Paula Klemm has been a nurse for 25 years, a doctor of nursing since 1990 and a UD professor since 1992. But, when it comes to softball, she says, "I've been playing all my life."

Klemm, who estimates that she actually played her first game around age 5, sees no reason to quit now that she has reached her 50s. She and her team--the Delaware Blue Chicks, who compete in the 50-54 age bracket--represented the state in the 2001 national Senior Olympic Games in Baton Rouge, La., placing fifth.

Klemm serves as president of the team, which is incorporated as a nonprofit organization, and plays outfield. Also on the team is the Department of Health and Exercise Sciences' Jean Lane, who works as a maintenance technician at Carpenter Sports Building and received the Delaware Amateur Softball Association's Sportswoman of the Year Award for 2001.

For women in particular, staying active in middle age and beyond is clearly a good health choice, Klemm says. Add in the benefits of friendly competition and camaraderie with teammates, she says, and the emotional and physical advantages of participating in Senior Olympics become even more apparent.

"As you approach, and then as you move past, menopause, you need to keep your bones strong and your mind active," Klemm said recently during a break at a Blue Chicks practice at an elementary school softball field near Wilmington, Del. "Every year, you lose muscle and gain fat unless you do something about it."

But, for Klemm and many of her teammates, softball is more than a way to stay healthy. It's also a passion, they say.

The team's web site, which Klemm designed, features a logo of a bat and a spinning ball with the slogan, "Softball is everything! The rest of life is just a distraction."

The Delaware Blue Chicks formed in 1997 as the first Senior Olympics women's softball team in the state and qualified for the national Senior Games in Orlando, Fla., in summer 1999. The team's first competition in Orlando was against the defending national champions.

"We held our own for the first five innings" before going down to defeat, Klemm says. Although she previously served as coach, as well as player and president, the multiple roles became too time-consuming, she says. The team now has a board of directors and a nonplaying, 42-year-old coach. When players reach age 55, many move on to the Delaware Gold Chicks, a team that competes in the Senior Olympics' 55-59 age bracket.

Both softball teams consist of women from throughout Delaware and nearby areas of New Jersey and Maryland and from a variety of occupations. Some bring grandchildren with them to practices. Many participate in other Senior Olympics events in addition to softball, and a few--including 1999 discus gold medalist Pat Connell, mother of UD record-holding hammer thrower Brandy Connell, HNS 2000--have earned national recognition in their sports.??

"Going to the national games is a great experience," Klemm says. "Everywhere you go, you see senior athletes, many in their 80s and 90s. Everyone talks and trades stories and Olympic pins, and it's wonderful."

Her teammate, Ginny Jacobs, agrees. "I never had time for sports, and I never wanted to get old, but then I went to Orlando in 1999, and it was absolutely inspiring to see what the athletes could do," she says. "I thought, 'These people are awesome!' Now, I want to live to be 100--and keep playing."