One might think something called the Dads’ Club would be comprised of, well, dads or at least be all male.

Not necessarily.

About half of the volunteers and coaches for the Quad-City area recreational sports organization are women, including its only full-time staffer.

So what’s with the name?

Back in 1949, five fathers of students at Monroe Elementary School in Davenport decided that the city needed a softball program for boys. The story goes that they met on someone’s front porch to discuss the need and left with a plan to start the Dads’ Club.

Now the club is celebrating its 60th anniversary.

“Isn’t that cool?” said Nancy Dirschel, the organization’s full-time director.

Sitting in her tiny office inside the Friendly House headquarters at 1221 Myrtle St., Davenport, Dirschel laughs as she looks around. The room is filled with cardboard boxes full of team T-shirts, awards and files, so many, in fact, that it’s hard to find a place to sit.

This is Dads’ Club central, where she schedules all of the games, organizes all of the people involved and irons out all of the details. This has been her job for the past five years and it seems almost like her calling.

Some things haven’t changed since the organization got its start, including the name.

The club still emphasizes good sportsmanship, fair play, equal playing time and development. But the organization doesn’t just focus on softball for Davenport boys anymore.

Now, the club’s biggest sport is soccer, rather than softball, but it still offers that sport, along with basketball and flag football, meeting the changing needs of Quad-City area families, Dirschel said.

“It’s just grown,” she said.

More than 10 years ago, she began as a club volunteer when her own children were participants in the soccer program. She started out coordinating teams from the kids’ school and eventually served on the board of directors and became vice president of the soccer program.

Volunteers always have been the glue holding the club together, but as time wore on, people seemed to have less and less time to help. Volunteers were tougher to find and keep.

There came a time when the board decided something had to change or that maybe the club should fold. That really bothered Dirschel.

“I kept saying to my husband, ‘Where are these kids going to go?’ ” she said. “He finally said, ‘You know what you have to do.’ ”

So, she quit her job and agreed to work for the Dads’ Club in a new full-time position that would coordinate the club’s activities.

That is no small task.

Families from all over the Quad-Cities — both sides of the Mississippi River — sign up their children for Dads’ Club events each spring, summer and fall, with the majority of those games played at sites in Davenport.

The club’s biggest sports program, soccer, now draws about 1,800 participants throughout the year in both spring and fall sessions.

It used to be that softball was the big thing, but among boys, that sport has taken a backseat to hardball over the years, and other organizations, such as Little League, seem to fill that need. Dads’ Club still offers T-ball and softball for preschool children (boys and girls alike) and on through high school for girls, drawing about 900 participants per year.

The club also gets about 1,100 participants in basketball each year, and about 600 children for its flag football program, Dirschel said.

These sports teams are not designed for families who want their children in a super-competitive environment. Everyone involved with Dads’ Club is allowed to play every position, and the coaches try to make sure their teams are evenly matched during games.

Teams who display good sportsmanship are the ones that get medals at the end of the season. That not only includes the players and coaches, but also the parents.

“That’s what we want them to take out of Dads’ Club: Win and lose graciously,” Dirschel said. “When I see some of the lack of character on some players’ and adult coaches’ parts, it reaffirms to me that Dads’ Club is a vital part of the community. We have to teach them character. We need more of that out there.”

That focus is what has kept 47-year-old Phil Menke of Davenport involved for so many years. The Dads’ Club parent has volunteered as a soccer coach for the past 13 years while his two children were participating in the organization’s sports programs.

 This is probably the family’s last year with Dads’ Club, though. Menke’s youngest son, now in eighth grade, is “graduating out” of the club because of his age, he said.

“It’s a great organization,” he added. “It provides such a great service to the kids.”

Not only is Dads’ Club accessible to players of various skill levels, but also to families of all income levels. Dirschel said the club offers “affordable fees” and gives $8,000 to $10,000 worth of scholarships each year.

“I love it,” she said, talking about her role with Dads’ Club. “There’s nothing that gives me better pleasure than to go out on the soccer field complex on a Saturday and watch those kids having a ball.”