#1 – RB Thomas, International Senior Softball Association
RB Thomas, Jr. began playing slowpitch softball in 1960 while an engineering cooperative student at Virginia Tech and working for the Virginia Department of Highways at Salem, Va. For the next 56 years he played, managed, and sponsored softball teams reaching up to the highest levels of the sport, gaining him a national reputation for his achievements. In 1994, he took on the added task of being a sports event organizer. With his experiences travelling around the United States playing ball and his business management skills, he created the International Senior Softball Association (ISSA) and began holding “world class” softball tournaments for his peers, the senior athletes over the age of 50. He has now organized over 300 championship tournaments for seniors across the U.S. ISSA events annually attract more than 1,500 teams from around the country (plus a few from Japan, Colombia, and Canada).
#2 – Keith Wallace, Lincolnway Special Recreation Association
Keith joined the Lincolnway Special Recreation Association (LWSRA) team in 2006 as the superintendent of recreation.In 2013 he took over as the executive director. In addition to his executive director role, Keith actively helps at many other LWSRA programs including coaching adapted sports teams, DJ for dances, and refereeing. He has also served as the head coach of Team USA Wheelchair Softball. He graduated from Grambling State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Leisure Studies with an emphasis in Therapeutic Recreation. He heads his own not-for-profit organization, the Midwest Wheelchair Sport and Social Club, and was inducted into the National Wheelchair Softball Hall of Fame in 2018.
#3 – J.B. Mirza, Amateur Athletic Union
AAU’s 49th president J.B. (Jo) Mirza, has dedicated more than five decades of service to AAU at the local, national, and international levels. Elected in October 2022, his role is leading the entirety of the AAU organization’s volunteers, national staff, and event operators to provide quality participation event opportunities to continue to positively serve the AAU’s more than 720,000 members each year across the United States.
