Cda Softball Team Ready For Reunion

Just like the movies.

“A League of Their Own” chronicles a women’s baseball team, including a reunion game.

Change that to softball, and the script fits NAPA, the former Coeur d’Alene Auto Parts women’s slowpitch team.

CdA Auto Parts dominated the local, state and regional level during the 1970s, forming in 1970 and winning five Idaho AA titles by 1976.

In 1976, CdA Auto Parts team captured the combined Region 28-29 championship in Portland.

In August, half of those same women will return to Portland with NAPA. It will be their third trip to the national championships, but this time the Plus-35 women’s title is at stake.

And they are anxious to see if a true national reunion develops, including competition against some of the players they met 19 years ago.

“We’ll be there to play,” vows Becky Shields, 45, who is one of the six returning CdA Auto Parts players. “I would hope that we could place. I don’t see anyone on this team that doesn’t play real hard.”

Pitcher-coach Nickie Odenthal and her sister, shortstop Sybil McCormack, are originals, along with Dana Stiegemeier, Wilma Staggs and Betty Kammeyer.

In the early days, the team played 70 games a season, traveling nearly every weekend to tournaments.

Now, they are content with a 10-game league schedule and hopeful Coeur d’Alene will start a women’s Plus-35 league.

“This will be our first road trip as a ballteam,” McCormack said. The women, however, frequently golf, raft, hike, bicycle and play volleyball together.

“I think it’s going to be fun,” McCormack added. “We’re going to have a good time. We’ve got nothing to worry about, even if we get blown away. It will be interesting to see what the 35-and-over teams are like.”

NAPA, as in the days of past, still relies on base hits and defense, as well as Odenthal’s pitching.

“I’m darn glad we didn’t ever have to play against (Odenthal),” Shields said. “Our shortstop, Sybil - there wasn’t anything that would go through her. She’s a wonderful base hitter. She knows where she’s going to put the ball, and Nickie’s the same thing.”

Shields said she felt CdA Auto Parts peaked in 1977, winning its second straight regional title and traveling to North Carolina for nationals. Players started to separate shortly thereafter.

“I’m so looking forward to being in the same town with these same girls,” Shields said. “None of us were a clique. All of us were good friends. When you click like that, boy, it sure makes a difference.”

“I think there’ll be some people that we recognize,” Odenthal said of the tournament field. “I’m sure some have played really competitively.”

“I know when we went to nationals the last time, we played two games,” Stiegemeier reminisced. “We felt like we could have played with a lot of teams there.”

And this time around?

“The reaction time is slower,” Stiegemeier conceded. “I do think a lot of the skill is still there.”

“You hurt yourself trying to use it,” added NAPA teammate Mary Sanderson.

Tournaments

The Coors Silver Bullet coed tournament brings 26 teams to Quad Park this weekend.

“We finally have a couple of teams that play up to that (major-A) level,” Quad Park co-owner Phil Marrie said. “It’s midseason, where everybody is in pretty good shape right now. This separates them out.”

The Budweiser men’s C invitational takes place at Ramsey Park in Coeur d’Alene this weekend.