Catholic Softball Group puts Jesus at the center of weekly gatherings on the diamond

Breaking up with a woman he thought he would marry led John Ondrey to form a Catholic softball league that has grown far beyond what he had imagined.

In 2015, after ending the relationship, he started thinking about ways to meet people who shared his Catholic faith. One evening during Lent, he was attending a Bible study at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul with a group of young adults downstairs in Hayden Hall. Near the end of the gathering, he used one simple question to guide his next move.

“I just wanted to play softball” that summer, recalled Ondrey, 39, who belongs to St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony. “So, at the end of the Bible study, I stood up and asked everyone: ‘Does anyone want to play softball?’ … A number of people raised their hands, and I got out a piece of paper and got their email addresses. And, I thought, ’That was so easy. We just got a whole entire team — a coed team — and I just had to ask one time.’”

The very next day, during an event called Cathedral Sports Night, Ondrey made the same invitation, this time with his identical twin brother, James. Again, a bunch of hands shot up. In just two nights, they had recruited enough players to form two coed teams.

They joined a league in Roseville in 2015 with those two teams, and steadily added players over the next four years. Then, in 2019, they formed their own league and named it Catholic Softball Group. They also formed a leadership team, including people like Peter Shutte, their classmate at Totino-Grace High School in Fridley who started playing in 2016.

This year, there are 16 teams and 192 players, representing 63 parishes, with leagues in the summer and fall. This year’s summer league, which features 16 games from 6-10 p.m. every Thursday through mid-July, filled up fast. John and James had to turn away 74 people because they did not have enough field space on the four diamonds at Pioneer Park in Little Canada.

Although the main draw is softball, the group is much more than that, the two brothers emphasized. CSG offers service projects like food packing at Feed My Starving Children, social gatherings, plus spiritual events like Masses, prayer gatherings and retreats. The entire array of activities attracts — and keeps — Catholic young adults who are seeking connections with other like-minded young adults.

MaryPat Thune is in her first year of CSG. Her involvement began at events taking place during the winter months, before softball started. She learned of the group after seeing a woman wearing a Catholic Softball Group sweatshirt. That steered her to a Google search and a very enthusiastic decision to join after visiting the group’s website, catholicsoftball.com.

“I just started going to events, and here we are,” said Thune, 25, who belongs to St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park and plays on a team called 3:16ers (a Scriptural reference to John 3:16). “God has changed my life in the best way. I have found the best community in the whole wide world, and I am so grateful for it.”

In addition to picking up a bat and a glove, Thune, who played high school softball, carries a camera. She takes photos weekly at the games, and works with the person in charge of photography for the group, Gina Hansen of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, who has been taking photos the last three seasons and also played for two seasons. After only a few months of participation, Thune calls the group “absolutely beautiful.”

For some, it’s much more than that. Justine and Chip Reisman met on the field at CSG in 2020 and struck up a friendship that led to their nuptials on Sept. 25, 2021. After their wedding ceremony at St. Rose of Lima in Roseville, they drove to Pioneer Park for a few photos. The fields already were a part of their romantic history, as they took engagement photos there also. They are one of five married couples who met at CSG, with the league also boasting four couples who are currently engaged.

Recently, the Reismans’ connection with CSG entered the second generation with the birth of their first child, CJ, on June 13. But, that didn’t keep them off the diamond. Just three days later, the couple donned their jerseys and brought CJ to Pioneer Park for a night of softball interspersed with showing off their newborn. Likely, he was the youngest fan in attendance.

At this event, that’s saying something. Among the four adjoining fields with a shelter in the middle where a potluck dinner is served, there can be heard the sound of children playing and babies crying all through the evening. Some are children of players, with the Ondrey brothers pointing out that the league is open to singles and those who are married. The only requirement for membership is to be 18 years of age or older.

Players do not need to be Catholic, though most of them are. But, make no mistake, faith and faith-based fellowship are at the center of all league activities, on and off the field. It has been that way since the beginning, and it is why the league formed in the first place, the Ondrey brothers said.

“We want to have real, authentic relationships with each other and grow closer to him (Christ) through this group,” said James, who, like his brother, also is a parishioner at St. Charles. “I think that’s why people are coming. It brings us hope. … We’re hanging out with other Catholics and we’re trying to become the people that God is calling us to be.”

The league is even drawing people who don’t play softball. Katie Hines of St. Pius X in White Bear Lake comes faithfully every week to cheer on the players and chat with them during breaks in the action. Like many others, she comes to non-softball events, too, and has found a place to deepen her faith and friendships.

“I can’t even fully put into words how much CSG and this community mean to me,” said Hines, 28, who started attending CSG games last fall and has been to every softball event this year since the season opener April 28. “It was a huge blessing when I came across this community.”

She found out about it last year when a friend joined the fall league.

“I came to check it out and basically fell in love with the league, and the (softball) nights and the people, basically from the first night,” she said. “I have been a part of it ever since. It made such a huge impact on my life to be a part of this incredible community that’s all here for the same reasons. They’re here for the shared love of softball and the shared love of faith and of God.”

Among the league regulars is Father Andrew Zipp, 29, who was ordained in 2019 and serves at St. Vincent de Paul, Thune’s parish. This is his second year in the league, and his father, Scott Zipp, played in the fall league last year, and likely will play again this fall. Scott had hoped to play this summer, but the player limit was reached before he could sign up.

“It’s great, it’s a lot of fun — great time to just kick back, chill out, be competitive with a bunch of great young adults,” said Father Zipp, who showed some hitting skills during a recent Thursday night game. “It’s a wonderful group of people, and I just find so much joy to be here with all of them.”

At the moment, Father Zipp is the only priest playing regularly in CSG, but he’s hoping that will change.

“I’ve been inviting brother priests to join,” he noted, “and I think I got some who are going to join this next fall league, so I’m excited.”

But, with more recruitment of new players comes a downside.

“The problem that we’re running into is that we keep telling our friends, and now it’s really hard to get on the roster because we can’t fit everyone,” said Leah Balster, 27, of St. Helena in Minneapolis, who started playing last summer.

Signing up has become quite a squeeze. James Ondrey said that registration for the upcoming fall season, which begins in August, opened June 8. Within seven days, 196 people had signed up, leading the Ondrey brothers and other league organizers to ponder the possibility of league expansion.

“It’s just growing like crazy,” said Shutte, 40, of Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights, the current league director who met his now-fiancée, Sarah Thelen of St. Peter in North St. Paul, in 2019 at CSG. “We’re trying to find more fields. We’re trying to find ways to get more people involved. Hopefully, we can do a men’s league this fall, which is our plan.”

He added: “It’s been a great experience for a lot of people. We’re happy. … We want to do the most for the most people possible. We want to grow it (league) the best we can.”

For the Ondreys, that means continuing to follow the Lord’s promptings.

“God keeps blessing it,” John Ondrey said. “We did not envision this when we first started, but God kept blessing it and kept saying, ‘Keep expanding, keep going.’”

The league will have playoffs in July, then take a short break before the fall league begins. On opening night Aug. 4, Archbishop Bernard Hebda will attend and offer an opening prayer and blessing. The Ondreys also have invited him to throw out a ceremonial first pitch. That is a fitting way to start something that has become “sort of a ministry,” James Ondrey said.

“We encourage each other to follow him (Christ) a little closer, and to do his will,” he said. “So, if we can just draw a little closer to him as a result of this group, then I think we’ve done our job. I’m just humbled … to be a part of it. It’s a privilege to be in this position of leadership.”
He added: “This is where God has placed us, and we’re going to make the most of it. And, we’re going to try to do everything that God is calling us to do, and to use this for his glory.”

Photos by Dave Hrbacek