Meaning and Moxie After 50
Looking for more inspiration and possibility in midlife and beyond? Join host Leslie Maloney, proud wife, mom, author and teacher, as she talks with people finding Meaning and Moxie in their life after 50.
Meaning and Moxie After 50
Wisdom on and off the Field with Janet Mitchell
Janet Mitchell, a notable figure in the senior sports community, shares her journey from a sports-oriented family to becoming a key player on the famed Maryland Roadrunners. This episode dives into her early inspirations, including her pioneering mother, and highlights how her passion for softball ignited a lifelong love affair with the game. We explore the spirit of the Roadrunners, emphasizing how teamwork, strategy, and a shared love for competition have fueled their success in the National Senior Games since 2001.
Travel with us into the heart of senior softball, where the bonds between teammates are as important as the games themselves. Janet reveals the magic behind the Roadrunners' chemistry, the rigorous selection process for new players, and the supportive environment they foster. We also touch on the universal struggles of overcoming health challenges, as Janet recounts her breast cancer journey and how the team became a crucial pillar of support, illustrating the power of community in healing and resilience.
Finally, this episode sheds light on the unique dynamics of self-coaching and the wisdom that senior athletes impart to younger generations. Janet opens up about her unexpected foray into coaching and how the cooperative spirit of the team led to unexpected victories and personal growth. Janet underscores the holistic benefits of an active lifestyle and encourages listeners to embrace the vitality and wisdom that sports bring to life’s second act.
Website for the Huntsman World Senior Games is seniorgames.net
Website for the national sr games (sr Olympics) is nsga.com
Website for senior softball is spasoftball.com
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In this week's episode we're talking softball, teamwork and a whole lot of moxie with someone remarkable, janet Mitchell. Janet isn't just a lifelong athlete. She's part of a senior softball team that absolutely dominates at the National Senior Games and, trust me, they're not just playing for fun. They're out there crushing it it and they're leaving younger teams in the dust. Janet's love for the game started young, inspired by her sports-loving mom back in the 1940s. Talk about a family legacy. But what really caught my attention? Janet's team has a secret weapon. They play with heart, strategy and a little bit of sass.
Speaker 1:If you think retirement is all about relaxing, janet's here to prove you wrong. Get ready for some laughs, some inspiration and maybe even a few tips on how to slide into home plate at any age without breaking a hip. Hope you enjoy it. I'm Leslie Maloney, retirement coach and podcast host. I'm all about helping you navigate the many transitions of this next chapter, from redefining purpose to finding joy in the everyday. We dive into real stories, practical tips and inspiring conversations. So, whether you've already retired, you're planning for it or you're just starting to think about what's next, join me for this fun and fearless exploration of life's second act, because life after 50 isn't the end of the story. No, far from it. It's where the magic truly begins.
Speaker 1:Go to my website, meaninginmoxieafter50.com for more information, and now let's get going with this week's episode. All right, everybody, welcome back to another meeting in Moxie after 50. And I have a very special lady with me today. I have Janet Mitchell. She is an amazing softball player, been playing softball her whole life and she is part of a really cool team and they just dominate quite a bit in the senior games, the national senior games, and so that's how I found her. So welcome, janet, thank you. So tell us about your, your path around, how softball has been such a big part of your life.
Speaker 2:It starts a long time ago. My mother actually played sports in high school in the 1940s, unlike many women, and in DC, lived in DC, grew up in DC and she played at Coolidge High School and I actually have a newspaper clipping from her high school newspaper where she's quoted as saying I don't know why girls can't play in her high sports, why do boys get to do it? So, being raised by a mom like that in the 50s and 60s, I was really lucky. So, yeah, a woman ahead of her time, definitely ahead of her time, and so I never heard girls don't do that about anything. And I grew up in a family of five, three brothers, one sister. My dad was also athletic, so sports was just a huge part of our life, except for my poor sister who really had no interest in sports. So she got dragged from game to game to game to game. But I mean I just my mother. I mean my dad went to law school at night when there were three of us, and so I think he graduated when I was about three.
Speaker 2:I don't, obviously don't remember that, but my mother was the one who had us out playing. You know, she was the one, you know, teaching us and we played wiffle ball and baseball and basketball and whatever we could and of course back then you were supposed to be catholic, to be on the cyo team. We were not catholic but my dad said I'll have you baptized catholic, if that's what it takes. So obviously we have to do that. But uh, that would he. He was cath, so that that would have been okay with him. Anyway, I just played on teams ever since, every year, since other than the COVID year, which we still practiced even though we were very restricted. You know, I've played now almost 60 years every year.
Speaker 1:Wow. So how did you find this team? So you're a part of I want to get the name right the Maryland Roadrunners, which I really like that name, and you've been together since 2005. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:2001. But they had been together for about three or four years before that. I wasn't old enough to play. But in senior ball back at that time if you were 45, you could play with a 50 and over team. They could have a few underage players, not in the senior games I had to wait until I turned 50 to get to compete in the games themselves but in all the other tournaments.
Speaker 2:So they it was just a group of women who had started this senior team in our area and they were going around asking everybody how old are you? And then. So when I said, oh, I'm 44, I'm going to turn 45 next year, and they said, well, do you want to play? And I knew a few of them just because we've all played on league teams around here and so forth, and so I said I really want to play on that team. It seems like a lot of fun. At that time the team hardly ever won any games, was just starting out, but they had such a good time and such a great positive attitude and I thought that's I want to be a part of that so that's how I got connected with them.
Speaker 1:It sounds like such a sisterhood. How often do you practice?
Speaker 2:It really is a sisterhood. We practice a couple of times a month. This year We've had some injuries so we haven't practiced quite as often. We kind of wait till the tournaments are coming up, but we practice all summer. We start as soon as the weather allows, which is generally late March in our area it has to be 50 degrees we don't like it to be colder than 50 degrees and we practice all the way through to our last tournament, which is in November. So we're really fortunate that many of us live close by, close enough to practice. A lot of senior teams have people scattered throughout different states and they just don't have the luxury of having group practices we have. Of our 18 people, I think 14 live in the area. So we're really fortunate that we can practice and, of course, go out to lunch every week after we practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for those who are not familiar with the senior games, let's explain that a little bit to them. How would you describe it?
Speaker 2:Well, the national senior games are what people refer to as the senior Olympics, and there's a competition in each state for almost any sport you can think of, and the competitions in each state happen every year, but the national senior games are every other year, so there wasn't one this year, there will be one next year in Des Moines, iowa, and it's just a. It's such a great organization. You can. You're eligible to start competing when you're 50, and then you compete in your state in order to qualify to go to the national games and you play against people your own age.
Speaker 2:The age groups range in softball this is and I think this is every sport, but I haven't competed in the other sports Every five years you're eligible for the next age group up, so 50 to 54, then you compete in 55 and over. You can compete in a group younger than your age. So we have a number of players who are in their 70s, but we play in the 65 and over, because your age group is determined by the youngest player on your team. So it's just an organization that gives such opportunity to everyone who's 50 and over. I never knew this world existed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it is. I mean, it's something to I was saying to somebody else in another conversation. We all need things to chase, we all need things to to go after. Hopefully there are positive things but and so this gives you kind of a goal every mean you got y'all been in like 10 different ones now pretty much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were in, I think, two before I was old enough and then, yeah, I guess the first one I was in was maybe was 2005. So I might have been still too young by one year that year. But we've been in a lot of them and they're in a different city. Every every national games is held in a different city. So we love traveling with our team because we play seven or eight tournaments a year around the country. So getting to go to different cities for the national games is just great. Fits right in with that.
Speaker 1:What a blast. Yeah, you get to do some traveling, you get to have some competition, you're there with your sisters and and I mean it's yeah, what, what a blast it really is. It's like traveling with 15 of your sisters uh-huh, yeah, oh gosh, yeah, and I understand that you all take, have taken home medals quite often and we've done very well.
Speaker 2:I think we always like to say we have won a lot of medals. I think maybe we've medaled every year. We've played in the senior games, maybe we missed out on one, but we generally want to make it into the major division. Because in softball, after the first day of competition, which is called pool play, where everybody just plays three games based on those results, they then put you into groups so that you're competing for medals against people your same, your same level. So if there are teams that are more recreational, then they'll be competing against each other and have an opportunity to win a medal.
Speaker 2:And so we, like, our goal is always to get into that major division because you know, as you get older in your age group it's harder. You know the team's just moving up to 65s. We've got a lot of 70s. Well, that five years makes a big difference. So I think we've made it into the majors every year but one and we have won a lot of medals. But I always think there's so many good teams and we've become friends over the 20 years with these teams from around the country, but we're not always the biggest and best team on the field, but we have such great chemistry.
Speaker 1:It wins us a lot of games. Yeah, why do you think that is?
Speaker 2:You know we're very picky about new players, like if somebody might have great skills but if it's not a good fit in terms of being positive and encouraging and just doing your best and accepting the result and kind of having a good perspective about all of this, then they wouldn't be a good fit on our team. And we've had a few people who have decided for themselves that it wasn't a good fit, which is fine. Everybody should be doing this for their own reasons. We actually developed. So we actually developed. Probably almost 15 years ago, we developed a written code of expected conduct on and off the field in terms of supporting your teammates and remaining positive and not calling attention to mistakes. No drama, I mean, come on.
Speaker 1:What a great idea, you don't?
Speaker 2:need that, you know no, that's why we have such good chemistry, I think yeah, what?
Speaker 1:what a great idea to, because sometimes you need to get it in writing so that everybody's on the same page with that, because we all have a little different way we look at that that's, that's right.
Speaker 2:And for the, the few people who have decided, you know, on our team everybody doesn't play every game, but everybody is going to contribute at a tournament. We find a way so that everybody has their chance to be on the field and contribute. Some people aren't, don't really like that, they prefer to be. You know, maybe they think I'm really strong and I should be in every game, and that's okay too, but that doesn't work for us. So we generally part ways, and you know, in a friendly way, and they find a team that works better for them in that regard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and and I, you know, I, I, I play on, I play tennis competitively on different teams, and so it is really important to have that and define that for staying positive, because there are some, it only takes really one staying positive because there are some. It only takes really one.
Speaker 2:Yes, to kind of pull things down, very true. I mean, one of the things on our code of conduct is that we don't call attention to our mistakes or the mistakes of others, because all that does is change your focus in the game to the mistake and it makes nobody feels worse than someone who makes an error. And let's face it, we're going to make errors.
Speaker 1:It's okay.
Speaker 2:It's all about the recovery from those, so yeah, and that's why you're out there competing.
Speaker 1:It's it's really you against you, but you want to have fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I know one of the things we were talking about on on one of my teams or amongst kind of a doubles group that I was playing with, is also to stop saying sorry. Yeah, okay, stop saying sorry. You're like you don't hear guys saying sorry about that Sorry, and so we're, and then we're trying to correct each other because it's, it's just, it's when you get a group of women together and oh my gosh sorry, sorry, there can be a lot of sorrys.
Speaker 2:Yeah it, that's. I think that's a really good point. And, um, I have a couple people on my team who feel they still have to say it. They're sort of new, they haven't quite realized that we don't care if you make a mistake, we just want you to try your hardest and and we know you are, you know, and so they're, they're getting there. But that's, that's also sometimes a personal thing that people deal with away from sports, you know, especially women, I think. Sure.
Speaker 1:So you're, you're, you're, you mentioned you're, you play about 10 or 12 tournaments a year, something like that we play about seven or eight tournaments, yeah. So that's not what the senior games that must be with somebody else.
Speaker 2:Yes, we, we play around the country. We play in. We play at the Huntsman World Senior Games. We play in St Louis, which is an independent tournament that one of the teams from St Louis sponsors is kind of their team fundraiser. We play in Prescott, arizona. That's a rec department tournament, and then there's an organization called SPA, which is Softball Players Association, and they put on women's tournaments throughout the year. And so in the East we that's typically we generally go out West two times, maybe three, and the rest of the tournaments are they play a lot, nothing near Maryland or DCC, but Tennessee, florida, St Louis.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that's kind of sometimes Georgia. So we play a lot in their tournaments.
Speaker 1:Do you have a particular team, like a couple of teams that are oh, we're going up against the so-and-sos.
Speaker 2:I think every major team I mean California has a fantastic organization called California Spirit. They have a team in every age group so they're always competitive because when they reach the top of their age group they bump up to the next age group. So they always have really good teams and they also have a number of teams. They're just, they're just like a mirror image of us. You know, they're really a good team. Sometimes they have a great game, sometimes they don't, but they're always in it and they're just a really fun, positive group of women. So we've known, we've played them for years and now that we really are like sisters with all of them, now that we're at the point in our lives where you know we've all several teams, have lost, a couple of players who have passed away and that kind of thing, it's, it's a really a, an emotional group thing for all of us around the country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would imagine so, because and that's maybe what keeps the competition in balance, because we've all been bumped around by life and so it's kind of like it's just, in this case, it's just softball.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's exactly right. Yeah, a grandchild with an illness or a child with an illness, yourself with an illness or, like I said, losing players, injuries. We all feel for each other, we all pull for each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, definitely keeps it, keeps it in play. So you had a health challenge back several years ago. Yeah, team was really an integral part of your healing. You want to talk about that?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, I had just a it was 2018, a routine mammogram detected something, and then I had a bunch of tests and turned out it was an early stage breast cancer, which was kind of I don't want to say shocked, because you know that's what happens to women at our age group. But there was certainly no family history or any indication of any illness for me, so it was kind of out of left field If I could say that I do play left field.
Speaker 1:Sports metaphor.
Speaker 2:That's good. So you know I had a bunch of tasks and one of my teammates now too, because we have a new teammate but one of my teammates had been through breast cancer and so, and as well as other women on other teams, so you know there was no mystery about it I was just the whole time I was thinking, oh, I feel so fortunate that I have this good healthcare and, you know, thinking of all those women who don't have that, who it wouldn't have been detected so early. So I had a lumpectomy and expected to have radiation, but the lumpectomy did not come back clean. They thought it was stage zero but it came back that it was invasive.
Speaker 2:So, just discussion with the breast surgeon and the, we settled on a mastectomy. So I had a mastectomy and I knew just from really from other women I had encountered who had had reconstructive surgery and or wore prosthetics. I thought I don't want that, I'm not getting the extra surgery and I don't want to wear prosthetics. So that's why I had the bilateral and I decided against reconstruction and so going through that I mean my, my team actually we went out to dinner a couple nights before the surgery so we could toast farewell to my breasts.
Speaker 2:That's how you know, I mean it was never a threatening. I never felt threatened by the disease. I never felt nervous. I mean I just felt like, okay, well, what do we have to do to get back out in the game? You know, not just softball, but just in general. So my recovery, let's see, my surgery was in March February or March, I think and then I was able to play softball by July. So that was good. And then I was also able to get to my Grand Canyon hiking trip in June. That was the really important thing.
Speaker 1:Yes, talk about that. My goodness, that was three months afterward.
Speaker 2:Three months afterward the healing was really pretty good. I didn't really have any issues. I did not. I went on an endocrine therapy for five years, which basically that's an estrogen blocker, and I fortunately didn't have side effects like a lot of women do. So I didn't have any debilitating chemotherapy or or the radiation because the lymph nodes had been removed. So I there's a group of us we started hiking after the Huntsman World Senior Games in Utah 20 years ago and we've done it ever since. So we had a trip planned to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We had to carry 35 pound pack to the bottom and out.
Speaker 1:So can I ask a question? So were these gals from your team or this is a hiking group that you found?
Speaker 2:From my team.
Speaker 2:From your team, yeah, just sort of evolved into a hiking group and has been one ever since. So I said to my doctor I got to get on that trip and she was a hiker. She is a hiker. So she said you're going on that of an issue with some, with, uh, you have drains after a mastectomy and I had some fluid buildup so she had to put the drain back in. But she said you know what? I think it was in May. She said we're taking it out, you got to get on with your life.
Speaker 2:So we took, she took it out and it stopped building up, believe it or not. So, uh, came the trip. She said, came the trip. She said, okay, I'm going to bind you up, you're going. And I went and it was fine, it was perfectly fine. My teammates had sent me this big kind of a collage they made that was all about. You know we can each take five pounds and you know it'll be intense. But and they had little tents on it, you know, and really nice, just, I never doubted that I was going on that trip. So but I also think that having had a lot of orthopedic surgeries over the years from sports was a part of that recovery, because with that you're like okay, I've blown out my ACL, what do I have to do to get back in the game? So it was kind of that approach to for this, you know but, yeah, we we have.
Speaker 2:I have two teammates now who are going through a chemo for breast cancer and they're still playing. They're doing great. Yeah, it's a real community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it sounds like do you think that your experience in sports where you kind of just said it, that you it helps you with challenges in your life?
Speaker 2:I think it does. I mean because for two reasons. One, you learn to work through things. You just learn to give it your all, but you also have something that you want to get back to. So it's incentive to do whatever you have to do to try to get back out there and be part of the fun. So it's like just wonderful.
Speaker 1:So that? So that you had a 35 pound pack, and so you went down and then you hiked across the bottom and then you came back out. How many was that?
Speaker 2:well, it was three days. We went down all the way in one day. That was a killer, mostly on the knees, not on anything else. My sister actually created this. My sister had made these little um foam pads that fit on the pack so that it wouldn't rub my chest where my scars were. So that was nice, but uh, so we made it down. Then we camped at the bottom overnight, and that was amazing. I'd been to the, made it down. Then we camped at the bottom overnight, and that was amazing. I'd been to the grand canyon, but I'd never been to the bottom and how many miles?
Speaker 1:how many miles was that down?
Speaker 2:seven and a half okay, yeah it was because it's, you know, a lot of back switchbacks and stuff, but it was amazing and we actually saw the milky way that night from the bottom of the grand canyon, yeah. So then then we started the hike out the next morning at four in the morning because of the heat, and we were only going halfway out up a different trail to a campground there and we were there by like 930 because we started so early and then camped again, and then the next day we hiked the rest of the way out, starting at three in the morning because the heat. So it was great. It was great, in fact. Our group is. We've since gone to Yosemite with the same company that took us there. In this past year we went to Western Wyoming in the Tetons with llamas, and next year we're going to Alaska right before the senior games.
Speaker 1:No grass grows under your feet, so you've always been a super active person and you continue. I mean, it sounds like you just continue to do that. How are you hiking Maryland's pretty flat?
Speaker 2:How are you? Maryland is definitely flat. Getting prepared for hiking at 10,000 feet in Wyoming was not easy, in Maryland I mean.
Speaker 2:I think the highest point Maryland is maybe 2,500 feet, you know, along the Appalachian Trail in western Maryland. So you know we just we just try to do what we can do here and stay active and it's you know it's everybody in the group is obviously very active. There's some play volleyball and we do what we can around here just to stay in shape and it's pretty okay. The company we've used knows our group and so they're pretty good at adjusting. You know, if they know something's going to be super challenging, maybe it's going to take us too long, they'll adjust, you know, because we are we always like to say we are a bunch of old ladies.
Speaker 1:So that's all relative yes, exactly sounds like. Yeah, I mean, I know some 20 year olds that probably couldn't have done that oh, it was a challenge, but it was great.
Speaker 2:It was. It was amazing really do you?
Speaker 1:how do you keep yourself out of injury?
Speaker 2:I mean, you're stretching must be a part of your routine and things like that and ever since the first ACL I blew out was 20 years ago and when I did that rehab that gets you in the best shape of your life. I mean, it's a long rehab and it's intense and so through that, at this place where I went and have continued to go, I was educated so well about what to do to keep myself in shape and I've had injuries along the way. Believe me, I blew out the other ACL but was able to recover from that. It's mostly knees with me.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, stretching, you know we stretch, I work out. I joined that. It's a physical therapy place but then you can join as a wellness member and to work out. So I go there sometimes two times a week during the place, but then you can join as a wellness member and to work out. So I go there sometimes two times a week during the season, but try to get there three times a week just to, just to try to stay in shape, you know, and obviously stretching is a big part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're headed to Des Moines next year and you're are you done qualifying or you still have some qualifying tournaments coming up? No, we're we you done qualifying or you still have some qualifying tournaments?
Speaker 2:coming up. No, we're. We're done qualifying in Maryland. We're the only team in our age group in Maryland and so we qualified last we had. We did play in a little tournament they had locally because the Maryland senior games, because that's what you're required to do, and so we were able to do that and and get our qualification set. So we'll be going out there and hoping for the best and I know we'll have no matter what, we'll have a good time.
Speaker 1:And who is your coach? Has your coach been the same person pretty much through these years?
Speaker 2:No, actually my coach is me and I didn't. It wasn't by choice, but we had a coach when the team first started we had two coaches the husbands. Two husbands were coaches. Well, long story short, one of them passed away kind of early in my time on the team, maybe two or three years in. He passed away from cancer and his wife decided she was done playing. She was, she thought about moving up to the next age group she was a little bit older, but she decided she was ready to retire. And the other woman got a serious injury and and so they kind of stopped participating. So somehow I ended up, I think I said I'd do it for a while until we found someone. But we've never found anyone. And then there's another player on the team, mary Burns, who does it with me, and I'll tell you, I don't think it would work if we didn't have such a cooperative group of women.
Speaker 2:Because, trying to play and coach and be fair about playing time and and do it. You know you're having to basically judge your friends, to figure out what to put, when to put them in and where to put them and stuff. So that's a little bit of a challenge for us. But everybody's so so cooperative that you know that you often will hear, hey, take me out, she hasn't been in, Let her play, you know, and sometimes we do and sometimes we say no, we want you in there. So it just sort of depends. But it's a real challenge. We did have another of our players' husbands tried to coach us, but kind of he was, he gave it his all all, but I don't think he quite got what we were expecting in a coach and so it didn't work out and so she still plays and he still comes, but I think he's kind of relieved to me that he didn't have to do it yeah, it's a testament to you.
Speaker 1:And and how balanced, because, you're right, you're wearing a bunch. You know three different hats there yeah, it's really testament to you that you're you're um able to do that. And that's why I asked the question, because I'm thinking y'all are so such a tight-knit bunch that for somebody to kind of come in there and not get the dynamic of that, yeah difficult yeah, I think it would be, and I felt like I said I don't know that we've given him enough of a chance, but I kind of knew it wasn't going to work.
Speaker 2:I could just tell, and I would love to not have to coach, just because it sort of takes away a little bit of your fun at a tournament. You know, you might we always go out for meals together and hang out together, but there's always oh yeah, we got to figure out four lineups for tomorrow. So you know you can't quite just enjoy everything, but it's okay and it's getting a little better. You know, I think I've been working on myself to try to not put so much pressure on myself, which is what all the girls say Don't don much pressure, but you do because you want to be fair, and so I'm trying to work on it and everybody's really very flexible.
Speaker 2:We just played in a tournament this weekend and we won the tournament. I don't know that we've won a tournament like that in a couple of years. We just for some reason got on a roll because we didn't even have any subs, we were that short of people and we were playing against really good teams who have creamed us in the last couple of years. So we know, you know they're good teams, but but everybody just did. You know, I had people. I had a pitcher playing left field the whole time because that's where she could play and I needed somebody, I needed her to go someplace. So you know, we just everybody just sort of does what they have to do and enjoys it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'm thinking of that movie I can't remember the name of it with Tom Hanks and oh, League of their Own. League of their Own. League of their Own. Yeah, yeah, that movie is great.
Speaker 2:Do you know? That's the highest grossing baseball movie ever made, is it really? Yeah, I know that because I just me I love the Boston Red Sox. I've grown up on the Red Sox. My dad was from Boston, so the Red Sox have a women's baseball fantasy camp at their spring training facility every January and so I go and several of the ladies from that real league come to the baseball camp. So we've gotten to meet them and know them and and learn so much about them and the movie and their experience.
Speaker 1:It's really cool yeah, yeah, that I mean, because really what, what made that movie was the dynamics right on the team how we got to know all the players oh, yeah, yeah so I'm sure it's similar in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2:It's very yeah, yeah, it is, it really is. And you know we have our moments where somebody gets frustrated or or something happens, and you know we, we try to always bring it to the forefront and talk about it, because if, if you don't, that's what ends up killing a team. You know, if there's a lot of people talking about something and and the focus is lost to the game, so, we try it and we we try to respect that.
Speaker 2:we're friends. We're not always going to think alike, but, uh, and you might not agree with what Mary and I decide to do with the coaching, but but they accept it, you know, and they might say well, did you think about this? Which is great, and sometimes we have and sometimes they haven't. So it's, there's a real give and take and it's a it's a very unique group of women.
Speaker 1:Do you ever interact with some of the younger, like a high school, high school college teams and and I don't know is there or even like some of the Olympian of the Olympic? You know, like some of them that just came back from Paris, the US team Does Senior Games ever arrange those meetings?
Speaker 2:Not that I've ever been a part of. I'm not sure that that's ever happened. Ok, I think that would be fantastic because you all have the wisdom to offer those younger teams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, really, I mean, I think, yeah, I think somebody is missing something there because there there is there's a you. You all have the long view that they don't. That's really true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's. It's really a perspective that changes throughout your life. But I mean, yeah, we, we're on the field, we are out there, every team is out there just trying to win. But when the game is over, the game, I mean this team that we beat to win this tournament. They're a really good team and, like I said, we just got on a roll and we beat them two games by one run in the last inning and we came from behind. Well, after the tournament was all over, we all had a group picture together, both teams, because when the game is over it's a game you know where we, where we feel like we've already won before we step on the field.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just to be out there moving, having fun. And yeah, I have another friend that says if you're having fun, then you've won. That's exactly right. That is exactly right.
Speaker 2:Yeahland senior olympics is um. Their motto is to participate is to win okay, yeah, it's very, very true yeah who are the teams ahead of you?
Speaker 1:um, what is it? Who is? What is the oldest age group in softball? In the senior?
Speaker 2:oh my gosh it's fabulous 80 and over. There are, I think, four women's teams, I think one or two from canada, uh, 80 and over. And we're really lucky because one of the teams in the in the us is the colorado peaches. They seeing these women play. People might watch them and say, oh, it's so slow, it's a different game. They paved the way for us and it's so slow, it's a different game. They paved the way for us and it's so inspiring to think. Look at them, they are having a blast out there.
Speaker 2:And we're lucky here because one of the women on their team, carmen Campbell. She plays on the Colorado Peaches but she lives in our area and she's our league coordinator here in our little league we play in and she's the commissioner of the Maryland Senior Olympics. She's one of the commissioners, so she's very involved and we get inspired by her. I mean our league. We're not in a league altogether. Some of us are on the same team and some of us are on different teams. It's just a local kind of a rec league and she coordinates it, but she also plays Well. It's a 40 and over, she's 86 and she's playing Well. It's a 40 and over, she's 86 and she's playing and it's just amazing, so that we we love seeing the older age groups play it's, it's fabulous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and we're teaching when we take part in these different things, no matter what it is that we're doing whether it's sports or something else, we're teaching those that are younger, how to age and how to age well, yeah, and they are paying attention. They really are paying attention, just like you're. You're aware of her in her eighties, in which she's doing Absolutely Well, modeled for so many too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think socially it's just as important, that that's just as important as the physical part, you know. I mean because as people age we can get isolated from other people, people you know we have a couple of women who have lost their husbands. You know, you could, you could fall out of any kind of social circle for a variety of reasons, and my oncologist works with me a lot on diet and sleep and nutrition and in particular in our family we have blood sugar issues. So she's made me very aware of that. So I said to her listen, when I go to these tournaments with these women, we go out to eat all the time. I can't control necessarily what I can eat and when I you and when I need to take a walk after I eat. And she said I'm gonna tell you something Stop watching your sugar when you're on these tournaments, because the social part is just as important as the physical and I think that's the case with your health. That's just a big piece of it.
Speaker 1:Yes, very much so, very much so. It's all those aspects that come together. Yeah, so it sounds to me like you have found your secret sauce to staying young.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's a secret sauce. All right, I hope it goes on forever. I know nothing does, but it's just, we're just enjoying every, every year. And I remember, before my mom passed away, one of the last things she said to me was and she died fairly young, she was 72. She said don't stop moving, never stop moving. She said I stopped moving and I it's hard to get it back. So we, we try to do that. You know, we try to keep on moving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, and it all relates on, you know, we try to keep on moving. Yeah, I mean, it all relates on, you know, mental, physical, emotional, it all. It all relates on that cycle we were just talking about it's all a piece of of your health.
Speaker 2:It's all important piece of your health yeah.
Speaker 1:So here's my final question as we wrap up. When you think of the idea of meaning and moxie, how does that play out in your life?
Speaker 2:well, I think you can find a lot of different things that give you meaning and you know it can be your faith. That's a big part of meaning to me your health. But for me, I think the one word is team. Whether it's your sports team, it's your group, your clan, it might be your family. It could be family. It could be your team, a sports team it could be, you know, some club you're in that's important to you. You got to find that team and that's going to give you meaning and it's going to let you continue to do what you love. And that's the Moxie.
Speaker 1:Yes, amen to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, what a great place to stop our conversation here, so inspiring and I. What we'll do in the show notes is we'll put you know any information, maybe link to the article about you, whatever you want to share in our show notes so that people can follow you, follow the senior games and anything else regarding softball too.
Speaker 2:That's great. I'll tell you, I'm not on any social media, so in terms of following me, I I don't. There's nothing to follow.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, we can, we can still there's, there's, you know, you're searchable.
Speaker 1:We can, I'm searchable yeah, the maryland roadrunners is searchable there definitely are some articles out there about the maryland roadrunners yeah, and just and just uh, following your results in the senior games yeah, what you got, yeah, yeah thank you so much for this conversation this afternoon. Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it, I think it. I think people will get a lot out of it and and it will remind them to find these things in their own life absolutely absolutely okay, everybody, thank you for listening.
Speaker 1:We'll talk to you soon. Bye now. If this podcast was valuable to you, it would mean so much if you could take 30 seconds to do one or all of these three things Follow or subscribe to the podcast and, while there, leave a review and then maybe share this with a friend if you think they'd like it. In a world full of lots of distractions, I so appreciate you taking the time to listen in. Until next time, be well and take care, thank you.