This local sports league is about more than just games, it’s a social scene where friendships—and rivalries—are born.

Shaun Conway spent his childhood summers exploring Cape Cod’s beaches and ice cream shops. As a seasonal regular, he knew the rhythm of the Cape. So when his grandparents passed away, Conway traded the Colorado mountains for the Cape dunes to keep the Dennis home in the family. While familiar with the area, he was utterly unfamiliar with anyone his age. Recognizing the need to connect with those other than the typical year-round residents who are a few decades his senior, Conway set out to build a community.

Based on positive experiences with sports and sports leagues, he decided to create one of his own in 2014: the Cape Adult Sports League (CASL). It is a welcoming community of ages twenty to fifty who go head-to-head in dodgeball, kickball, pickleball, soccer, and basketball. 

“The Cape can be a tough place to meet people,” Conway says. “There’s the split of locals versus washashores, and though you can meet people through work, I work from home, so it was a difficult situation.”

In 2024, the Cape and Islands Workforce Board reported that there were 37,827 millennials on the Cape, compared to the national average of 54,442 for similar-sized areas. These numbers underscore what many already know: for young adults, the Cape can feel like a beautiful, but isolating, place to settle down. This statistic was another reason that spurred Conway on to create the league. “It is one thing to live somewhere, but it is another to feel connected to a community. Getting to know over 100 younger people on the Cape in a two month...