In 2015, Taylor Daniels competed at the inaugural Baseball For All Nationals tournament, playing baseball with and against other girls for the first time at age 12. That empowering experience and a week of competing in Cooperstown, N.Y. on an all-girls team coached by Baseball For All founder Justine Siegal clarified the importance of girls’ baseball opportunities. The same summer, Taylor was cut from a local travel boys’ baseball team due to her gender being “bad for team chemistry.” Those combined experiences served as an inspirational catalyst for Taylor and her father, Robert, to start Illinois Girls Baseball and foster opportunities for girls to play baseball in her home state.

 

Taylor’s coach at BFA Nationals, Anna Cella, had founded an all-girls baseball team in Chicago ten years prior when Anna was 13 years old, and her mother Laura was an assistant coach at that tournament. Taylor’s teammate at BFA Nationals and fellow Illinois native, Madison Femia, asked her father Tom if he’d be willing to join the board as well. Together, Lauren, Robert and Tom formed the first Board of Illinois Girls Baseball.

 

Since its inception at a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a registered charity in the state of Illinois, Illinois Girls Baseball has aimed to deliver events for girls to play baseball with and against other girls on both a local and national level. Our events and teams are focused on player development, building baseball skills while also developing girls as leaders and ambassadors for women’s baseball and social change. Our program aims to supplement co-ed little league, school-based, and travel baseball by developing skills and offering competitive opportunities in a growth-centric environment.

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Beginning in 2016, Illinois Girls Baseball has hosted clinics and practices throughout the Chicagoland area. Generous partner organizations, including Baseball For All, Chicago Baseball & Education Academy (CBEA), Major League Baseball, Chicago Cubs Charities, and countless individuals and private businesses have contributed to our growth and success. Clinics began with modest attendance in 2016, then expanded to 50+ girls at the Girls Baseball Day in 2017, then over 100 participants in October 2019. In 2019, Illinois Girls Baseball became a full member of Major League Baseball’s Nike Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) Program. This affiliation has supported opportunities to host camps, clinics, tournaments and league play. It also provides key funding for scholarships, equipment, educational programs, and potential internships with MLB.

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Illinois Girls Baseball teams at Baseball For All Nationals have undergone many name changes and partner organizations while evolving to the current 8U-18U Chicago Perfect Catch brand. From the American Eagles (2015), American Crusaders (2016), Windy City Huskies (2017-19), Midwest Huskies (2021), Chicago Scouts (2021), and now Chicago Perfect Catch (2024-present). The Chicago Perfect Catch family was initially created as a product of IGB’s 2019 Fall Girls Baseball Training Program, which ran for six weeks in October 2019 at the University of Illinois-Chicago. PC was initially known as the Humboldt Park Gators, then underwent years of expansion and evolution before reuniting with Illinois Girls Baseball in 2025. Now with baseball operations run by Carlton Hondras, head coach of the 2021 Chicago Scouts Baseball For All 12U National Championship team, Chicago Perfect Catch is poised for even greater success.