the past and felt there wasn't enough interest
  • The Colorado Peaches (the only organized senior women's club in Colorado at the time) were not interested in helping form a women's league
  • COVID came in 2020 and no sporting leagues happened that year although softball continued to an extent - there were pick-up games and some tournaments although on a smaller scale
In 2021 Mary began pursuing a senior women's league once more and found interest. In October 2021, the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George Utah was restarted. While playing on a senior women's team at the tournament, Mary reconnected with an old friend who put her in touch with the newly formed Colorado Wildfire Senior Women's Softball Club. She was invited to join them at their weekly practices and found that many of them were interested in joining a senior women's league. In January 2022 Mary began the process of starting a new senior women's league in Colorado for women over 50. It was hard work and very time consuming, but because Mary is stubborn and absolutely LOVES softball, her persistence paid off. CSWSA played their first game on June 9, 2022 at Schaefer Softball Complex in Lakewood. The league had over 44 women committed to playing - a major success! And what FUN that first year was!

About Mary Harteker

Mary is in her early 70s and has played softball since she was in her twenties. She did not have organized sports when she was in school like her male counterparts. After college her husband played on a work team and he made her join him. She loved it and hasn't looked back! They lived in California and ultimately migrated to Colorado. They are a sports-oriented family - their sons grew up playing baseball, volleyball, soccer, and swimming. Mary and her husband organized and ran Men’s, Women’s, and Coed Softball teams. They played 4-5 nights per week and tournaments on weekends. While their first love was softball, they also ran a volleyball team! As adults, their sons played in softball leagues and tournaments and, when they were married, their wives also played softball/volleyball! She played against women in their 20s until she was 67. It's harder to keep up with younger women as we age, so she started playing Senior Softball when she turned 64. She doesn’t run as quickly, throw as well, or field like she used to, but she still gets out there and plays! Mary wants to share her love of the game with all senior women. Her goal is to continue to grow the CSWSA league and maybe one day it will be big enough to have teams from all over Metro Denver!