An estimated 5,000 competitors, fans, and softball enthusiasts alike will descend on Dallas for the 45th annual GSWS (Gay Softball World Series) organized jointly by NAGAAA (North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance) and Dallas GSWS, the all-volunteer host committee. The six- day event will run from Monday, August 29-Saturday, September 3, and is expected to draw over 250 teams from NAGAAA’s 48 member cities across the United States and Canada.
Since its founding in 1977, NAGAAA has ballooned to 17,000 members while providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ athletes to compete. Per the NAGAAA website their purpose is, “To be a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of amateur sports competition, particularly softball, for all persons regardless of age, sexual orientation or preference – with special emphasis on the participation of members of the Gay Community – and to otherwise foster national and international sports competition by planning, promoting and
carrying out amateur sports competition.” This purpose is reinforced by NAGAAA each year across North America as a different city hosts the GSWS each year. While Dallas has the honor of helping to reinforce that purpose this year, Columbus had the honor in 2021, the Twin Cities host in 2023, and Las Vegas in 2024!
Dallas is no stranger to hosting sporting events of all shapes and sizes. Having hosted Super Bowl XLV in 2011, multiple NCAA Championships in multiple sports, World Cup games, and countless amateur sports tournaments over the years, some consider Dallas to be the top sports destination in United States. Additionally, the city is familiar with hosting the GSWS. Dallas has previously hosted the event three different times in 1988, 2004, and 2014. This year’s event was originally supposed to be held in Dallas in 2021, but it was delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
All GSWS games will be held on fields among four different sports complexes within 15 to 40 minutes of Downtown Dallas. The complexes include The Parks at Texas Star in Euless, Kiest Park in South Dallas, Waxahachie Sports Complex in Waxahachie, and McInnish Park in Carrollton. These fields will provide the teams competing with the natural grass and dirt fields they are use to while incorporating some new turf fields into the mix. Over the years the structure of the GSWS has adapted to provide more opportunities for athletes at different competitive and skill levels. When the event was first held in 1977, there was only one team crowned the champion each year which came out of the Open division. In 1988, when the event was hosted in Dallas for the first time, that changed and NAGAAA added the Rec Division on top of the previously existing Open Division. Four years later, at the 1992 Los Angeles GSWS, NAGAAA changed the Rec and Open Divisions to the A, B, and C Divisions representing increasing competitiveness from the C Division to the A Division. NAGAAA would go on to add the
D Division at the 2003 Washington D.C. GSWS, a Masters Division for players 50 years or older at the 2011 Chicago GSWS (this later changed to Masters L and Masters C in Portland in 2017 then Masters C and Masters D in Kansas City in 2019), and the E Division at the 2019 Kansas City GSWS. This year in Dallas, NAGAAA will crown seven different champions among the A, B, C, D, E, Masters C, and Masters D divisions. The Phoenix Toros (A Division), Columbus Griz 2.0 (B Division), New Orleans Skittles (C Division), Columbus Capitals (D Division), Columbus Ban’d (E Division), Palm Springs Greyhounds(Masters C Division), and Orlando SWAG SPORTSWEAR (Masters D Division) will all be looking to return to glory as champions from their performances at the 2021 Columbus GSWS! Click Here for a list of past GSWS champions dating back to 1977.
This year’s GSWS will feature Jim Beam and Hornitos as the Presenting Partners while two DFW area professional teams, the Dallas Mavericks and Texas Rangers, will serve as the Silver Corporate Sponsor and the Platinum Corporate Sponsor respectively. Additionally, Dallas GSWS, a 501(c) (3) organization, hopes to pay out approximately $100,000 in profits from beer and alcohol sales during the GSWS, to several local LGBTQ+ organizations who have been selected as beneficiaries of the 2022 GSWS. These non-profit beneficiaries include the Coalition for Aging LBGT, Trans Kids and Families of Texas, the Resource Center, Legacy Cares, and Prism Health North Texas and the Wings Benevolence Fund.
For more information on the 2022 GSWS Click Here.
If you would like to volunteer to help with the 2022 GSWS Click Here.
There are no comments
Please login to post comments