Melisa Goodard

League Position (Title): Juniors Division Director

My favorite memory is watching my kids play ball or watching my youngest pitch in her first college game.

In 1977, at 9 years old, IBM moved my family to Boulder, CO from Durham, NC where I was only allowed to be the bat-girl for the local Durham Little League. Every year in NC I would beg to play and was told each year, “Baseball is only for boys”. Luckily for me, a few months after moving to CO, my dad met Pete Sprenkle at IBM and for the first time in 1978, I was finally allowed to “Play Ball”.
At 15 years old, I started volunteering to umpire for the local Optimist Club that provided umpires for BVGSA. In 1986 at 18, I started coaching an 8U team and coached the same players until they were 18 years old.
In 1987, I took over as President of BVGSA Rec Division and in 1990, I became President of IPGSA where the league has grown from 70 Recreational teams to over 250 Rec & Comp teams in 2020 from 8U to 18U.
It’s been so awesome to watch softball grow in Colorado, especially over the last 8 years as more people have moved to our beautiful state and more orgs/teams have formed.
The largest growth seen is with the Fall Ball which started in 2009 with 19 teams. In 2020, 166 teams played Fall Ball from Cheyenne, WY to Pueblo, CO from ages 8U Rec to 14U Elite
I have been blessed with a Husband and 3 Children that also love to volunteer and have spent much of their lives helping softball to succeed and prosper.
For 43 years I’ve been lucky to be a part of softball in Colorado and I have met some of the best people and friends through those years while playing, umpiring, coaching and volunteering.
Softball means so much more to me than just a game… It’s an amazing community of extended family and friends!