Tuesday night game on the traditional church parking lot court. Spectators come with their own folding chairs to cheer on the athletes from the grass. Indianapolis CYO kickball, open to girls in grades 3-8, is the country’s only organized kickball league, culminating in tournament play. Photo by Sam Hirt.
I’VE HAD ONLY one sports related injury in my life—and it was during a Catholic Youth Organization girls’ kickball game.
As a spectator.
My niece was a fifth grader at St. Louis de Montfort in 2011. Molly’s team was playing an away game against the team at St. Thomas Aquinas, where the field doubles as the church parking lot. At the time, I was considered a bit of a social media expert among the CYO parents. My expertise mostly stemmed from not having children and needing to stay up to date on my own social media accounts. The middle school set was all about Instagram, and a mom asked me to look at her daughter’s profile.
I found the seventh grader’s Instagram page, which featured the child’s full name, picture, city, and phone number—all right there for the world to see. I was so engrossed in explaining to the woman that her daughter needed to lock down her account that I failed to see the line drive headed my way.
The orange rubber ball hit me squarely on the forehead. My glasses went flying one way and my phone the other. My vintage aluminum lawn chair with frayed webbing folded underneath me, and I landed awkwardly between first and second base. My unsympathetic brother yelled that I should have been paying attention, and, in my embarrassment, I squeaked back, “I was saving a life!”
Both kickball teams avoided looking my way, some more studiously than others. That rogue ball reminded me just how fierce—and beloved—this sport really is, especially in a city where Catholic kickball has shaped childhoods for decades.
The Indianapolis Diocese CYO officially formed in 1939. The first year’s activities included organizing a golf tournament and a dance, creating boys’ softball and basketball leagues, and choosing a patron saint—St. John Bosco, who dedicated his life to helping young people. The next spring, the girls’ kickball league was formed, with rules established by Father Bernard Gerdon.
CYO kickball is played in both the spring and fall seasons. Surprisingly, the games are played on paved parking lots around the city—a tradition decided in 1950 in the only note written on the schedule that year: “At the meeting of the Priests on Thursday, April 20, all agreed that wherever possible games should be played on those school grounds where there is a black top surface.”
knee socks demonstrate one of the Catholic kickball world’s traditions: wearing a sock on one leg—your kicking leg. Games last about an hour under the blazing Indiana sun, making water bottles required sideline equipment. Photo by Sam Hirt.
a girl catches the kick bal during a girls' catholic kickball game
Nothing says childhood safety like blazing hot asphalt.
In 1950, there were 16 teams split into two divisions. Each division played seven regular-season games. The Holy Cross team was declared the spring playoff champion, and St. Catherine took home the fall honors. An official size and color of the kickball to be used was the big news of 1955: “The most popular make is manufactured by the Seamless Rubber Company, and is carried by the Sportsman’s Store. The manufacturer’s number is 504. If you don’t wish to use this particular brand, at least take pains to see that the balls you use conform exactly in size, weight and cover to the ball mentioned above.”
By 1961, the league had expanded to four divisions and a whopping 32 teams. This was the first year an illustration of the standard CYO kickball diamond—outlining the exact dimensions of the field, along with notes on painting the parking lot—was included in the schedule. Just two years later, three pages of revised guidelines and rules were added, including 19 notes on parish-specific irregularities. For the teams playing at St. Joan of Arc, for example, the directions advised, “Any ball kicked into Park Ave., into one of the trees, or into the fire plug is a ground rule double.” A 1979 note congratulated the coaches and priest moderators for working with nearly 2,000 girls in such a wholesome way. In 1992, a notice to all CYO kickball coaches was included with the playoff schedule, reminding the coaches, “You must help your players feel proud that they have succeeded in reaching realistic goals, whether the game was won or lost. Winning means trying as hard as possible to improve, relative to one’s own standards and goals.” What a great message, not just for kickball, but for life.
I am the least competitive person I know. It’s true—I’ve been tested. That said, I love sports, and I wish I had been exposed to competition and teamwork growing up. The closest I got to playing CYO kickball? My mom taught at Holy Name Catholic School while she was pregnant with me. For the record, the Holy Name kickball team beat Holy Cross 26 to 2 on the day I was born.
Kickball wasn’t played at the Catholic grade and middle schools I went to, including St. Joseph’s Catholic School, which closed after my third-grade year. I attended Ladywood St. Agnes (go Lizards!), the last all-girls Catholic high school in Indianapolis. I remember my class being divided into teams for gym and being sent outdoors to play a field game. I was lost. I’d never played on a team before. I wandered to the edge of the field, trying to look invisible while blinking back tears. Thankfully, my classmates—many of whom had played CYO kickball—knew exactly how to console someone on the sidelines.
players hug following a girls' catholic kickball game
St. Agnes closed after my freshman year. For those keeping score, that means I closed two Catholic schools during my academic career. I didn’t dare attend a Catholic university.
Today, CYO kickball is still going strong. The 2024 fall league had 124 teams split into A and B divisions, each with 10 to 14 players. Kerry Lynch, girls’ athletic director for CYO Archdiocese Indianapolis, estimates that at least 100,000 girls have participated in the kickball program since its inception. While the tradition runs deep, change is inevitable. In 2024, the iconic orange kickball was discontinued by the manufacturer. The newly approved kickball is a white Mikasa S3030, although you may still see the old ones in play.
Molly Spitznogle, no longer a fifth grader, is now 25 and the account executive for group sales with the Indianapolis Colts. I’m happy to report she doesn’t remember my lawn chair incident. (Maybe I shouldn’t have reminded her—yet another setback in my quest to be the cool aunt.) CYO sports made a difference in Molly’s life. “There was so much you could do without even having to be athletic,” she tells me. “Some of my friends weren’t great athletes, and it was still fun. No one got kicked off for not being good. You still got the cheers. You were learning about leadership without even realizing it.”
Maybe the priests in 1950 weren’t off-base about kickball being played on asphalt. Molly adds, “I remember going to kickball practice in the summer on the black asphalt that was freshly coated with tar—a very distinct smell that reminds me of summer and kickball.”
Most kids participate in CYO kickball through Catholic grade schools. Parishes without schools can also form teams and join the fun. So, if you see a group of girls hurling a big white ball across a shiny church parking lot, don’t dismiss it as just a game. It’s a rite of passage sprinkled with bonding and leadership skills.
And look up from your phone—those girls are powerful kickers.
