FITNESS
Getting In the
Game
One of our own heads up the East Suburban Sports League By Ignacio Filippini Photographed by Mara Rago
Meet Jeanna Rayman. She loves sports. She grew up in North Huntingdon, playing everything from softball to tennis. An adorable aside: Jeanna even met her girlfriend, Lacey, playing basketball. “We were playing on opposing teams when I finally realized she was the cute girl from a Lez Liquor Hour, who I was secretly checking out for months,” Jeanna says. “That is when I decided to start letting her score on me — on the court — to make her feel better about her basketball skills.” For a while, Jeanna and her sister, Sheli, and her brother-in-law, Luke, drove into Pittsburgh to play flag football a couple of times a week. “Traffic could be a total nightmare, depending on what else was going on that night,” she remembers. Jeanna and her family saw an opportunity to bring adult intramural sports to Westmoreland County. Soon after that, the East Suburban Sports League (ESSL) was born. ESSL offers dwellers of the eastern suburbs the opportunity to continue to be involved in the sports that they grew up loving and to share in healthy physical activity with friends and family in their neighborhood. “The idea of having the ESSL is to encourage people to become active and have a good time,” Jeanna says. “Adults from all over are encouraged to put together a team and become a part of the ESSL.” Jeanna’s also busy building teams for individuals. “Individual sign-ups are great for people who are new to the area, looking for a way to meet others. We will put together a team for you.” 28
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