Kickin’ back: Chris Ford is a team leader at Bert Nash as well as on the kickball field

For Chris Ford, kickball and mental health are closely related.

When he and his wife, Marisa, moved to Lawrence about eight years ago, they moved into a house on Vermont Street. From their living room, Ford could see kickball games going on across the street at South Park.

“I thought that looked like so much fun,” said Ford, a Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center team leader.

Ford was looking for something different to do at the time. He had left his job in the financial world and was ready to embark on a new career path. At the same time, he found a new recreational sport.

“I had a friend who had just committed suicide. I really didn’t know much about social work or mental health at that time. But I wanted to do something more fulfilling. I wanted something that was more community oriented,” Ford said. “Those two factors shaped what I wanted to do and led me to transition into the mental health field.”

So Ford started working on his master’s degree in social work from the University of Kansas, and he started playing kickball. He fell in love with the sport and enjoyed the physical and mental benefits of playing.

“It’s good for mental health,” he said.

After he finished work on a master’s degree, Ford took a clinical case manager’s position at Bert Nash. Today he is a Community Support Services team leader. He supervises the case management, peer support and supported employment teams.

Ford has had the opportunity to grow as a leader through his work at Bert Nash. Being a captain of a kickball team also sharpened his administrative skills.

“It’s been great for the development of my leadership skills,” Ford said. “I find it to be a very healthy outlet.”

Ford was captain of the Love Garden team, a perennial powerhouse in the Kaw Valley Kickball League, for six years. Ford is on a new team this year called Happy Shirt.

“Chris is a very talented clinician and team leader at Bert Nash and has been willing to take on three separate teams and juggles their needs like he does his kickball team — with confidence, skill and good humor,” said Eunice Ruttinger, Adult Services Director at Bert Nash.

There are more than 30 coed teams in the Kaw Valley Kickball League, which has its own Facebook page, podcast, website,and an enthusiastic fan base. After nine weeks — there are 10 regular-season games — Happy Shirt is the lone undefeated team. In a showdown of the league’s two unbeaten teams last Sunday, Happy Shirt rallied to top the Terrebonne Po’ Boys. There will be a tournament at the end of the season to decide the league champion.

On Sunday nights during the regular season there’s a marquee game under the lights at Hobbs Field. There will be several hundred people in the stands for the Sunday night games. Ford enjoys the festive atmosphere and camaraderie among players.

“There is a great community vibe about the league,” Ford said. “I think that’s why it’s so popular. I’ve met most of the people I know in Lawrence through kickball. It’s a place where I’ve met a lot of my best friends. This is the essential, counterculture experience in Lawrence in the summertime. That’s a big appeal to me, just being a part of that.”