William Hill was raised on the South side of Chicago in the West Woodlawn neighborhood. He attended Mc Cosh Grammar School and Chicago Vocational High School where he played baseball and football. At fifteen, he started playing softball with the West Woodlawn Crusaders as a utility player in the outfield and infield. He played at …
Larry Piekarz has worked in the parks and recreation field since 1979. He has worked for the Park District of Forest Park since 1989. He started as Superintendent of Recreation and was named Director of Parks and Recreation in 2007 when Dave Novak retired. He has also served as Commissioner for the Streamwood Park …
Larry Randa played a big role in the golden era of suburban newspapers and in a “golden era” of suburban sixteen-inch softball. Now the Community Relations Director for Valley View Community Unit District 365U in Bolingbrook and Romeoville, Randa is a former senior executive for LIFE Newspapers, a family-owned media group that published multiweeklies in …
Gary began playing softball with his when he was seventeen in his hometown of Brookfield, Illinois. He quickly developed a love for the competitiveness of the game and was picked to play on many teams throughout Chicago and the suburbs. He played first and third base for the Lords and the Squires in leagues throughout …
Richard “Richie” Klein began organizing softball games with the three other grammar schools in his hometown in third grade in 1958. His organizing efforts continued in1978, after his boss and the senior office-leasing executive from a rival firm engaged in some trash talking. A challenge was made and Richard was put in charge of organizing …
From 1980 to 1994, Frank Fiarito coached the Panthers to twenty-nine league titles and six hundred wins. The teams finished second, third, and fourth in the ASA “A” Nationals and were runners-up in the eighty-two team USSSA 1989 state tournament. In 1995 he was the USSSA National Rookie Director of the Year for 16-inch softball. …
Rusty Carlson began playing organized softball when he was fifteen. He would continue to play for the next twenty-two years in many leagues and tournaments, with the majority being played in Cicero, and at Kelly and Reece Parks. Besides playing, he also umpired for the ASA and USSSA for over twenty years. He umpired the …
Ask any sixteen-inch softball player to mention some of the top organizers for the past thirty years and Tom Levar’s name will surely appear at the top of that list. He started his organizing career as league director at Indian Road Park, running “A” and “B” league tournaments in 1977. The next year he moved …
Bill Kohl graduated from Morton East in 1969 where he played football. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1973. He started his career in parks and recreation after coaching basketball teams to four titles in five years at Clyde Park, including two undefeated seasons. These teams included ability levels from sixteenand- …
Steve Kashul serves as the pregame, halftime, and post-game host for the Chicago Bulls, working alongside the play-by-play team of Chuck Swirsky and Bill Wennington on the Chicago Bulls Radio Network. He is co-owner of Channel Fore, Inc, a media production company that produces the Golf Scene for television and radio. He serves as the …
