Six years ago, Kay Patel and his friends casually signed up to play kickball with a team through Syracuse Sports Association. Now he’s one of the owners of the business, met his girlfriend and made some best friends.

“The memories are endless,” Patel said. “It’s always a good time.”

Jim Collura, a contractor, and Andrew Cherock, who works in real estate, started Syracuse Sports Association in 2010. They came up with the idea after Collura organized a few kickball teams for adults in the area and noticed an increasing demand for the sport.

There were waiting lists of teams wanting to compete but had nowhere to play, Cherock said. The duo stepped in, creating Syracuse Sports Association to help organize adult recreation. Now, they have about 150 kickball teams registered.

The organization has expanded to include fast-pitch and slow-pitch softball, flag football, basketball, volleyball, dodgeball and bowling in the Syracuse area and kickball in Utica.

Kickball is by far the most popular sport, with softball in second place. All sports, — except football, basketball, dodgeball and bowling — offer level leagues from novice to advanced.

This year, Syracuse Sports Association merged with Hazen’s Athletic Center in Central Square, New York, run by former Colgate University softball coach Heidi Hazen-Forte. She oversees the facility, which offers private lessons and batting cages, as well as the fast-pitch part of the organization that includes girls’ 23U, 18U, 14U and 12U teams.

“We’re trying to build our own little empire here,” Cherock said.

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People sign up with their own teams or come to the league as “free agents” looking for a team to join. Most of the teams are made up of groups of friends or co-workers while other times it’s people who’ve signed up on their own and are put together on a team.

“There’s a bunch of teams where it’s half people that know each other and half don’t,” Cherock said, “so it’s just people meeting each other and making new friends.”

In 2012, Patel became a co-owner after seeing how many people were involved and how successful the league was becoming. He played soccer in high school and Syracuse Sports Association gave him a way to continue playing sports with other people looking to have a good time.

Patel started off playing five nights a week but has slowed down since managing the team “Gon’ Kick One” every Thursday night. After most games, Patel will go to bars with the team to celebrate — whether they win or not.

“They’ve done a great job keeping it social but also competitive at the same time,” Patel said. “They’ve done a great job of bringing the community together.”

In addition to bringing people together, local businesses get involved to sponsor teams. Patel’s team is sponsored by Chuck Hafner’s Farmers Market and Garden Center Syracuse and Sharkey’s Bar & Grill. They’ve won their league’s championship four or five times and Sharkey’s has the team’s pink and blue jersey hanging up. He said he loves seeing it there, especially when they come in for a drink after a game.

For Patel, playing with Syracuse Sports Association has a deeper meaning. He played soccer with Justin Conover, who died of cancer in November 2016. Now when they play it’s in honor of Conover’s memory, he said. His team plans to play in the State University of New York Upstate Medical University Cancer Center’s Kick Cancer Kickball Tournament in May. Weekend tournaments like this is one of Patel’s favorite parts of playing in the league because they last all day.

With every season, Syracuse Sports Association continues to expand. Right now, it hosts games at 15 different locations in both the Syracuse area and Utica. Signups are always open for people looking to add an extra bit of fun in their life.

“I feel like I’ve done something for the community,” Cherock said. “I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I grew up here and everyone thinks ‘oh, Syracuse, there’s not a lot to do’ but I feel like this has created something — something more for people to do.”

Published on April 25, 2017 at 11:31 pm

Contact Caroline: cbarthol@syr.edu