It's probably easier to list the sports that Jackie Schmit does not play than those she does.
Actually, you can start and stop with basketball. She doesn't like to play or even watch basketball.
"I can't shoot to save my life, and any sport that involves that much running isn't for me," she said. "I also have no desire to play any contact sport—I prefer a net or field between me and my opponent."
But there's plenty of sporting blood in this 33-year-old who lives in Port Washington, Wis., who is as much a part of the Chicago gay sports scene as Sidetrack is part of the gay bar scene.
She plays softball, volleyball, badminton and dodgeball, and also has played kickball and tennis in the past.
Schmit plays in the outfield for the Hamburger Mary's Breeze in the women's softball division. This past winter, she played on a Spin Orange Crush women's volleyball team as a setter. She captained an indoor dodgeball team this past winter, which took second place for the season and second in playoffs in the open division.
Oh yeah, Schmit also is an integral part of the board of directors for the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association ( CMSA ) . She is the group's treasurer for the third year.
"I'm the CMSA treasurer, which means I review budgets with our numerous sports, help with registrations, gather reports using our online registration system, and pay our bills," she said. "I also have a finance committee which reviews each sport budget when the season is done to make recommendations for the next year."
Ironically, though, when Schmit ran for the post she had little to no accounting background.
"There was a rough transition when I came on board three years ago, but with the support of the other board members, as well as previous ones, I've made it work," she said. "Despite no formal training, I always thought that if I couldn't find the right path to my current job, accounting would have been my second choice. I'm a numbers and math geek."
So what does Schmit do away from sports?
She's a licensed prosthetist, meaning, she fits prosthetic limbs to people after an amputation. "Just the title usually gets me funny looks if someone's not familiar with it," she admitted.
Schmit and partner Marcela Haber-Bishop have been together for almost 11 years. They got married in Toronto to celebrate their 10-year anniversary during the fall of 2008.
Naturally, they play on some of the same sports teams.
"Marcela and I work pretty well together. It's what keeps us close and it's great to see the other person succeed or have a good game," Schmit said. "Sometimes we differ on how things should be run, but Marcela does most of the managing and she's very organized and fair. Put us against each other, though, and watch out. We're ruthless in badminton when we've played each other; I think I got floor burn from diving a couple seasons back going after the shuttlecock [ she hit ] .
"We're both very competitive players and both strive to give 100 percent each time we play. We don't really overlap is positions; she's a pitcher and I'm an outfielder for softball, so it's hard to compare. But, I do know that I couldn't pitch and she doesn't have much experience in the outfield. We both set in volleyball; I think she's got the stronger serve but I might set more consistently."
Said CMSA President Marcia Hill: "Jackie was elected to the board of directors in the summer of 2006. Her and her partner, Marcela, had come to the nomination meeting because Marcela was interested in running for the board. We were still taking nominations and someone nominated Jackie. Ultimately, Marcela and Jackie became two of the three women elected to the board.
"Jackie kind of volunteered to be treasurer by default. She did not have much of an accounting background, but dug in and learned how to use QuickBooks on the fly and has now been treasurer for three plus years and has done a great job. I have seen her grow as a board member and she has also branched out to helping to set up and take down softball fields and she became a dodgeball official besides being an athlete and playing softball, volleyball, badminton, kickball and dodgeball."
Windy City Times: I've heard your role within CMSA is underrated as far as value to the group. Thoughts?
Jackie Schmit: When it comes to money, people love to complain! We're by far the lowest cost sports group in the city as far as our team and player fees are concerned, and I feel that, as an organization, we're really good about acknowledging and giving back to our sponsors.
We run predominantly on volunteers, and you start to see the same faces stepping up in our leagues to organize things. It's great when we have new people willing to try the administrative side of the leagues, but I think most people just want to have fun and play sports or use CMSA as a social outlet. Any time you're dealing with over 3,000 people—the size of our organization last fiscal year—you're going to find some people unhappy about one thing or another. The important thing is that CMSA is a fiscally healthy organization that provides a wide variety of sporting events for Chicago's GLBT community.
WCT: What are your goals within CMSA?
JS: My goal has been, from the start, to get CMSA to become more like a business or to become more professional in its business practices. That's from the treasurer's standpoint. As an athlete, I want to play in CMSA to the best of my ability for as long as I can.
WCT: Where do you see CMSA in five years?
JS: I really feel our future depends on Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. What I think some people don't realize is that our lakefront will be dramatically changed if we win the bid. Waveland Park, along with a tennis and softball complex on Recreation Drive, is a possible building site for the Olympics. We would lose our spot for our women's softball league plus two softball tournaments we host each summer. And CMSA is not the only sports league affected. Washington Park on the south side, another huge softball complex, will be built on. Lincoln Park fields, right by the zoo and North Avenue Beach, are also ear-marked for buildings. Where will we play when the city gears up for the Olympics and starts tearing up our parks years before 2016? The city only has so many parks—many of our leagues are at capacity right now because of this limitation. What happens when the parks become fewer?
WCT: What are the biggest strengths of CMSA?
JS: We provide nine sports, from a recreational level to competitive level. We have the largest gay softball leagues in the country, hosting over 40 open ( open is mostly men but some women or transgender members play here ) and 40 women's teams each summer. Just in the last couple of years, we have had volunteers step up and create dodgeball, badminton and soccer leagues for our organization. If there is a sport enough people want to play, and they take the time to find a facility and create a budget, CMSA will consider hosting the sport.
WCT: What areas do you feel need to be improved by CMSA?
JS: Communication and advertising. We're limited by the fact that most of our sports are near or at capacity because of the field sizes. It's difficult to get new athletes or do community outreach when we don't have the space. I would also like to see more connection between the Open division and women's division in sports. I've mostly played with guys through CMSA but am starting to play more sports with the women. Sometimes one group is completely unaware of the other. I would like to bridge that gap because I think both groups have ideas that could improve our league as a whole.
WCT: What are your hobbies? Sports, I assume?
JS: Sports are probably the biggest pastime. There were some weeks in the past when I had four nights of sports, so there isn't much time for other things. Thanks to my wife, though, I've also become a pretty good cook and I've been less intimated about trying new recipes. I think I've only burned dinner once or twice over our 11 years together.
WCT: Tell us a little-known fact about yourself.
JS: I played piano for 10 years before going off to college and was pretty good. And I grew up playing ping-pong. I'm left-handed, but I bat righty in softball. It feels backwards to try and bat as a lefty.
WCT: Superstitions?
JS: I always put my left shoe on first. Oh, wait—maybe that's just OCD.
WCT: Favorite Chicago pro sports team?
JS: The Cubs, although they sure don't make it easy sometimes.
WCT: Favorite pro athletes?
JS: Brett Favre during the [ Green Bay ] Packer years; I am a cheesehead. Also [ tennis players ] Venus and Serena Williams, and [ volleyball players ] Misty May and Kerry Walsh.
WCT: Talk about your involvement with dodgeball.
JS: I love this sport, and I'm really glad CMSA offers this one. I reffed the women's division last year, and played in the open division with a bunch of guys. My team did really well, and I had a lot of fun. When I heard we were offering the sport, I knew right away that I wanted to play against the guys. It didn't scare me because the balls were just foam, but sometimes they come at you pretty hard! I loved the game as a kid too, and I was the one going after all the big guys on the playground just to prove I could hang with them.
WCT: Anything else you want the world to know?
JS: I'm really thankful to CMSA from a social standpoint. When Marcela and I moved to Chicago almost eight years ago, it was really easy to find them on the web and to join. We've participated in every season of the Thursday night softball league since its inception because that was just around the time we moved to Chicago. It was the best thing we did to find friends in a new city. I hope we're still providing that opportunity, as an organization, to new individuals and people just starting the coming out process.
