SEYMOUR – The last surviving coach from a Seymour Little League softball team that made it all the way to the World Series 46 years ago turned 90 years old in September.

Melvin St. Louis, nicknamed “Shorty,” lives in Virginia but made the trek to the Valley to mark the milestone.  

His former players from the 10-to-12 year old team could not make the celebration Sept. 20 at the Brookside Inn in Oxford.

However, The Valley Indy interviewed several of the players last week and they all said St. Louis and the championship season is something they will never forget.

St. Louis was the assistant coach with George J. Hummel Little League when the girls made it to the World Series in Kalamazoo, Mich. in August 1980.

Seymour lost to a team from Glendale, Calif. in the championship, but the season foreshadowed what became a powerhouse softball program.

Jodi (Radcliffe) Starkey was a pitcher and first baseman. She wasn’t able to attend the party but shared her memories of St. Louis and the 1980 season.

“He was wonderful and we loved him, he was just a good guy,” Starkey said. “Back then, you respected your coaches, we all rode our bikes to the Little League field, and there were no cell phones. The trip to the World Series was one of the greatest times in our lives. We still all talk about it whenever we see each other. We loved making fun of Coach Shorty, and many of us, at 10, 12 years old were taller than him. We were all very close and are still friends today.”

Seymour softball has a storied history including twelve state championships at the high school level, with the first happening in 1993, and a 78-game winning streak between 2005 and 2007. 

The 1980 Little League season is important to that history.

The late Bob Lepardo was the head coach.

Seymour represented the East Region in the national tourney in 1980. They beat a team from Chicago to make it to the championship, where they lost 9-4 in what St. Louis called “a real heartbreaker.”

“It was Seymour’s first time (going) to a World Series, and it was an amazing and wonderful event,” St. Louis said during a recent phone interview with the Valley Indy. “I’ve got memories from there that will never go away.”

St. Louis keeps a scrapbook, baseball hat, state flag from Michigan’s governor and other mementos from the World Series.

“I have nothing but good memories with these girls, they were a nice bunch of girls,” St. Louis said. “They never stepped out of line, they were always happy-go-lucky and willing to help each other. And they were darn well talented.”

St. Louis still recalls an impressive play that happened in a game leading up to the World Series.

“We were playing Chicago at the time, and we were winning one to zero in the last inning,” St. Louis said. “Chicago had a runner on third with two outs. A ball was hit out to left center field. We had a girl, who was only 11 years old, who called that ball and threw it all the way home and got the runner out.”

St. Louis began coaching softball in the mid-1970s when one of his three daughters, Michele (St. Louis) Foster, joined George J. Hummel. 

He spent eight years coaching and retired after the trip to the World Series. When a 25th anniversary of the World Series reunion was held, St. Louis remembers attending the event “with bells on.”

After he retired from coaching, St. Louis continued to attend local youth sports games in Seymour, and anytime his former players saw him, they’d throw their arms around him and give him a hug.

“It was a pure joy to coach these girls and it’s that thing in life that makes life so nice and sweet, knowing that you helped these girls and they enjoyed being with you,” St. Louis said.

The players are now in their mid-to-late fifties.

Former player Jennifer (Burns) Ignace, said she could write a novel about what it was like to play for George J. Hummel Little League. A major section would be devoted to the summer of 1980.

“The bonds that we forged as a team are hard to explain. I recently told someone that any one of the girls that I played softball with when I was 12 years old, I would trust completely to this day.  We all became a family that summer,” Ignace said.

St. Louis’ daughter, Michele, said she cherishes the time spent playing for her dad.

“Playing for my dad as a coach was a wonderful experience, though he was pretty hard on me, but it was only to push me to be the best that I could be,” Foster said. 

Former player Laura (Konnik) Cripps said a bunch of girls from a small town making the trip to Kalamazoo “will always be a favorite memory of mine.” 

Nowadays, St. Louis, a U.S. Army veteran who retired in 1999 after a 41-year career with Avco Lycoming as a welder, spends his days honing his woodworking skills, crafting bowls, picture frames and soap cutters for his daughter’s soap-making hobby. But those memories from the 1980 World Series will never fade.

“Those girls, that team and the bonds we all formed will last a lifetime,” St. Louis said.