Rediscovering a super power: Worland Monarchs exhibit is on display at Washakie Museum until Aug. 31

WORLAND - On display until Aug. 31 at the Washakie Museum, the Pitch Perfect: The Worland Monarchs exhibit highlights one of the most dominant teams in the history of Wyoming women's fastpitch softball.

At the peak of their powers, the Worland Monarchs won six consecutive state championships, won 63 straight games and went 245-58 from 1970-1977.

Not many in Worland may know the Monarchs' tale, but their history and achievements fill an entire room at the museum. It is a perfect way to retell that story and make the Monarchs a treasured part of Worland history.

"I started here a year ago and needed to do a summer exhibit that would be interesting to the community and tourists," said Washakie Museum curator Stefanie Kowalczyk about her inspiration for the Monarch exhibit. "I'd been in Worland for all of one week. I put out an email to the staff asking them if they had any ideas to let me know. Robin [Arthun] had been interviewing former Monarch players for a story for our newsletter. I thought it was a great idea."

On top of learning the history of the Monarchs and tracking down former players, Kowalczyk needed to also gather items, like bats, balls and jerseys for the exhibit. The Museum usually has something in its collection, but aside from newspaper clippings, there was nothing.

Many Monarchs players were glad to donate or loan items from their playing days to the museum. Then with the passing of Monarchs coach Ray "Sanch" Sanchez, several of his former players attended the memorial service for their coach.

The former Monarch players brought as much as possible from their playing days. The motivation wasn't to lift themselves up but to pay tribute to coach Sanch. He was the heart and soul of the Monarchs program, and this exhibit would showcase what he built and the tremendous impact he had on his players.

"The problem was we owned nothing from the Monarchs in our collection. We had items related to Worland Indians but nothing from the Monarchs. Everything had to come on loan. That was a process of reaching out to people and telling them my idea. Then convince them to pack it up and send it from California, Maryland, Utah, Texas or wherever they were from. Sometimes it was close here in Worland or Ten Sleep. It was an effort."

"Started planning around January, but when Sanch passed, their coach, a lot of the former players got together here in town for his memorial service. At that point, many of them descended on the museum with boxes of stuff. They didn't want to do it for their own notoriety but for him and to thank him for all he did for them. From what I'm told, he was really selfless and dedicated to helping his players," said Kowalczyk. "That gave me a chance to meet everyone face-to-face and show them my sketches of what the exhibit would look like."

Even with the exhibit open, there's been a steady trickle of Monarch items donated to the exhibit.

"It's really perfect," said Kowalczyk. "We're still getting boxes with bats, trophies and other stuff to add to the exhibit. It's good because I want the players to feel like this is their exhibit too. Even for those who have already seen it, they can see it has changed some. I'd rather have too much stuff than not enough."

Coach Sanch's high-quality character was brought up often in Kowalczyk's talks with the Monarchs players. Women's sports were not a focus during that time. Funding and equipment were always a concern for the Monarchs program.

However, coach Sanch always found a way to get his team what they needed, even if it came out of his own pocket.

"Mostly, everyone was really into and wanted to talk about Sanch and everything he did. Sanch was always finding equipment somewhere and using his own money. They traveled with a U-Haul with their equipment. If the boys had to practice, they'd have to go practice down by the river or find a new field somewhere else. There was no interest in it at first, but once they started winning and became really good, they were able to garner support," said Kowalczyk. "You could see the change in their uniforms. When they start getting sponsors, they can get their names on the back of their uniforms."

There was a lot to enjoy from Kowalczyk's research into the Monarchs. In some of the newspaper articles, at times, there was a focus on how the players looked rather than the sport and athletes.

"It was really interesting, reading some of the newspaper articles, there was a tone to the way some of the games were covered. There were times they said they were athletes and that they're skilled. But there were some comments about their short shorts, the grace of the girls on the field," said Kowalczyk.

Reading about the games and the rivalry with Basin was as exciting as being there.

"It was fascinating to see how competitive these teams were even with no funding, no equipment, no field that was their own. It was really incredible to read about that," said Kowalczyk. "The games between Worland and Basin were fierce because they kept trading back and forth for state champion title holders. You can tell, even in the headlines, how good these games were. It always seemed to come down to one run, one hit or one miss."

Even digging into the history of softball was an added bonus for Kowalczyk.

"Learning about the history of softball was surprisingly interesting. I am not coordinated enough for types of sports. I knew about softball and thought it was like baseball but a little bit different and mostly for girls. Its origin story is kind of awesome. It is its own game with its own really interesting history. Then how it came to be linked as a women's sport with the advent of Title IX is really cool, but happenstance."

The history of softball and how much the game has grown in popularity was something Kowalczyk wanted to include in the exhibit. But as with anything, cuts had to be made, and her goal for the exhibit was to highlight the successes of the Monarchs.

"The history of softball and it becoming a de facto women's sport with the passage of Title IX, you can go pretty far down that rabbit hole, which I had to pull back from. We did go into how women's college softball is one of the fastest-growing sports at the collegiate level. We could have gone way further into contemporary softball but space and time," said Kowalczyk. "The point of the exhibit was the Monarchs and something for the community to remember and be proud of. Doing those local stories is why I want to work in a museum."

The Monarchs exhibit held its grand opening on June 13 and had an exhibition softball game next to the museum. Former Monarchs players attended the grand opening, and with some coaxing by Kowalczyk, they took part in the exhibition game.

"It was fun to see how connected the women who played for the Monarchs still are. The Monarchs had many strings, I think A through E, at their peak. The teams featured here are primarily the A teams, they were the ones who were winning state championships. They all stay in touch. Some still live in town.

"We did hold a softball game in our backyard for our grand opening. I did get some of the women to begrudgingly play a little bit. It was fun and nice to make that connection and talk to people. I really enjoyed seeing all these players from many different strings and talking about how great the sport was, how much they love it and reminiscing about their playing days."

The bonds built between the Monarchs still holds strong today. Kowalczyk got to witness that firsthand during the grand opening of the exhibit.

"I was recording a lot of the women talking here at the museum, and there were so many stories preference with, 'This can't go anywhere. You can't tell people this.' Then they would all start laughing because they automatically knew what story it was going to be. That was really cool because it takes a certain kind of coach to instill that level of comradery to continue for this long," said Kowalczyk.

At the grand opening for the Monarchs exhibit, some of the current players for the Worland High School and Worland Wildfires attended the event. Having the two generations of Worland softball players meet and play a softball game added to the specialness of that night.

Softball, as a sanctioned high school sport in Wyoming, wrapped up its second season in the spring. The Lady Warriors have not made the state tournament in either season as they've been competing against 4A schools. Only 13 schools have softball, and due to that, there is no class separation as in other high school sports in Wyoming.

While it has been tough for the Lady Warriors softball program, the Monarchs encouraged the Lady Warrior players to keep at it. They shared their struggles early on and what it took for them to turn the Monarchs into the prolific program that it became.

"The Monarchs players were really encouraging with the current players," said Kowalczyk. "They told them that when they first started, they got beat all the time, they couldn't hit for anything, but they just stuck with it. I think that was really great for both groups, and hopefully, the tradition of softball in Worland can continue."