Ben Young, COO of Mid State Sports
Humans are naturally competitive, says Denise Downs, the new owner of Nashville Sports Leagues. That’s what she learned from 14 years heading youth organization East Nashville Athletics before adding the adults-only Nashville Sports Leagues to her docket last year.
Kids play for fun, which is only complicated by adult interference, she says. It’s a fact that she hopes adults remember as they join recreational leagues.
“Who doesn’t want to win?” Downs says. “Even a dog chasing another dog. But you don’t have to be complicated about it. You don’t have to have meetings. You don’t have to get upset. You’re just playing to stay active, to do something you enjoy.”
Ben Young, COO of Mid State Sports, says if you’d told him as a child that sports would one day be his full-time job, he would have been ecstatic. The organization offers seven adult-league sports year-round — softball, volleyball, kickball, soccer, basketball, flag football and pickleball. About 30,000 Davidson County adults participate in Mid State Sports, and at least 20,000 take part in Nashville Sports Leagues (though it’s unclear how many people are members of both). Nashville Sports Leagues offers 11 sports, with dodgeball, bowling, cornhole and ultimate Frisbee among its offerings — and with several competition levels. Softball and volleyball are the most popular NSL sports, with ultimate Frisbee the organization’s fastest-growing.
What sets Mid State Sports apart today is that the organization owns its own indoor facility — a former YMCA tennis center at 207 Shady Grove Road in Donelson, which recently opened and houses volleyball and basketball courts. Mid State’s leagues were built on handshake agreements with churches and schools, which for a time meant games took a backseat to those organizations’ prior engagements.
Mid State started as a workplace league in 2012 — and now Young sees former college and high school athletes on teams.
“Not everyone likes to just go to the gym and run on the treadmill,” he says. “They grew up playing a sport, and they’re like, ‘If I’m gonna run, let me run for a reason.’”
For Young, who started as a player, the recreational league is a way to transition from work to leisure time, especially in the work-from-home era. Often two people simply bonding over basketball, for example, is enough to form a friendship — or at least enough of an excuse to go out after the game and get a drink.
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At Mid State, the sports director audits the teams on a weekly basis, moving them to higher or lower levels of competition if necessary based on their records. In some sports, there’s an A-E ranking range of competitiveness at signup. In kickball, there’s an easier “friendly roll” option. If a team beats everyone in their bracket by a mile, they will be moved up — if they lose every game, they may be moved down.
“No one wants to show up and be like, ‘I’ve never played volleyball,’ and then you’re playing against people who played college volleyball,” Young says. “That’s not going to be fun for anyone.”
For HotMess Sports especially, the social aspect is the whole point. The LGBTQ organization — whose leagues include kickball and several other sports — was founded in Nashville in 2014 and has since spread to 18 cities.
HotMess seasons kick off with a T-shirt mixer, where players receive their team uniform and meet their new teammates. At the end of the season there’s another party, complete with superlatives. The latest kickball team names — Jurass-thicc Park and Heated Thighvalry, for example — set the tone.
“It’s not even really about the sports,” says Grant Cobb, HotMess’ national commissioner and CEO. “It’s more about the people, and getting everyone together to have fun and create a community.”
Kickball is the most popular HotMess sport, Cobb says, but HotMess also offers several volleyball leagues, dodgeball, bowling, flag football and tennis. There are divisions by skill level, but no gender requirements.
“Starting here in Nashville and being the very first one, it very much created the framework and laid the foundation for what an inclusive sports league should look like,” Cobb says. “The biggest thing that all leagues and all HotMess leagues should take away from Nashville is making sure that every single person that wants to participate can come and do so and not have to worry about any judgment.”
Mid State Sports and Nashville Sports Leagues agree on the mindset. Both groups now offer kids’ leagues, and the grown-ups have an example to set.
“I think if we can all help with sportsmanship and give a good example to the kids about what it looks like to be competitive but also maintain a level of sportsmanship and respect, it’s massive,” Young says. “As adults, we need to be able to demonstrate to kids that are watching that it’s not cutthroat.”
Downs also hopes kids can see the adult leagues and know there’s a path for them to keep playing into adulthood — all genders, sizes and ages, no tryouts required.
A four-part look at recreational leagues and high-level clubs
