The Athletic Alliance of Chicago (AAC) is the latest player on the local LGBT sports scene.
Well, actually, it's just the re-named Windy City Athletic Association (WCAA).
"The decision to end operations at WCAA and create a new entity was reached jointly by all current members of the WCAA board in early November," said Kevin Hansen, of Chicago. "The decision was a logical reaction to the decision of several Board members to step back from their current positions to devote more time to other areas of their life."
WCAA has been run recently by president Jacen Maleck and vice president Patrick Mooney, and both assisted as needed during the transition in an advisory capacity.
Hansen, 40, who lives in Lincoln Square and has worked in public health administration for the past eight years, is the AAC commissioner and also the AAC director of indoor volleyball. Other AAC board members are Dale Reigner, Patrick Lannon, Patrick Nunes, Joe Patla, Patrick Long and Anton Mulvaney.
"The name AAC was a joint effort of many of our current directors and members," Hansen said. "Anyone who spent more than an hour around me in early November probably had a hand in the decision in some form. To carve it down to one name we probably came up with over a hundred possibilities."
The official AAC announcement was made in December.
"Our biggest priority currently is to devote our energies to strengthening the sports that we do have, and making them more enjoyable for our members," Hansen said. "We are working directly with the sports to see how we can best support them as an organization, and how we can optimize the interaction and synergy between the individual sports, both from a social as well as a financial standpoint."
AAC has about 625 members, and about 80 percent of them are male. AAC currently offers women's basketball, darts, indoor volleyball and floor hockey.
"There may be more opportunities in the future to launch something new," Hansen said. "If it is something that would benefit our members, we will of course take a look at it. But we are not looking to grow just to get bigger. We are looking to get better in all that we offer.
"We are also home to a few national tournaments, and we are eager to see if we can help to promote those to higher levels. Anytime a player comes to Chicago from another city for one of them, we want them to appreciate how vibrant our community is, and also to return year after year to take part in all that the tournament and Chicago itself has to offer."
AAC launched its floor-hockey season in January in conjunction with the Chicago Gay Hockey Association (CGHA). This is the second season for local floor hockey, and the first for the CGHA aligned with AAC.
"The first week [of floor hockey] was really exciting," Hansen said. "It was great to see how some of our members walked in skeptical about the game and walked out already talking about the games for next week. We have the ability to add even more players, so hopefully the positive buzz keeps going."
And what about the larger, more popular Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association (CMSA)?
"This was actually one of the questions that I am most happy to have been asked," Hansen said. "I have been a member of both organizations for just over 10 years at this point [while] participating in athletics in Chicago, and plan to continue. Joining the leagues was one of the best decisions that I have made, and it continues to be a great part of my life.
"In terms of size, CMSA is definitely leading the charge. But, in my opinion, both CMSA and AAC are working toward the same goal, which is to offer sporting and social opportunities to members of the LGBTQ community and those who support our community.
"The number of different sports offered, and the amount of members who are involved in one, or in many cases both of the organizations, points to the fact that the community is willing to give new activities a try. So I do not look at it like we are fighting for a finite numbers of members. I think that as more quality offerings are made available, the pool of athletes that will participate will continue to increase as well."
For more information about the AAC, visit www.athleticallianceofchicago.com .
More Kevin Hansen:
—Status: Dating Joel for more than four years
—Sports he plays: Volleyball, floor hockey and darts
—Favorite sport: Volleyball to play, basketball to watch
—Favorite pro team: Chicago Bulls
—Favorite pro athlete: Former Chicago White Sox outfielder Harold Baines. "He was quiet, led by example, played through pain, and never made a headline for the wrong reason."
—Gay Games: His first Gay Games was in Chicago in 2006, "and I have plans to compete in Cleveland in 2014."
