Lakewood park serves as home base to trailblazing senior softball team

August 2023 - “I swear to have fun! A whole bunch of fun! And nothing but fun, fun, fun – so help me Peaches!”

So goes the pledge of the Colorado Peaches, a senior women’s softball team founded more than 30 years ago in 1991. While members of the team hail from many parts of the Denver metropolitan area, the team has practiced and played at Lakewood’s Addenbrooke Park since 2015.

“We’ve played in Brighton, in Denver at East High and we’ve practiced in Wheat Ridge, but our home really is here at these fields in Lakewood,” said Maggie McCloskey, who at 92 is one of the oldest members of the team. McCloskey joined the Peaches at the age of 77.

As a way of celebrating the team and its recent successes, including winning the 2022 New Mexico Senior Olympics,, the team’s sponsor, Ascent Senior Living Communities, which operates the Village at Belmar retirement community in Lakewood and others in the region, threw a special “Peach Bowl” event at Addenbrooke Park on Aug. 29. Along with four intra-squad softball games, the celebration included a concession stand serving peach-themed foods and traditional ballgame fare.

“I think it’s the best example of healthy aging that I’ve seen,” Tom Finley, owner of Ascent, said of the Peaches. “I think people in the community should know about [them].”

Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul was on hand for the Peach Bowl and threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

“Thank you for letting me be part of this,” Paul told the assembled players before the game. “Continue to do this, continue to smile and have fun.”

Paul said he’s glad that Lakewood has played host to the team for so long.

“It shows how great Lakewood is because of our parks. We have an incredible parks team,” he said. “Our signs say, ‘Welcome to Lakewood, we are building an inclusive community,’ and I think we really take that to heart so that people of all ages and abilities can enjoy all that we have to offer.”

Cindy Babb, a Lakewood resident who has played with the Peaches for two years now, said she was recruited while walking her dog near Green Gables Park, where the Peaches sometimes practice when Addenbrooke Park is unavailable.

“They said, come play with us! That’s how it happened,” Babb said with a laugh.

The Peaches are always looking for more teammates, Babb and McCloskey both said. The Peaches currently accept players age 55 and over.

“It’s a community, and we take anyone who is upright and wants to play,” McCloskey said. “You don’t try out for this team.”