In last two decades, Bill Conroy has pretty much seen and done it all in the game of softball.

He started the first Little League team for girls softball in Beverly, Illinois, eventually transforming the squad into the Beverly Bandits, a national elite travel program. He's won national championships and saw hundreds of his players earn college scholarships. He's won coach of the year honors, bought and ran a professional team, and serves as an administrator, vice president, and director for Premier Girls FastPitch (PGF), the nation's sanctioning body for travel ball.

In short, he pretty much has dedicated his life to the game.

It's a time-consuming job for Conroy, who also puts 50-plus hour work weeks in as a senior partner for Hi-Tech Solutions, a highly successful company that provides technical consulting services to other companies' IT departments on a contract or project basis.

But when asked how he got involved in softball, Conroy said with a shrug, "Guess I was just sort of in the right place at the wrong time, or maybe it's the other way around and I was in the wrong place at the right time. Either way, I never thought it would turn into something this big."

Conroy said he was just looking to do something for the community when he volunteered to coach youth baseball in Beverly in the 1980s.

"Little League came out with a directive that we also needed to start a girls program. I was the only coach who did not have a son in the program," he recalled. "They looked at me and told me the softball program was all mine."

That move would set the stage for Conroy to create and develop one of nation's most well-known and respected travel teams.

"I started the girls program from scratch, and a few years later we won a tournament in Florida in 1998," Conroy said. "From there, we just sort of evolved into a travel team, and the Beverly Bandits were born."

An extremely competitive person, Conroy went "all-in" in making the Bandits a power.

"I hate to lose, and when I decided to do this I wanted our team to be good," he said. "It took a while, but we started to gather some steam. In 2001, we won nine of 11 tournaments we played in, and then we won our first national championship in 2002."

Coaching the 18U Premier Team, Conroy won a second national championship and would see his team's routinely ranked in the top 10 nationally. He also saw three other age-group teams from his organization win national titles. Along the way, he has helped hundreds of girls earn college scholarships, which he said is his true motivation for the time, money, and effort it takes to run the Bandits.

"I love to compete and I love to win. But at the end of the day it's about the kids and helping them reach their goals and hopefully getting them opportunities to play at the next level," Conroy said. "I was fortunate enough to attend college on a scholarship, and I know how important that was to me and my family. If we can help get an athlete noticed and get a scholarship, it's the most important thing we can do."

A quick scroll down the Bandits' rosters shows that mission is being accomplished.

A total of 28 of the 30 players on Conroy's Premier Team and Jeff Cunningham's DeMarini's 18U Bandits team have either already signed scholarships or have been offered and are verbally committed.

Conroy is a former owner of the Chicago Bandits professional softball team and still serves as a consultant to the squad on player personnel issues. He is also a Region 3 director and vice president of the PGF.

He said time management, a great family support system, and outstanding employees makes the job easier.

"I try to get to the office by 4 AM each day, but to be honest it's the support of my family and our employees that make it possible," he said. "We have 450 employees at Hi Tech, and a lot of those people have been with me for a decade or more. They don't need a lot of hand-holding, which gives me time to work with the Bandits. Without the support of the family, I wouldn't be able to do it either."

After 20 years running the Bandits, Conroy said he is looking for the next challenge in his life.

"I want to find a way to do more than just provide playing opportunities and help get scholarships for female athletes," Conroy said.

Whether that's gong to come in professional development, mentorship, or some other form, I'm not sure. What I do know is I have a 10-year-old daughter, and I owe it to her to do everything I can to improve opportunities for her and all girls.

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