For Ruth Mozingo, her new position as a parks aide with the Pinecrest Parks and Recreation Department is just a change in bosses. She will still be doing the same thing she’s done for the past 16 years — running the tennis center at Coral Pine Park.

Ruth Mozingo

Mozingo, 66, a Pinecrest resident since 1975, said she is merely changing employers, from the Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation Department to Pinecrest.

"I could have stayed with the county," she said. "But, I would have had to work outside the area where I live and I didn’t want to do that."

Mozingo, who was born in Pittsburgh, has lived in Miami since 1952, although she moved to Texas briefly before returning with her husband in 1957 and raising a family of four girls and a boy here.

"My husband, Charles, was in the service and he was stationed in Texas," she explained. "But, as soon as he was discharged, we moved right back to Miami. Been here ever since, though we lived a little further south when we first got back."

Mozingo is immersed in women’s tennis and softball. She started the Suniland Women’s Softball League in 1972 and has kept it running smoothly every year since. With 19 teams — 15 people on each team — it’s the largest women’s softball league in Miami-Dade County. The league begins play the first week of June, stops in mid-August when football takes over the fields, then runs again at Chapman Field from October to December.

"I’m in charge of it all," she said with obvious pride. "I put the players together in their own divisions and keep track of everything. I played on a team when I first started this league and some of the girls I started with are still playing. I don’t play softball anymore, though. I got into tennis and I liked it better."

In addition to her softball duties, Mozingo also captains three tennis teams, two of them playing at Coral Pine Park. As a captain, she coordinates the teams — with a team consisting of as many as 30 players — positions the players, makes sure everybody shows up, observes, keeps score and sometimes plays.

"The leagues are the South Florida Women’s Day League, with 85 to 95 teams around Dade, which starts in September and goes through May," she explained. "Then in the summer time, there is a USTA League. I’ve been the captain of the two teams in these leagues for years and years."

When she finishes her day shift, she puts on another hat as captain of a night league tennis team, which plays on courts at Ron Ehmann Park near Killian High School.

"It started out as a working woman’s league," she said. "But, anybody can play now. Whether you play daytime or nighttime doesn’t matter.

As if all this weren’t enough, Mozingo also is on the board of the South Florida Women’s Day League, is treasurer and advisor to her day league tennis team, and is on the board of directors for the night tennis league.

How does she find the time?

"It’s hard, but I enjoy doing it. And, I’ve been doing it a long time."