In his 17 year career which began in 1987, Bartlett’s Bill Sahagian has gathered many individual honors and team championships along the way.  Sahagian mainly played first base with some time at catcher for such teams as, Kings, KA Softball, and Tron Piping and is now retired from softball except for the 45 & over program.  The slugging first sacker has compiled some impressive numbers with a .615 batting average and launched over 700 home runs for his career. 

In 1987 Sahagian’s first season in softball he was selected to the all-tournament team at the “C” Divisional Qualifier that the Kings won at Downers Grove, along with being named Best Offensive player at “C” State in Rockford where the Kings finished third.  He was also named to the “B” State all-tournament teams in 1992 and 1995, and tournament most valuable player in 1996 while playing for Kings.  Sahagian states his most exciting moment in his USSSA career took place in 1995 at Joliet, when Kings won their second “B” State Championship.     

“It was 102 degrees,” recalls Sahagian.  “We came back from the loser’s bracket to win five games on Sunday and I was named to the all tournament team after hitting .735.”

In 1995 Sahagian  helped lead Tron Piping to their first of five straight Major 35 & over state championships, earning his first of three consecutive all tournament honors.  He also paced Tron Piping to back-to-back Major 35 & over World Tournament titles (1995 & 1996), while being named the most valuable player at the 1996 world tournament at Daytona Beach.  Starting again in 1999, Sahagian was named to three straight Major 35 & over state tournament teams.   Playing with Extreme Easton (2000) who finished third at “B”state and KA Softball (2001-2003) who won “B” state in 2003, Sahagian retired from the Men’s B program after the 2003 season, which he hopes improves to higher standards.

“I would like to see them (Illinois USSSA) have a better “B” program like in past years when there were 25 or 30 teams in the state of Illinois,” said Sahagian.

He feels however as a whole, USSSA in Illinois has a lot to be proud of saying,

“USSSA has the most talented players and best run tournaments of all the associations in Illinois.”

In 2004, Sahagian was named to the all tournament team at the Major 45 & over world tournament while playing for Ken’s Beverage, showing that the fire for competition stills burns bright.