Cliff' Standfill's wife Mary was president of Steel Lake Little League during the time span from the league losing the ballpark in Kent to gaining the present day ballfields at South County. And in the mid-90's, the lease was expiring and while the league was able to negotiate a last minute deal to continue to use the Kent field through the month of July, a more permanant home needed to be found so the league embarked on an ambitious campaign to either save the exiting fields or obtain another site to build a new ballfield. This included picketing the office of then Seattle Mayor Norm Rice as the city was looking to sell off the Kent property out from under the league. "Armed with "Norm Rice have a heart" signs and baseball caps, about 25 Steel Lake Little League parents and players gathered in the 12th-floor lobby of the Municipal Building."

King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer helped secure important funding for the new future ballpark. But if it wasn't for Mary Standfill's effort and drive in the late 1990's, the fields at South County would have never existed. On September 29, 2000, not long after South County Ballfields were up and running and her son was using the new ballpark, Mary passed away. Her name adorns the bottom of the flagpole and on the back of Field 5 at South County Ballfields. Some of the dirt from Field 5 lays at her gravesite.

Standfil was in the middle of all of it.

"That's what Little League is all about in its best form. That's what amateur sports is all about in its best style - people giving up their free time to make things happen, " von Reichbauer said. "Mary was not afraid to handle the books or handle hot-dogs for her league."

Cliff Standfill said Mary was smiling and strong willed in the days leading up to her death.

"She cared about a few things. Baseball was one. Whether I was eating well and her children and grandson were the others," he said. "She didn't think about her herself at times. That's what made it hard."

The morning after her death, her son Cody played in his baseball game and Cliff, an assistant coach, was in the dugout. "We thought about this a lot and we thought what would Mary want?" Cliff said.

Cody went 4-4 with a double. "We felt that she was there with us," Cliff said. "He had a great game."

Standfill was survived by her husband, sons and parents, and as Cliff puts it, "hundreds of Little Leaguers."

Thanks to growth and progress in the region, the old site that was the league's ballfields for 25 years from 1970 (located at South 216^th St and 42^nd Ave South in Kent), no longer remains and is currently a housing development. But thanks to Mary Standfill, South County Ballfields represents an enduring legacy, not for just for Steel Lake Little League, but for all baseball players in the surrounding area for future generations to come.

The Steel Lake Little League Seniors team won district 10 and finished 2nd in Washington State after a 4-2 loss in the state championship.

The Steel Lake Little League 10/11 softball team won district 10 and went all the way to the Washington State Championship game where they lost to Bainbridge Island 12-10.

The 2008 Steel Lake Little League majors all-star team wins district 10 as Steel Lake returns to the state 11-12 tournament after going 4-1 in the tournament and winning the final if necessary game against Kent. Steel Lake was eliminated in the state tournament.

The Steel Lake Little League Senior all-star team rolled to the state title and into Little League's Seniors regional tournament in California.

The Steel Lake Little League 11/12 softball all-star team also made it into the state tournament and won the first two games 15-0 and 10-0 but lost their next two to finish 3rd in the state.