2024 was a great year for Big League Sports - the biggest yet with 51 weeks of play, 61 leagues, 185 after parties, 455 teams, and over 4500 players!  Big League also added their 11th sport this past year - Pickleball!

I took the opportunity to chat with the CEO of Big League Sports, Maurice Reep, to give him an opportunity to reflect on not just this past year, but the history of BLS as a whole.

I know technically the "Big League New Year" starts with the spring season, not in January, but how does it feel to be approaching the 17th year of Big League Sports?

First of all, I would like to thank all of the Big League Universe which includes the players, our sponsors, league managers, referees, statistics personnel, brand ambassadors, photographers, newsletter author, and everyone else that helped behind the scenes for a fantastic 2024. 

As for as going into our 17th year - it is surreal.  It has been a great ride so far and I am excited for everyone to see what we have in store for them.

I'm excited too! But for now, can you take us back to the start? Give us a little bit of background of what inspired the start of Big League Sports.

It all began in 2006.  My good friend, and current COO of Big League Sports, John Dematas and I were playing Kickball in Manhattan.  After having so much fun and making a lot of friends we thought that it would be a great idea to bring kickball to Westchester.  It took us about 2 years to get our first field permit to play.  Every venue that we tried to get a permit from pretty much laughed in our face saying that kickball was a ridiculous idea.  Finally, we were able to get a permit to play in Croton.  The next challenge was to recruit players.  We really had to start from scratch.  Social media was not really a thing yet.  We had nowhere to recruit from.  Our friends thought we were crazy and wouldn’t play.  So we made fliers and put them on car windshields on the weekend nights while people were out partying in White Plains, we put our fliers up at Blockbuster video (now we are dating ourselves), business cards in bathrooms at bars, and don’t forget Craigslist.  After all that, we wound up getting around 75 players, who were all strangers, and Big League Sports started.  We wanted to create a new kind of sports league in our area.  A social sports league where playing the sport would be as important as the social aspect.  Back then it did not exist in Westchester and Stamford.  It is also hard to meet people after college.  What better way is there to meet people than playing a fun sport in a social atmosphere.  I am very proud to say that BLS has been responsible of creating countless friendships and has had over 30 marriages that I know of - including our COO Dematas.  How cool is that?  The next season we expanded to Yonkers and Stamford.  Then the rest is history. 

When you started out 17 years ago, did you ever think it would grow to be what it is today?

Honestly, no.  We were happy playing kickball a few times a week in Westchester, Stamford and Nyack.  It was the players who wanted Big League to grow - and still do.

You have done a great job of giving the players more everything over the years - more seasons, more sports, more cities.  How have you made that happen?

It's all about giving the players what they want.  Dodgeball was our second sport which we started in 2010.  It was funny how it started.  At that point kickball grew and players loved hanging out and partying.  When everything ended in November, players were getting kickball withdrawal.  No one knew what do with themselves between November and April.  Then one day, one of our sponsor bars came up to us and asked us if we could do dodgeball in the off season because they also missed us.  Then Dodgeball began.  Our goal from Day 1 was to listen to our players.  They told us what sports they wanted us to do, and little by little we have done our best to give it to them.  

Out of all the leagues you've started over the years, are there any that stand out to you?

Wow, that’s tough.  It’s interesting, all the leagues stand out to me because I spend a lot of time behind the scenes trying to make them as good as possible.  Each league is unique and special to me.  If I have to pick one league, as of late the league that really stands out to me would be our Women’s League, which I guess is technically two leagues.  We started Women's Kickball and Dodgeball in 2023.  In 2024 they have really flourished into wonderful leagues.  I am most impressed with the comradery between all of the women in those leagues and how the level of play has really taken off.

I can definitely agree with that.  Women's league is my favorite to be a part of.  It really is special.  I'm curious - after 17 years, and with all the growth over that time, how do you stay so connected to what's happening?

That’s a great question.  I still play a lot of BLS.  Win or lose, I always have a great time hanging out with all the players on and off the field.  At certain times of the year I am playing in 4 leagues a week.  My wife Maya also tries to play a few times a week.  After all these years, we are still making great friends in BLS.  I love going out after the games and attending as many BLS events as possible.  Participating in BLS Leagues is truly one of the highlights of my life.

I think I speak for many people in Big League Sports when I say that it is for us as well!  Thank you so much for your time.  It was a pleasure speaking with you and getting some insight from you into the history of this special league.

Over the last 16 years, Big League Shirts have seen some major changes!  Let's take a look back and watch them evolve over time.

For the first few years of Big League, each individual sport had their own logo and their own shirts.

In 2015, Big League started to merge their sports under one umbrella.  With that, came new shirts and a new logo.  A few years later, the logo was updated.  And this past year, the logo was used in a new way to highlight all of the sports in the Big League Universe!

Check out these special edition shirts that were only offered for a limited time!

Click Here to register for your winter leagues!