Lady Lions honor legacy of Frank Cady with team’s dedication of newly-erected bullpen at Tullar Field after home opener against A-L

WELLSVILLE — It all started last year, during the Wellsville softball program’s first ever Diamond of Honor ceremony.

The yearly celebration now serves as a constant reminder for the Lady Lions of today to witness what the program is really all about. Seeing legendary pieces of years past all come back together for one day only, it’s a sight like no other. In 2021, the program inducted their first nine entrants. Shelley Chaffee, Jessica and Jill Regan, Vanessa Herberger, just to name a few.

But a name that stands out from the rest, is a name that is most synonymous with Wellsville softball. A name that was the common denominator for the program’s success back in the 1990’s — Frank Cady.

After the induction, advanced talks began between the family of Cady and current Wellsville softball coach, Matt Burke, on ways to help continue flourishing the program itself, as well as elevate the historic grounds of Tullar Field — the home of the Lady Lions.

Cady’s daughter, Julie Cady-Reh began that process with multiple ideas for the field, which began with a new set of bleachers on each side of the field. But then, after more conversations, the ultimate consensus wound up being the perfect match — a bullpen.

Not just a bullpen. The Frank Cady Bullpen.

“We just started talking after my father was inducted into the Diamond of Honor, last year,” she said. “We talked about ways we could support Wellsville softball, and it started with some new bleachers. But then we reached out to Matt about what he needed, and figuring since he was close by, he would know best. There were a lot of ideas thrown around, and being the visionary that he is when it comes to things like this, we ultimately landed on this. He really wanted to elevate the program to whatever extent he can, and this ended up making a ton of sense.”

Last Saturday when the program’s second class of Diamond of Honor inductees gained entry into the program’s exclusive club, the attention turned to the outfield behind the Saputo scoreboard, where the Frank Cady Bullpen will sit for time to come.

“His teams were always defensively inclined, and he loved pitchers so having a bullpen was the perfect match,” Cady’s second daughter, Sheila Delmonte said. “Dad spent so much time here. It’s kind of fitting for his name to be here, and knowing how much he did for the program over the years, it just feels right. It’s very sentimental.”

For those that may not know, Cady was a stalwart in Wellsville athletics, most prominently with Wellsville softball from 1992 to 2002, where he still stands as the program’s all-time winningest coach with a 198-39 record. A career marker that also includes an unbeaten spell on epic proportions. Many Lady Lions in years past that have had the highest privilege of being a part of such an event.

It’s simply well-known just as “The Streak”.

Through 1995 and into 1997, Wellsville mounted the historic run, one that would last 58 straight games which still stands as the longest in New York State to this day, beginning with a shutout win over Portville and ending with a loss in the Far West Regional against Frewsberg in 1997.

Not only a pioneer in the athletics realm, but more importantly, a champion during his time as an educator at the school, where he rallied around the idea of justice and equality for women. His son Mike Cady said that he could tell in the way that he taught at the school how much he had believed in it.

“He was always involved with sports, and he played a lot of baseball with his father,” he said. “After he retired from teaching, he made coaching his sole focus, tennis and softball. Who he was, he had this strong sense of justice and equality. When you look at how much he focused on sports for girls and women, that was part of his quest towards equality. You could see it in his teaching too. He was the administrator that would take the underdog under his wing, and he would try to develop them into someone that could really succeed.”

Cady was responsible for helping develop many athletes who still hold high marks in the school’s history books to this day, some of them from this season’s Diamond of Honor class, including Kila Green Cook, who remains the school’s leader in batting average in a season, runs scored in a season and career, and hits in a season, and Jamie Root, who became the program’s stolen base leader.

From last year’s class: Jill Regan, arguably one of the program’s best to ever do it from within the circle, and Jen Richardson — an offensive juggernaut who remains at the top of the leaderboard for career RBI.

The bullpen also provided moments of reflection for the Cady Family, as they remembered not only a legendary coach in the Wellsville community, but even more so, a family man.

For his son in-law, Tony Delmonte, it started with his connection to the community.

“I was always amazed how easy it was for him to connect with other people, on an emotional, personal level outside of being a coach, an educator and a family man,” he said. “As an outsider, he made me feel very welcome to be a part of this family. That's what made him very successful not only in the classroom, but just in life in general. The way that he's connected with people.”

For Sheila, a more fond and humorous memory came to mind, beginning with a trip down south to the Azalea Tournament in 1994 — a first-time trip that she still remembers to this day.

“It was during the Azalea Tournament, which was something that we had done for the first time ever,” she recalled. “On the phone, my dad was told not to come down unless he had an elite team. He hung up the phone, and he told the girls that if we had won, they could shave his head at home plate. They ended up winning, and he wanted to prove that he wouldn’t go back on his word. It happened, and the funny part was it was before our wedding. My mom Joan met the bus with a wig for my dad. He wanted to make everything fun, and he was a big kid himself.”

After defeating Allegany-Limestone in their home opener, Burke gave his gratitude and his many thanks for the Cady Family for the newest addition to Tullar Field, one he hopes will last as time goes on.

“The bullpen project has been a work in progress, and I am so happy for the generosity of the Cady Family to make this a reality,” he said. “It’s going to be a great thing for Wellsville softball now, and in the future to have this out in the outfield to allow pitchers to work on their craft.”