Steel City Kickers kickball league provides community, mentorship for women

Rene Robinson had been an athlete all her life — she played college basketball at Carlow — but this game was as competitive as any she ever played.

It happened four years ago, but she remembers it well.

“Our hearts pounding and hands sweating in the championship game against the Diamond Divas,” Robinson said. “Game’s tied 0-0 up until the seventh inning, and it was a fight until the finish. Eventually, the Divas scored in the bottom of the seventh. You could cut the air with a knife at that time. Everyone was invested. It was intense.”

It was kickball.

The Steel City Kickers is a kickball league designed to promote lifelong enjoyment of recreation for women of all ages in a safe space while encouraging sisterhood, community bonding, healthy habits and equipping the next generation of women through mentorship.

The league plays a 10-week schedule from June until August, including playoffs, skills competitions and an annual awards ceremony.

There are seven teams in the league: the Renegades (Robinson’s team), the Royal T Divas, the Diva Dolls, the Main Event, Alive & Kicking, the Hell Katz and defending champion Blackout. On opening day at Scott High Field in in North Braddock, Pittsburgh mayor Ed Gainey was in attendance.

Robinson, 41, owns Reset Fitness, a fitness studio on Pittsburgh’s North Side. She joined the Steel City Kickers in 2016 after an invite from friend Pasha Cook. She began to realize that the league became an outlet for her depression recovery.

“I had some really bad postpartum depression, and I just lost my job. It seemed like something to lift my spirits.” Robinson said. “I believe it was instrumental to my recovery. Who doesn’t love kickball? It’s like a village. Even though we are competing against each other, we support each other.

“My team, we don’t just talk during the season. We hang out in the offseason, and our kids do as well.”

The league is made of players from throughout the Pittsburgh area.

“Since covid, it’s been somewhat low. There were 13 teams before covid.” said Jeff O’Kelly, the league’s commissioner and co-founder.

O’Kelly started the league alongside the late Esha Sheard. They had a vision to promote community and mentorship.

“When we first started in 2013-14, it changed from women having a getaway from family and jobs to health and welfare,” O’Kelly said. “The biggest thing we’re trying to do is more mentorship. It’s going to be more community as opposed to someone doing things by yourself.”

Sheard was president of the Steel City Kickers for its first two seasons before she died.

Her vision of having a women-led organization carried on as O’Kelly appointed Barb Moore as second president and later Mylia Jackson as third president of the league.

Jackson took Steel City Kickers to new heights with her appointment.

“She’s the one who took us to the part where we wanted to do more things for the community,” O’Kelly said.

O’Kelly recently appointed Janelle McLain as 2023 president of the Kickers.

McLain began working with the league in 2020 as a director of operations, where she used her operations and professional writing background to help manage the day-to-day duties of the league.