SPORTS
Clockwise from above: Buffy battles hypoxemia in the hospital. | From left: Gee Savaiinaea, Buffy Nash and David Papp. | The softball community shows its love for Buffy at Pacana Park.
Buffy ball How Glennwilde’s Nash made Maricopa a softball mecca in Arizona
“One time we were playing against each other, and my team was very good,” Savaiinaea recollected. “At the end of the game, I was saying nice things and what a great game it was. Her response was, ‘Yeah, good game, but we kicked your ass.’” Play ball! Buffy and Robert Nash grew up on the Fort Apache Indian reservation in Whiteriver, Ariz., and spent 37 years together. His time in the Army featured two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. His domestic stops included Fort Riley, Kan., Fort Lewis, Wash., and Fort Bliss, Texas, where Buffy competed in the Army softball league. “Her main passion was volleyball, but sometimes there weren’t too many leagues,” Robert said of his late wife. “Softball was everywhere. She started playing and it just went on from there.” No matter the location, the sport or the activities beyond the fields or courts, there was one common denominator. “Buffy was a social butterfly. It didn’t take long for people to like her,” according to her husband. “Everywhere we went, we had big shindigs at our house. People always gravitated toward her. It’s hard to describe when you’re experiencing it, but she just had that personality.” Nash coached daughters Erica and Daphne in both volleyball and softball. While at Fort
Bliss, her softball team participated in a world tournament in Florida. Robert said that experience was something Buffy wanted to replicate, and she also strived to take a team to Hawaii. While she might not have realized those goals directly, her efforts in Maricopa opened the doors for many others. Papp said last year, Maricopa sent five teams to an annual fundraising tournament in San Diego and plans to do so again this season. “That is definitely something Buffy would have liked,” he insisted. Robert said Buffy suffered for more than 15 years from her condition, hypoxemia, in which she did not have enough oxygen in her blood. She became sick in late 2021 with the flu and pneumonia. Although she appeared to be getting better during a lengthy hospital stay, the oxygen levels in her blood did not improve and she passed away at age 51. Spreading the joy Two years earlier, Buffy and Savaiinaea took their passion for softball and turned it into a business. “We were playing tournaments all over Arizona. There was a large softball community here in Maricopa and we had some of the best fields,” Savaiinaea said, “so we decided we would
“We do our draws live on our Facebook page. People get excited when they see who they’re playing with and they’re out there having fun. That was Buffy and Gee’s primary goal when they started.” Robert Nash said the opportunity to help bring people together is exactly what his wife was looking for. G Sports AZ conducts an annual Buffy Nash Memorial Tournament at Pacana Park. “We talk about her as much as we can because we have so many new players that have come on,” Papp said. Savaiinaea expanded on her friend’s lasting impact. “Our success, in large part, is because of Buffy’s connections with the Native American community. She brought teams from Holbrook, Pinetop, Payson and other places to play here when we started,” she said. Many of the teams had only played softball on their reservations. “Buffy was the glue that connected the community,” she continued. “If you needed a player, she would find you a player. She really, really enjoyed the camaraderie and getting people together to have fun. A lot of the sanctioning organizations have expanded their offerings for Native Americans. Buffy was just a real hero in our community.”
BY TOM SCHUMAN
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moved to Maricopa earlier the same year after he retired from a career in the Army. “She just really liked playing,” he said, adding she was a good hitter who was always getting on base, “and was always trying to throw tournaments together.” Savaiinaea’s first meeting with Nash came two years later on — where else — a softball field in Chandler. A native of Oklahoma, Savaiinaea moved to Arizona in 2002 and Glennwilde in 2018. “I was running a free agent team and one of the umpires asked if I needed an additional player,” she recalled. The answer was yes, of course, and a new, close friendship was born. “Buffy was extremely family oriented, which was one of the things I immediately liked about her,” Savaiinaea said. “She introduced me to her mom and dad and educated me a lot on the Native American community.” And while their friendship was close and they became eventual business partners, the competitive streak remained.
OFTBALL FROM Maricopa and beyond come to Copper Sky and Pacana Park regularly to enjoy their favorite PLAYERS
activity. One of the people most responsible for helping drive the growth of the sport locally is fondly remembered three and a half years after passing away. Buffy Nash loved softball. But she loved people even more. Combining the two led Nash and partner Gee Savaiinaea to start organizing events under the Arizona Softball Tournaments banner in 2019. Today, Savaiinaea and David Papp, who joined the effort in 2020, continue the work as G Sports AZ. Papp, originally from San Diego, moved to Desert Cedars in 2014. A longtime softball player who says he tried to retire many times before always being lured back, Papp quickly found himself playing against Nash. “When I started playing here, everybody already knew Buffy,” Papp recalled — even though Nash and husband Robert had just
start holding tourneys here. From there, it just got larger and larger.” Papp came on board early the following year, the last of Buffy’s life. He explained many of the events they run are sandlot tournaments with random draws placing the players on their teams. A typical weekend event might have 48 players on four clubs with each playing four or five games. The format was something Buffy appreciated. “It gives players who don’t have a regular team to play on a chance to play. We have players at all levels. If you’re playing next to really good players, you want to get better,” Papp outlined.
InMaricopa.com | May 2025
May 2025 | InMaricopa.com
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