Campaign underway to build home facility for Chicago's Teflon softball team
Chicago softball team proves access matters more than talent
In Chicago, one softball team is showing that keeping kids in the game is about access ? not just talent.
CHICAGO - Not every child who loves a sport gets to stick with it. Sometimes it's not about talent, but rather who can afford to keep showing up.
In Chicago, one softball team is proving what's possible, even without the resources their head coach says that most others take for granted.
What we know:
At Centennial Park in Blue Island, it was just a practice. But everything counts: the throw to first, the cut to home, the chants from the dugout.
On this field, some are siblings.
"My sister is right there on first base," said player Caliece Townsend.
And all move like family.
The backstory:
The groundwork started in 2021 when coach India Stewart built Teflon in Pullman so Black and Brown girls wouldn't feel tokenized the way she once did.
It began with just one team. Now, these 10- to 13-year-olds make up two of the three teams in a program stacking wins and futures.
"We've won three championships, I think now, two co-championships, two second places, a few third-place finishes, and we have four kids commit to play softball in college on athletic scholarship," said Stewart.
The successes are big, and so are the costs to get there.
"Typical travel team is about $3,500 a year," Stewart said. "We were able to get a big sponsor from the White Sox, so our fees are $1,500 a year but that's still costly."
"That doesn't include what they spend in hotels, what they spend in lessons, what they spent outside of the team fees just to keep us going. So it's the cost. They make these things so expensive that a certain demographic of people can't actually participate."
She knows it's not just race. Stewart says it's how race and class collide.
By the numbers:
Most teams at this level have facilities, but few look like this one. Teflon rents by the hour.
Indoor turf one night: $250.
Batting cages the next: $40.
Cutting those costs could change everything, and for them it starts with Teflon Academy.
"A big building with turf in it and batting cages on the side," said player Elisa Gonzalez.
"We also want to add a classroom so we can have tutoring and mental health sessions for the kids," coach Stewart said.
"A lot of purple and green," player Deyani Lawrence added.
Those team colors have come to represent pride, unity and purpose. What's missing is a home base that holds that same meaning. A facility means roots, belonging, and for coach Stewart, it means more kids stay in and get into the game.
"We are still the only minority team out there pretty much in the Midwest. It's good and bad, right, because we do stick out like a sore thumb, but it's also a good thing because it pushes us," Stewart said.
And that push is what built Teflon.
Four years in, you see the impact of a former college athlete from Matteson who made a way for girls of color to keep swinging.
"When she pushes us, it's because she knows that we can do better," Gonzalez said.
In a sport where they're still underrepresented, Townsend said, "A lot of women in color don't get this opportunity."
And where access is worth the cost.
"I'm honored to have people like me, that look like me be on the team," Lawrence said.
"To see the kids be so motivated, stick through all the adversity that we faced… it's been really just fruitful to watch," Stewart said.
They've shown what's possible without a facility. Now imagine what they'll do with one.
What you can do:
The campaign to build Teflon Academy is underway, and coach Stewart says every bit helps. The team started a GoFundMe with a goal of $9,000. If you can help, just look them up on Instagram, Facebook and X.