ROOKIE, LEGENDS, GOAT
THE ROOKIE, THE LEGENDS AND THE GOAT! BY CONNIE WARDMAN
Having written lots of stories about the many LGBTQIA+ sports teams, leagues and organizations over the years, I know that they all have their own rules, regulations, procedures and traditions. But what turns them into living, thriving organisms are their members and their stories. (And just between you, me and the outfield, the stories of the always impressive ASANA women are among my all-time favorites!)
THE GOAT Nina Cole (she, her, hers) League: HOTLANTA Softball League (HSL) Hall of Fame Inaugural Class of 2001 Let’s start with the GOAT, the Greatest of All Time; the member who is still involved in ASANA but no is longer playing. At age 73 Nina has been AND
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“Appreciate how good you have it now; people don’t judge you. Be who you are!" - Nina Cole continues to be a long-term stabilizing force for queer women’s softball. Technically. women had been able to play in the NAGAAA World Series for the first time in 1985 with up to two men on their team. But this organized group for females only began in 1991 as a small female division of NAGAAA, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance, which at that time was really a huge organization for queer male softball players from the U.S. and Canada. Nina had joined the Hotlanta Softball League in 1990 coaching an A division team and by 1997 she was elected treasurer of the women’s division, a position she has continued to hold through the transition to ASANA in 2007 to today. When her current term expires in 2022, she will have spent 25 years in this important role. A few of ASANA’s current members were there as inaugural members of this new women’s division in 1991, one being Nina, who as a lesbian says she never dreamed back then that she could be part of such an open and accepting sports organization as ASANA. As a high school physical education teacher and coach in Cobb County, Georgia for 20 years, she couldn’t have her name or her picture
8 COMPETE 2021 ASANA Special Edition
