KELSO, Mo. -- The Kelso Klassic brings together all sorts of people in the name of fastpitch softball, and if you look closely enough, some of their stories creep to the surface.

One might catch your eye because, just weeks shy of his 42nd birthday, he still looks like an athlete through and through. You might notice him coaching his teammates, helping one make in-game adjustments to his hands in the batter's box. You might notice him providing postgame assistance to an injured athlete from the other team, talking through the pain and trying to assess the damage.

In some ways, Rob Schweyer is like every other player who converges on Kelso this weekend looking for a few days of fun and softball. In other ways, there's no one else at the Kelso Klassic like him, for more than one reason.

It turns out, Schweyer's softball pedigree is second to none at the tournament. He has been playing the game for nearly two decades, including for Team Canada. He was a strength and conditioning coach for the Chinese softball team that finished fifth at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He would play for Team USA but, despite working in this country for most of the last 20 years, he's not yet a citizen. So instead he helps as an instructor, working with the pitchers, the junior program and occasionally the women.

This weekend, though, Schweyer is just looking for a fun weekend playing the game he loves -- and maybe a berth in ISC World Tournament -- suiting up for Pete's Blues, the only team to win three consecutive Kelso Klassic titles (from 2011 to 2013).

"It's just like anything," Schweyer said Saturday afternoon following a loss to host Kelso. "You go to meet new people, make friends and have a good time. But it sucks when you lose your first game because now it makes the uphill battle harder. But they're a good group of guys, and hopefully that was just the first game and we'll get better from there."

While Pete's Blues is based out of Mascoutah, Illinois, Schweyer lives in Los Angeles, California, where he is a personal trainer and runs RS Sports Training, helping young girls hone their craft as fastpitch softball pitchers.

He hooked up with the Blues while playing in a tournament in Las Vegas.

"A lot of northern and midwestern teams that have to battle the snow, they try to look for players to pitch because they're in year-round shape, which I still wasn't," Schweyer said. "But a couple of these guys went and played ... and then they asked if I'd come to this tournament."

Schweyer is not a stranger to the Kelso Klassic, having participated in the tournament on more than one occasion a number of years ago with a team from Broken Bow, Nebraska. He has been involved with the game long enough to recognize shifts in the sport but enjoys the competitive nature of an event still rooted strongly in its region.

"It's always a good level, and the majority of the teams are local. It's nice to see," Schweyer said. "In '99, 2000, the midwestern area was a hotbed for men's fastpitch softball. To see it kind of dying; it's really good for us in California because we play year round. A lot of people travel out there because, hey, you might as well make a vacation of it.

"To come here, two words -- hot and humid. You know? We looked at the weather report and saw it was going to be 86 (degrees), and I said, 'It's going to feel like 106 because of the humidity.' But it's fun and a challenge, too."

When Schweyer smiles, his gap-toothed grin hints at even more depth to his athletic history.

Schweyer forged out a professional hockey career spanning 13 years.

A native of Ontario, Canada, Schweyer tracked toward the National Hockey League in the mid 1990s, playing for the Owen Sound Platers and Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League -- one of three major junior leagues in Canada that provide the bulk of the talent pipeline to the NHL.

He thought his future was in hockey.

"Even from major junior, your first goal is to make the NHL. Everyone tells me, 'You're going to make the NHL,' when you make major junior anyways," Schweyer said. "From agents trying to get all your money, and stuff like that. I went to two drafts and thought I was going to get drafted and never got drafted. Then I had Anaheim and Tampa Bay come and make me some offers as a free agent. So the dream never dies, no matter whether you play one or two games in the minor pros, you're always with that ambition that, 'I don't want to work a 9 to 5, so I'm going to give it my all until somebody tells me I can't do it.' I never had someone tell me I couldn't do it."

So Schweyer kept playing, bouncing around in the ECHL -- the third tier of hockey, but still with a direct route to the NHL -- and some smaller leagues around the United States, including a stint in Kansas City. Being a career minor leaguer can be a slog, but Schweyer kept at it from the day he turned pro in 1999 until the day he stepped away from the ice in 2012.

A big reason for that was softball.

Being a pro athlete gave him an offseason -- something he would not have with a regular job -- in which he could earn money working for his father, who offered him the freedom to travel and play softball on weekends.

"I was very fortunate to have something like that," Schweyer said. "The hockey paid me well because I was in it so long. I was a captain on 90 percent of the teams I was on, and as a veteran, you can make some good money in the minors. But I felt bad for some of the younger guys who'd come up.

"I think that's why I stuck with it -- the money got better for me where it doesn't get better for a lot of people. But it was the love of playing softball. If I had a regular job, I couldn't play softball in the summer. You had to weigh the pros and cons. Now that I have my own business, now I can take off whenever I want, so it's even better."

Schweyer continues to offer hockey training as part of his services, and running his own business gives him the same freedom he craved earlier in his career.

"If I had known about this years ago, I probably would have quit playing minor league hockey years ago and gone out there and done that," Schweyer said. "But beauty comes in those things you don't expect. The love of being able to play outdoors year round and help these girls get college scholarships -- it's a good deal."

It's also the type of deal that lets him play the game he loves at the Kelso Klassic.