2024 Hall of Honor: Made to Order (MTO)

What started out as two high school friends coaching women's softball at the park district level eventually evolved into an amazing thirty-year experience. Although Made to Order's inaugural year is 1989, we had coached in a few tournaments the previous year (1988). We started our 1989 season with only 3-4 returning players but thanks to the recruiting efforts of coach Steve Gill not only were we able to field a team but we went on to win 9 of 12 tournaments that season including the USSSA C National Championship.

After the success of our 1989 season, we knew that to compete at the next level we would need to continue to grow as a team. Our growth included recruiting which became an instrumental part of our success. It also included challenging our players by finding the strongest competition for them to play against. We never feared losing, we knew that losing could be an important teaching tool and we used it as a barometer to measure ourselves. As our success grew so did our confidence and that's when we truly started to understand that we had something really special.

Throughout our thirty years we were blessed to have recruited amazing athlete's that bought into our system. We were also blessed with great leaders that never accepted anything less than their teammates best effort. As we became a perennial powerhouse, we sought out opportunities to compete against the best teams no matter how high their level.

We experienced many accomplishments throughout the years including over 1500 wins and many championships. Some of our more notable accomplishments include • 2020 USSSA Women's Major WS qualifier • 2019 USSSA Women's Major WS qualifier • 2019 USSSAA World Series 5th place • 2018 USSSA B World Series 3rd place • 2006 USSSA A World Series 3rd place • 2005 USSSA B World Series Champs • 2004 USSSA B National Champs • 1999 USSSA B National Champs

• 1994 USSSAA Sweet 16 (qualified as a B team).
• 1993 USSSA B #1 ranked team in Nation
• 1993 USSSA B National 2nd place
• 1992 USSSA B Illinois State Champs
• 1991 USSSA B National 2nd place
• 1990 USSSA B State Champs
• 1989 USSSA C Illinois State Champs
• 1989 USSSA C National Champs

Along with our many successes in USSSA we also won World and National championships in other organizations. It was an amazing ride on a vehicle driven by dozens of amazing athletes that are also amazing human beings. Our philosophy was simple, teach our players to believe in themselves as much as we believe in them and to always be respectful of the game. We somehow took on a very business-like persona. As many players will attest to, we had a lot of fun, but it was always business first and, business for us was always to compete at our highest level every time we took the field.

Made to Order disbanded after the 2021 season with numerous Championships and goals met, certainly a camaraderie on all those who wore the MTO jersey.