Club News: Bill Conroy’s Championship-Winning Beverly Bandits & Empowering Girls for Life Program Heads to California

For over a decade, the Beverly Bandits travel ball organization has been not just one of the best in the Midwest, but a prestigious organization based out of Chicago that has won six PGF National Championships including three led by program founder and head Bill Conroy.

Until recently, the Bandits teams were located within five states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio, but you can now add California to that list as one of the top young teams out of the Golden State just began wearing the Bandits’ famous Orange & Black colors.

Interestingly, the addition of Travis Komara’s powerhouse 12U squad—which includes elite 2027 and 2028 players from all over Southern California—wasn’t solely about on-field factors.

As Coach Komara explains, much of the change had to do with how Conroy and crew are giving back to the sport via the program Empowering Girls for Life, which is a non-profit Conroy started five years ago.

Empowering Girls features an array of successful women role models—from legendary college coaches like Patty Gasso of Oklahoma and Carol Hutchins of Michigan to astronaut Alyssa Carson, who is earmarked to be on the first flight to Mars—who speak to young athletes about making their own marks in life.

“When I first learned about Empowering Girls For Life,” Coach Komara begins, “I immediately wished it was something I could have gotten my daughters involved with earlier. In softball, we encourage our athletes to understand their value, be present and take up space, but sometimes the social influences send a contrary message. Empowering Girls For Life exposes them to female barrier-breakers and how they found the ultimate success while dealing with the same challenges young athletes face.”

Over the last several years, Komara and Conroy built a friendship that grew based on their similar softball goals and ambitions with the over-riding desire to help young athletes on and off the field.

“Travis and I have stayed in touch,” Conroy explains, “and we talked about his team coming out to the PGF Beverly Bandits Super 80 as well as the PGF Labor Day tournament but when Travis mentioned wanting to support Empowering Girls for Life, I was surprised.”

Komara admits that he’s long been an admirer of the Bandits organization and how Conroy and crew do things.

“We traveled to Kentucky and played the Beverly Bandits – Mercurio 12U team,” the So Cal-based coach remembers. “There are one of the best teams we have ever seen, and we were certainly impressed by the quality of their softball, but more so by how nice the girls and their families were.”

Being in Southern California, Coach Komara, his staff, players and their parents also loved the idea of being with a PGF-tied team that would give them the opportunity to stay close to home for Nationals every year as their previous tie-in, the Corona Angels, are affiliated with Alliance Fastpitch, which rotates its Nationals across the nation. This year, for example, the 12U Alliance Fastpitch Championships Series will be in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Last month, when still wearing the Corona Angels – KAM colors, the team earned a berth to PGF Nationals after going 5-0 at the PGF 12U Qualifier in Huntington Beach, Calif. Loaded with seven players who made the 2027 Extra Elite 100, the Angels outscored opponents 47-3 behind the pitching of Isabella Martinez, Koa Puppe and Kinsey Komara, who had a combined ERA of 0.48 and limited opposing hitters to just a .141 batting average.

“Many of our girls played in the PGF National Championship tournament in 10U,” Coach Komara continues, “and the memories they made on and off the field during that week have endured as the peak of their young softball lives. The legacy of PGF Nationals and the journey that all the teams that have won it endured and has inspired our girls to dream and work in the hopes of adding their names to that list.”

“The PGF National Championship is an experience unlike anything else, from the moment you walk into the sign-in area, there is a feeling of accomplishment in qualifying and a sense of pride that you are representing the name on the front of the jersey at the biggest stage.”

During the winter, Komara reached out to Conroy about possibly joining the Bandits program; however, the initial answer from the club power’s head man was a surprising “no.”

“I thought it best that Travis and his team find a quality organization in Southern California,” Conroy recalls. “Unfortunately, Travis couldn’t find the perfect match locally and stayed in contact with me about something dear to my heart, Empowering Girls for Life.”

Ultimately, the advantages of bringing the young team into the organization made sense on both sides and the transition was begun. Look now on the Bandits website and you’ll see the Bandits – Komara team is one of three at 12U Premier among the dozen in the fold, strengthening what has already been one of the nation’s best travel softball team rosters.

“I’m a very competitive person,” Bill Conroy explains, “and winning PGF National Championships and getting the young ladies’ opportunities to play in college has always been my goal.”

“With that being said, I realize there is a much bigger goal and if I can help in some small way by creating a platform that these amazing women can express their journey to all these young ladies that need some motivation and inspiration to be their best, then I feel I’ve done something more significant than I could ever do on the field.”

Travis Komara believes his coaches, players and their families are totally in agreement with what the Bandits stand for, both in striving for championships, yes, but also being part of Empowering Girls for Life to build them up as successes in life, no matter what they do.

“We are really excited for the opportunity to play under the Beverly Bandits banner, to learn from Bill and all the coaches in the organization,” the So Cal coach explains. “It is really important to our coaching staff to keep our team together, providing continuity but also exposing them to the culture of a six-time national championship organization and the commitment it takes to achieve that.”

Coach Komara stresses, however, that it’s not just about the game between the lines.

“It is so easy to only focus on physical metrics, the numbers our girls generate,” he says. “At the same time we talk about how important it is to do the things that matter, Empowering Girls For Life, exposes young athletes to the steps beyond the dirt, beyond the daily grind and how our female leaders have accomplished their goals. Bill is providing access to possibly one of the most important tools we can get in our girls hands: a road map that others took to success in softball and in the working world.”

For his part, Conroy is proud that he’s found a fellow coach—even one so far away on the West Coast—who shares his vision for bettering young female athletes.

“My teams might feel that raising the PGF National Trophy is more significant,” he concludes, “but their goals are more focused, which, as a coach, is what we all want. As a person, husband, and father, though, I feel that I need to do my part in helping these young ladies be the best versions of themselves on and off the field.”

Click HERE for more info on the 2022 Empowering Girls For Life program, which is being held Sept. 10, 2022. Registration for the virtual event is free.