The Women’s Softball Halloween All-Night Classic tournament has brought women from around the state to Plant City for over a decade.
Halloween and softball may seem to be an unlikely pairing, but some athletes in and around Plant City know how well they go together.
That’s why, every year, the city hosts the Women’s Softball Halloween All-Night Classic tournament at the Randy L. Larson Softball Four-Plex. It’s one of the only events around where people can watch the ballpark food they normally eat field fly balls.
“We had one young lady playing in a hot dog costume one year,” program manager Deborah Haldane says. “Throwing and running in that looked like it was difficult.”
Although the tournament has been the Plant City Recreation and Parks Department’s project for three years, its roots run deeper than that.
Technically speaking, this is the 39th year that the tournament will be played. Formerly known as the Cindy Shaw All-Night Tournament, it was previously held at the Greco Softball Complex in Tampa and featured both men’s and women’s competition.
Tournament namesake Cindy Shaw, a former softball player and coach, started the holiday-themed tournament in 1977. The privately-sponsored tournament continued after her death in 2010 but had moved its operations to Plant City and worked in conjunction with Haldane and the Recreation and Parks Department.
Until 2014, the city provided the playing fields and handled all of the camping arrangements, while Shaw’s family took care of everything else. The family passed those duties over to Haldane and the department that year, and Haldane says that handling additional duties presented no problems for the recreation and parks staff.
The tournament draws many players from around Florida and other states, as players often like to stick together over the years or, when there are some unavoidable roster changes, link up with players from other teams to field a squad.
All teams are guaranteed at least three games, and slow-pitch rules are enforced. Awards are given out for each of the tournament’s three divisions.
Haldane says the tournament gets anywhere from 30 to 35 teams each year and, while not all teams choose to camp, many women enjoy roughing it in the softball complex’s parking lots. That extra element brings teams closer together and also makes them closer to the recreation and parks staffers.
“You get to a point where you get to know the players and the teams that come back year after year, and you get to be friends with them,” Haldane says.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
