Renee Strasser started playing baseball at age nine in a boys Little League team in Alsip, Illinois. She was one
of three girls allowed to play in the league. When Little League officials wouldn’t let them advance to the
next level of competition, they joined Alsip Park District’s sixteen-inch softball for girls.
At age eleven Renee was selected
to play on the Alsip Cardinal’s traveling team. Upon entering the women’s division as a teenager, she was recruited by Ron Hurry to play for the Oak Lawn Bidayos. When she was not playing for the Bidayos, Renee was traveling the United States competing in eleven-inch softball as one of Bill Brokall’s Angels. She began her softball career playing shortstop and switched to center field as a teenager. Renee also competed in fast pitch softball at Moraine Valley and at Indiana State University as a scholarship player. When she joined the Bidayos, she claimed left field as her