Jackson Grubbe '23
Staff Editor
Jack Brown '23
Sports Editor
Pictured: UVA Law Presents $35,000 Donation to ReadyKids (Photo Credits: UVA Law NGSL)
On March 31, over 1,000 law students from thirty-seven different law schools descended on Charlottesville for the annual UVA Law Softball Invitational. The tournament, celebrating its 40th iteration this year, donates its proceeds to ReadyKids, a local charity in Charlottesville that provides educational and counseling services to low-income children and their families. It also is a highlight of many law schools’ social calendars, with parties on Friday and Saturday night happening at some of Charlottesville’s most exclusive locations (mostly Bilt and Crozet, though we did get Rapture this year to appease New York students looking for a club atmosphere). Despite some challenges, this year’s tournament was a massive success, with $35,000 donated to ReadyKids—a $10,000 increase from the record set last year.
The tournament has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1983. Originally conceived by Tom McNeill ’84, Bob Stewart ’85, and Bob Battle at a bar over winter break, the first tournament had twelveschools send teams. UVA students volunteered to house the visitors for the weekend. The first tournament was so successful that it became an annual event, with teams from all over the country traveling to Charlottesville to take part.
For the first two decades, the tournament was mainly a recreational event for law students to play softball, party, and hopefully escape the never-ending conversations around black letter law that seemed to follow them everywhere they congregated. The tournament began to have a charitable element in 2000 when Elizabeth “Buffie” Scott, the wife of then-Dean Robert E. Scott, advocated for the tournament to make a donation to ReadyKids. Mrs. Scott was a member of the organization’s board of directors and believed that the North Grounds Softball League (NGSL)—the group that organizes the tournament—could help ReadyKids provide even greater support to families in the Charlottesville community. Since the partnership began, NGSL has raised over $400,000 for ReadyKids, with a minimum of $20,000 going to the charity for the last fourteenyears, excluding 2021’s pandemic-limited tournament.
At times, the tournament has boasted over 110 teams competing in three different brackets. The only thing that could stop the tournament was the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the 2020 Invitational and threatened to end the tradition because no students had seen how the event was supposed to run. In 2021, NGSL hosted a small, internal tournament to keep the tradition alive and donate to ReadyKids, but the invitational was nowhere near its previous size.
The thirty-ninth tournament the following year was a return to form thanks to the hard work of Alex Castle ’22, Christina Kelly ’22, and Eric Feldman ’22, who used old documents to revive the tournament and donate a then-record $25,000 to ReadyKids. Their work helped keep this incredible tradition alive when it so easily could have faded away as an understandable victim of the pandemic.
A streak possibly more improbable than the tournament’s forty-year survival is—was—its fifteen-year streak of good weather. That streak ended this year, with unexpectedly-heavy showers rendering all city and county fields unusable on Saturday. After receiving news at 10 a.m. that the rain delays would become cancellations, the tournament team rose to the challenge and recreated the tournament bracket to get games started by 11 a.m. Tireless work by the UVA Grounds crew, field monitor volunteers, and tournament committee heads helped keep the tournament on track despite Mother Nature’s best efforts.
Once the skies cleared up on Saturday afternoon, it was business as usual, with last year’s runner-up, the FSU Alumni team, winning the Open Bracket, and UVA’s own Co-Rec Gold team defending their title in a much more competitive Co-Rec Bracket than last year. (The Co-Rec Bracket requires at least three non-male-identifying players to play in the field, whereas the Open bracket has no such rule.)
The FSU Alumni team previously signed up for the canceled 2020 tournament, so they were invited back when the full tournament returned in 2022. In the Open Bracket, they faced off against UVA’s Open Gold team in a thrilling final, but lost 24-22. They were invited back again in 2023 and stormed through the weather-abbreviated bracket, winning by twenty-seven runs in the final. FSU captain T.J. Percell said, “We absolutely love coming to this tournament. . . . We treat it as a big reunion for our guys, since COVID took away two of our years together and this is the only chance we get to play together post-law school,” since their players live all around the country. Their camaraderie and experience showed. From the first game, FSU was the favorite to win the Open Bracket.
By contrast, UVA Co-Rec Gold had a difficult run to the championship. The Co-Rec Bracket had many more teams (fifty-six Co-Rec teams vs. twelve Open teams). UVA also took steps to spread its talent across teams after an absurd run to the championship last year—Co-Rec Gold’s final run differential was 216-20. With a close game against Brooklyn Law School, a stern test by UVA Co-Rec Blue in the semifinals, and a matchup with a star-studded William & Mary Alumni team in the final, Co-Rec Gold became repeat champions, winning a thrilling final 25-24.
This amazing run capped off the softball careers of two of North Grounds’ most consistent and skilled players and captains: Laura Lowry ’23 and Jon Peterson ’23. With the help of elite third baseman Christian Slattery ’23 and new father Jacob Mitchell ’23, they were able to keep the team calm under pressure and set next year’s team up for continued success.
Reflecting on her time on Co-Rec Gold, Lowry said, “Co-Rec Gold has given me the chance to get to know people I probably otherwise wouldn’t cross paths with. Softball really brings the entire Law School community together. The tournament allows us to share that special part of our community with other law schools, and that’s what keeps bringing all of these schools to Charlottesville every year.” Lowry pitched a complete tournament and hit an over-the-fence home run in a performance commentators are calling a “Shohei-esque performance.”
Just as vital to the team’s success was Peterson’s performance as leadoff hitter and left center fielder. His most important moment came in the championship’s fifth inning, when, with two outs, he hit a grand slam, giving Co-Rec Gold a lead they held for the rest of the game. Echoing Lowry’s emphasis on the power softball had to bring people together, Peterson said, “It is just awesome to see how my softball experience has grown from being a last-ditch effort to create a community during a global pandemic, to playing in a massive tournament with students from all over participating.”
Founder Tom McNeill noted “what an incredible national event this has become.” He said he and the other inaugural tournament directors “never DREAMED it would turn out like this!” With teams already excited for the forty-first tournament, the future looks bright for the nation’s longest-running law school sports tournament. A special thanks to Deputy Tournament Director Shivani Arimilli ’23 and Head Field Monitors Sally Levin ’24 and Rachel Lia ’24, who went above and beyond to make this year’s tournament possible.
— Jackson and Jack
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jmg3qt@virginia.edu
jwb4bb@virginia.edu
