Our Peach Orchard
CHLOE CHILDERS
Chloe Childers founded the Peaches in 1991. She was 60 years old at the time, with a lifetime of play already behind her. From her early years in Kansas, where kickball after school was an obsession, to her education at the University of Kansas where she became a physical educator, and later when she allowed students in Newfoundland, Canada to teach her their beloved game of hockey, Chloe championed a sense of play as she taught and organized sports.
Well-established in Greeley, CO and with a successful teaching career under her belt, Chloe participated in the 1991 Colorado Senior Games as an individual athlete. She relates that after those games she “bought the results book and I called every woman that had either gotten a gold or silver in any sport and asked them two questions. ‘Are you planning to go to Nationals?’ If they said yes, I said, ‘Would you like to play on a softball team there too?’” Out of this effort, a senior women’s softball team emerged that would soon be known as the Colorado Peaches.
Chloe navigated the Colorado Peaches through 21 years of play, including consecutive National Senior Games appearances between 1991 and 2009 and consecutive Huntsman World Senior Games appearances from 2007 through her retirement in 2012. She continued to excel as an individual athlete in other sports as well, winning multiple medals at Nationals in Doubles Table Tennis with Peach Pat Hutson and other partners.
Beginning in 2004, Chloe, along with her husband and two friends, established pickleball in Greeley, CO. She enthusiastically fostered the development of the game at home while playing it competitively at the Huntsman World Senior Games. Her efforts culminated in back-to-back Doubles Pickleball gold medal wins in the 80-84 bracket in 2011 and 2012 with partners Mary Hill and Gigi Sartor, respectively. Chloe’s total medal count including softball, table tennis, and pickleball stands at 18, but watch this space: she accomplished so much we may have missed something!
Her sphere of influence and the care with which she tended her connections remains dynamic—in this era of social media, the Huntsman Games re-posted a 2022 Greeley Tribune article about the Peaches. A follower named Sue Hume added this comment: “Mrs. Childers was my high school PE teacher. She came to our 50th reunion. An awesome lady and role model for young girls (and people of all ages) to be active!”
By KELLY RAGAN | The NoCo Optimist
PUBLISHED: April 15, 2017 at 11:09 p.m. | UPDATED: May 13, 2020 at 5:40 a.m.
Chloe Childers would give anything to be able to play pickleball again. She dearly loves the last medal she won at the Huntsman World Senior Games when she was in her early 80s – it’s the last time she was really able to play.
At 86, she can’t play anymore, but she can’t give it up, either. She helped bring pickleball to Greeley more than a decade ago, and she plans to help others learn how to play as long as she can.
Childers coaches a ladies-only beginners group at the Greeley Senior Activity Center, 1010 6th St., every Friday.
Childers will stand up to show the ladies the strokes and then sit back in her chair. She’ll watch them and correct what she sees. She always offers a tip of the day, too. “I do more praising,” Childers said. “I think that’s the best way to teach.”
In 2004, Childers, her late husband, Chuck, and two of their friends decided to start pickleball in Greeley. At the time, none of them knew how to play, and there were no instructors to teach them.
But she did have a background that would help her. Childers spent many years teaching physical education. She taught for a while in Canada, when her husband was stationed there in the Air Force. Later she taught at Eaton High School and Greeley Central. She played all kinds of sports from tennis to softball to hockey and more.
They got a couple books and learned the rules together. They took measurements of the courts at the Greeley Recreation Center and taped off the boundaries each time they wanted to play. Many of the pickleball players at the senior center used to be tennis players. Pickleball is easier on the shoulders and folks don’t have to move around quite as much, so the transition often feels natural. It’s easy for beginners to pick it up, too.
Together, they practiced their strokes and got better. Then she got a lot better: She won dozens of medals at pickleball tournaments.
“Of all the sports I’ve played, pickleball is the most fun of all of them,” Childers said.
Recently, the rec center painted pickleball lines on the court. They’re permanent now, a testament to how popular the sport has become.
Christy, Childers’s daughter, said she remembered when her mom was asked to coach pickleball while they were on a cruise. The cruise director didn’t know how to play, so they put Childers in charge. She was a natural.
“It’s got to be hard for her not to play anymore, but she has such a love for teaching,” Christy said. She knows her mom won’t give it up, even if it is hard.
Childers has pickle socks, pickle shirts and pickle ornaments to hang on a little tree. She has a pickleball paddle necklace. Friends bake her pickle-themed cakes.
Childers admitted she doesn’t actually like pickles at all, but that makes it all the more fun.
“Having fun is so important for your life,” Childers said. “You’ve got to stay bubbly to reach 86 years of age. Sports keep you bubbly.”
– Kelly Ragan writes features and covers health for The Greeley Tribune. Have a tip? Want to share your story? Call (970) 392-4424, email kragan@greeleytribune.com
Glass half full: After years of asking for it, Greeley residents are set to get new outdoor pickleball courts By Kelly Ragan
This is kind of a big dill – Greeley is getting new pickleball courts.
The City of Greeley is finishing up construction on new pickleball courts at Sherwood Park, 2820 13th St. Come May, the public (you fine people) will be able to use them.
According to a news release from the city, a fresh new concrete slab has replaced the old asphalt tennis courts with eight new, individual pickleball courts.
Construction crews will have to wait for warmer weather before the final topcoat can be applied, according to the release.
Pickleball is a paddleball sport that sort of combines badminton, table tennis, and tennis. It’s been gaining popularity in the community for years.
More than a decade ago, Chloe Childers, winner of the Huntsman World Senior Games in her early 80s, helped bring pickleball to Greeley. For years, she taught a beginners group at the Greeley Senior Activity Center. Back then, Childers would take measurements of the courts at the Greeley Recreation Center and tape of the boundaries to play the game.
A physical education teacher for many years, Childers told the Greeley Tribune in 2017 that pickleball was the most fun of all the sports she’d played.
According to the news release, residents have been requesting that Greeley’s Culture, Parks and Recreation Department built outdoor pickleball courts – like Windsor did in 2016.
In the spring of 2021, once the final topcoat has been applied and the surfacing has a chance to cure, residents are set to finally get their wish.
LAVERNE DRESSOR
Photo By Jenny Sparks Greeley Tribune
LaVerne Dressor put all she had into cultivating fun and community. In her 60s and beyond, this meant actively supporting softball teams and teammates, and playing with them up and down the Front Range. She and her twin, LaVaugn, were born in Denver and grew up in Fort Lupton, where LaVerne learned to play softball. She married a few years after graduating from high school, and while love of sports was an integral part of her family life, she didn’t play softball again for a long time.
LaVerne negotiated a new relationship with the game the year after her husband died. That year, as she prepared to retire from the Colorado Department of Transportation, she made a series of decisions that propelled her into renewed engagement with life and solidified her strong sense of support within community. She reached out to Chloe Childers about managing the women’s softball team she was creating, soon to be named the Colorado Peaches. At the same time, LaVerne began managing another start-up: a co-ed team based in Greeley that competed against other Front Range teams. In an unusual twist, the player base for this co-ed team was predominantly women. “Vernie,” as she was called by friends, had set her course.
Through the 1990s and into the 2000s, Vernie dedicated herself to the player-manager role on these and other teams. She continued with her tap dancing, and pursued tennis, bowling, volleyball, and later pickleball. In 1999, the Colorado Peaches won gold at the National Senior Games, which were held that year in Orlando, Florida. Matt Schuman of the Greeley Tribune wrote an article about the team’s experiences that captures Vernie’s perspective: “‘The thrill was just overwhelming,’ said Dressor, the team captain. ‘It was just something we worked so hard for. We had won the silver the last two times we competed, but couldn’t quite get the gold.’” In 1999 they left no room for doubt, winning all five of their tournament games including a shutout against Virginia in the final.
LaVerne retired from the Peaches in 2012, and in 2013 she and her teammates including Doris Brewster, Nellie Jo Girvan, Marge Rady, Bernice “Bea” Thrall, and Chloe Childers were inducted into the Greeley Senior Softball Hall of Fame.
Still swingin’ after all these years
By HILLARY WHEAT |
PUBLISHED: April 27, 2003 at 1:04 a.m. | UPDATED: May 13, 2020 at 6:27 a.m.
It’s softball season again and this year the Greeley Division E 50-plus seniors are back on the field after a one-year hiatus.
Last year, the team didn’t have the minimum 13 players to field a team. This year, the team recruited new blood, including some male players who will help them compete with the other male-dominated teams.
Texas Roadhouse is the sponsor of the team, which has nine women and four men spanning 3 decades in age.
The team opened its season in Boulder on Wednesday and will be back in Greeley at the Island Grove fields next Wednesday.
The team is led by Vernie Dressor, who has been managing since 1991, when the team began, and Bea Thrall, who is coaching for her third season. Thrall started with the team as a player back in 1991 but these days, her body is causing her too much pain to play.
But she doesn’t want to give up the game. Coaching allows her to remain a part of the team. Thrall considers her generation to be pioneers; staying active in sports is something that wasn’t popular in her parents’ generation.
Thrall has been pioneering almost her whole life. In high school, she played softball on an all-male team.
Later she joined a women’s farm baseball league while living in Indiana. She found baseball to be easier than softball because the ball is smaller, easier to grip, and can be hit farther.
But she stuck with softball her whole life and has gone to the National Senior Games three times with the Colorado Peaches team along with other members of the Texas Roadhouse: Chloe Childers, Nellie Girvan, Vernie Dressor and Doris Brewster.
https://www.greeleytribune.com/2003/04/27/still-swingin-after-all-these-years/
Greeley Senior Activity Center inducts 27 into Softball Hall of Fame
By GREELEY TRIBUNE | citydesk@greeleytribune.com |
PUBLISHED: September 6, 2013 at 10:34 a.m. | UPDATED: May 13, 2020 at 2:11 a.m.
The Greeley Senior Activity Center inducted 27 members into its Senior Softball Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
The second annual Hall of Fame Ceremony was held in conjunction with the senior Softball Celebration, an event held at the end of the summer to recognize the volunteer managers and players for their dedication and hard work during the softball season, according to a news release from Sheri Lobmeyer at the Greeley Senior Center.
The Senior Softball Hall of Fame was founded in 2012 to recognize individuals who have gone above and beyond to make Greeley’s Senior Softball Program successful, according to the release.
The 27 individuals honored as Hall of Fame inductees for 2013 are: John Blatnick, Doris Brewster, George Brewster, Chloe Childers, Frank Cribelli, Laverne Dressor, Tom Flores, Nelli Jo Girvan, Bill Goodwine, Bill Honaker, Jake Huwa, Will Jones, Dorothy Kaufman, Wally Kaufman, Don Krieger, Bobby Lind, Rob Lindley, Dan Maloney, Gene McKenna, Marge Rady, Ben Rohnke, Jerry Rouse, Clem Schuette, Bill Sharpley, Joe Slobojan, Bernice Thrall and Alvin Weber. Inductees who have passed on were remembered during a separate portion of the ceremony with a family member or close friend accepting their award for them.
A softball profile is archived for each Hall of Fame member who is also commemorated on a plaque that proudly hangs at the Greeley Senior Activity Center.
Greeley Softball Hall of Fame https://www.greeleytribune.com/2013/09/06/greeley-senior-activity-center-inducts-27-into-Greeley Softball Hall of Fame softball-hall-of-fame/
RAQUEL BISHOP
Raquel Sanchez Bishop knows the quality of any situation depends upon the people in it. From her upbringing in Michigan as one of four vibrant sisters (and a persevering brother) to the early years raising her own family just north of Detroit, Raquel dedicated herself to working with groups and taking part in society. She coached her daughters in recreational basketball teams in the sixties and spent a decade at the John F. Kennedy School in Santiago de Queretaro teaching in a bilingual and multicultural environment about three hours northwest of Mexico City. When Mexico hosted the World Cup in 1986 Raquel was in the stadium in Queretaro with 38,500 other people to watch a knockout round game between Denmark and Spain—just a few days later at Azteca stadium in Mexico City, Diego Maradona made soccer’s legendary “Hand of God” and “Goal of the Century” goals for Argentina.
After returning to the United States, Raquel settled in Aurora and built family, work, church, volunteer, and recreational sports connections. Raquel says, “I never played organized softball till I was an adult. You know, I had seven kids—and I had so much to do.” She joined the Peaches in 1992, bringing strength and accuracy to the team; she also played with Front Range co-ed and women’s teams including the HealthSouth Rehabs, ASC Ladies, and Copy Cats. She bowled, hang-glided, ran 10k races, and completed her first sky-diving jump. In 2002, she carried the Olympic torch as it made its way through Colorado. She played on the Colorado Columbines women’s basketball team with Peaches’ teammates Joy Kaylor and Rosie Melichar, and in 2005 their 65+ team placed sixth at the National Senior Games in Pittsburgh.
Recognized for her volunteer service in the Chapel Program at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center, Raquel says she “believes everyone should be a volunteer.” She participated in Meals on Wheels through the Aurora Interfaith Task Force and volunteered for many years with the Colorado Association of US Track and Field in their Membership Services division. When Chloe Childers, LaVerne Dressor, and other teammates retired from the Peaches in 2012 after 21 years together, Raquel stayed, played hard, and helped ground the situation so the Peaches could make it through the transition. In 2023, as the Peaches embarked on a new chapter in sponsorship and self-governance, the first meeting of the year was held in the top floor common room of Raquel’s assisted living residence. Group-oriented as ever, Raquel welcomed everyone and vacuumed up afterward, comfortable in the work of improving each moment of growth.
GAIL KLOCK
Gail Klock’s considered approach helped guide elementary, high-school, college-age, and senior women and girls in their lives as athletes. She steadily navigated societal change through 50 years of coaching, encountering new opportunities, heavy bias, and disruptive challenges. She found ways to make decisions, commit herself responsibly, and create space to listen to and appreciate others.
Gail was born in Wichita, KS and grew up in Pueblo, CO. The early death of a younger sibling changed her family in many ways and she and her two older brothers struggled but persevered. She graduated from high school in 1965 and went on to get her BS in Physical Education from CSU. Gail played on softball and basketball teams in college and in Wisconsin, where she had her first teaching job. When Title IX passed in 1972 she immediately pursued an MSPE degree from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro that allowed her to coach at the college level. Her master’s thesis, completed in 1974, explored the lives of intercollegiate women’s basketball coaches through data she collected state-wide in NC. She accepted consecutive coaching positions in women’s athletic programs at Wake Forest, Springfield College, and Brown University. After four years at Brown, she returned to Colorado where she coached multiple women’s sports at the Colorado School of Mines from the fall of 1980 through the spring of 1994.
Seeking more time at home with her partner Lynn and their two children, Gail earned an elementary education certification and began teaching in JeffCo’s gifted and talented program. She also coached varsity softball at Jefferson High School in Edgewater from 2009-2014 and the 2017-18 season. During these years she enjoyed playing senior basketball and contributing to oral and written histories through programs at the GLBT Community Center of Colorado. In 2015 she began coaching the Colorado Peaches.
Gail brought a deep civility to every relationship with every player on the team, and underscored the victories of personal improvement and teamwork as central to the Peaches organization. She maintained her focus on coaching even as she weathered the return of an old cancer in 2019. She coached before and after a lengthy operation, while undergoing chemotherapy, and during her own hospice care. Although COVID altered how people were able to gather in 2020, she accepted the Masters Coach of the Year award (for 2019) from Sportswomen of Colorado and was inducted into the Pueblo South High School Hall Of Fame. Gail’s humor, gravitas, and humanity are still out there, held in deep personal connections she cherished and championed on the fields where she shared her unforgettable fortitude.
2017 Colorado Public Radio (includes an interview with Gail and Maggie)
Colorado Public Radio
The Women Of The Colorado Peaches Softball Team Think They’ve Found A Fountain Of Youth By Anthony Cotton
September 15, 2017
Today, at age 86, she’s the Peaches’ elder stateswoman — but still plays a pretty good second base. That skill will come in handy when the team travels to Utah next month to play in the Huntsman Games, an international competition for seniors.
Each of the players is over 50, but McCloskey says age disappears when you’re belting a pitch into the gap in left-center. “You’re never too old to play; and that play element is so, so important,” she said. “Being on a team … I could just go on and on … it’s just awesome.”
McCloskey and the Peaches’ coach, Gail Klock, spoke with Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner about the team and the upcoming Huntsman Games.
Click on the link to hear Gail and Maggie talking about the Peaches. https://www.cpr.org/show-segment/the-women-of-the-colorado-peaches-softball-team-Peaches Founthink-theyve-found-a-fountain-of-youth/
2020 Mark Kiszla Denver Post
By MARK KISZLA mkiszla@denverpost.com The Denver Post PUBLISHED: May 16, 2020 at 4:04 p.m. | UPDATED: May 16, 2020 at 4:10 p.m.
Determined to make every last inning count, Gail Klock coaches softball while in hospice. The Colorado Peaches need Klock too much for their coach to hide under the covers, waiting for cancer take her away.
Death can wait, while the Peaches hone their swings at batting practice. “I don’t think I’m doing a very good job with this dying business and being at peace with it,” said Klock, writing the playbook on how to squeeze joy from the end of life.
From the time she fell in love with sports as a young girl in the 1950s, spring has smelled like sweet anticipation, even now, with the air heavy from sad farewells.
At a ballpark near her Lakewood home, the outfield grass turns green as unbridled hope, while the infield dirt begs a shortstop to stab a ground ball in the hole. The Peaches, a women’s softball team with 50-year-old rookies and seasoned veterans closing in on 90, take the field for practice, anxious as Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado or any major-leaguer itching to play ball again in the age of coronavirus.
One of the great sports truths has been reinforced by this pandemic: When the sun is shining, none of us has time to waste.
So as the sarcoma that began festering in Klock’s hip has spread to her lungs and lymph nodes, recent words from her psychologist made perfect sense: “You don’t have to be at peace with dying, Gail. You’ve been a fighter all your life. Of course you’re fighting it now.”
On May 31, donning masks that not only will protect them from the dangers of COVID-19 but also seem destined to absorb heartfelt tears, the Peaches will gather at Addenbrooke Park in suburban Denver, as Klock is presented a special lifetime achievement award from Sportswomen of Colorado.
“We don’t know how much time Gail has left,” said Fran Simon, the youngest player in the Peaches lineup. “We hear her tell us, ‘Look, I’m not going to be (alive) for a tournament in October.’ And that’s really hard. But she also talks about going to batting practice next week, because she is a teacher and a coach to her core.”
During my lifetime covering sports, benefiting from a never-ending seminar taught by Hall of Fame coaches, I’ve been blessed to sit at the knee of the late John Wooden at the Final Four. I’ve been squeezed by a warm bear hug from NHL legend Scotty Bowman, far from a hockey rink, at a storied golf course in Scotland.
Well, it seems to me Klock has also mastered the best magic trick performed by Wooden and Bowman. To become a truly great leader, a coach must first be a selfless servant, because all those victories ring hollow unless love for player development is devoid of ego and offered as a humble gift.
“I fell in love with sports as a kid, because I was good at them, even though a girl playing sports was so frowned upon at the time I sometimes felt a sense of shame, like it was inappropriate,” said Klock, born on August 30, 1947, in Pueblo.
Klock is too humble to say, so I will shout it from Mount Evans: She was born with a pioneer spirit as indomitable as the Rocky Mountains.
Wanting the game in her hands, Klock gravitated to the pitcher’s mound as a child, striking out boys on the playground. Undaunted by the prejudicial, restrictive social mores of the 1960s, she organized pick-up basketball games against girls from a cross-town school, despite being threatened with expulsion by a high-school principal who acted as if sweating was against state law for teenage girls.
Upon graduation from Colorado State, Klock fought for female sports equality on the front line of Title IX battles, as a coach at Wake Forest, Brown and Colorado School of Mines, where she simultaneously led the volleyball, softball and basketball programs. Decades before “Modern Family” became a popular TV show, Klock and her longtime partner raised two beautiful daughters, conceived through artificial insemination.
Get the picture? Challenges make Klock feel alive. After doctors discovered sarcoma in her hip during the summer of 2011, she not only beat the snot out of the disease, but triumphantly laced up her sneakers again on the basketball court. “When I got the little pin that declared I was cancer free for five years,” Klock said, “it meant more to me than any sports trophy I’d ever won.”
- The cancer, however, returned with a vengeance a year ago, refusing to be stopped this time. But quit?
No way.
2021 9 News 4 pm Honors Gail