Youth programs play a monumental role in community development in rural areas. One of the main reasons we choose to live in a rural area is for the opportunities for our kids to be involved in quality programs. We believe that participating in quality programs where our kids will learn leadership skills, how to work with others, and develop a good work ethic is invaluable.
I wanted to live in an area where my kids could excel at activities and be part of a team. Shawn and I both believe that by being involved in team sports, 4-H, dance, and agriculture programs that we benefited greatly from plenty of time to hone our leadership skills. We were busy kids and have the best memories from our childhoods. Just ask Shawn, who can recall every mundane detail about his 8th-grade basketball team getting to go to state in 1995. Karate, dance, soccer, t-ball, bowling, bass fishing, whatever it is, it is worthwhile.
Youth programs are plenty in bigger areas because there are more people to help run and organize them. There are many choices to get your kid involved. In smaller towns, most of the youth programming revolves around the school and/or sports and dedicated people who put the time and effort to make them happen.
This weekend, I traveled to Bloomington to watch my niece, McKinley, play softball in the junior high class A state tournament. I took my kids, 6 zillion snacks, and lots of activities to Champions Field. I took the day off work on Friday and traveled without my husband because he had something he couldn’t miss at work on Saturday. We ate out too much, slept too little at a local motel, and went over budget. We missed a local parade for our middle daughter, night golf with our best friends, and a hair appointment I desperately needed to make.
But I wasn’t going to miss it. I wasn’t going to let my kids miss it.
My kids got a front-row seat to see the payoff for hard work and dedication. And that is worth it going over budget for.
We don’t live in the same small town as my brother and sister-in-law, but they live just about thirty minutes away in a town tinier than ours but with a lot of heart. We see them on the regular and support them and their kids in their activities when we can.
About four years ago, McKinley happened to be on a Little League all-star team when she was in 4th grade. One of her teammates was a great pitcher from another town. She left those games inspired and told her Dad that she wanted to pitch. So they went all in. They started pitching every day. They invested in the supplies, watched hours of instruction on how to get started, and went to work. As you might imagine, with her love for the game and her endless work, she got to be a pretty great pitcher.
Rather soon, our family get-togethers revolved around softball. We got regular updates about what they were working on, what they needed to change up. And pitching, always pitching. I’ve seen McKinley pitch on the beach in Gulf Shores and in an astonishing amount of parking lots across the midwest. They take a pitching mound and their mits everywhere they go, step off 40 steps and get down to brass tacks.
But that can’t be the end of the story. This isn’t about one Dad putting time and effort into his kid. Those are a dime a dozen. This is the story about how one guy was the change agent and built a stellar youth program with little resources and even less time from the ground up.
Here is where things get interesting. Five years ago, Pleasant Hill didn’t even HAVE a junior high softball program. Even if they did offer the sport, it would have been unlikely there were enough kids to field a team.
After a successful summer league with girls interested, Ryan lobbied for a junior high softball team with the administration at the school that he would help coach. Junior high softball became a reality and they trucked through their first season trying to win a couple of games. The team was super young, with four 8th grade players, one 7th grader. The rest of the players were 5th graders, including the 10-year-old pitcher, playing against opponents who were much older.
By the spring of her 5th-grade year, McKinley had joined a travel softball team to keep playing during the offseason. A lot of her teammates joined the same team and together they played 100 games a year and got a ton of invaluable experience.
There were weekend open gyms and hitting practice all winter and maybe a little unspoken rule that if you wanted to be a good team, you’d better commit. Ryan signed on to coach the summer league team and soon had a captive group of girls who loved to play softball pretty much year-round through junior high ball, open gyms, travel ball, and summer Little League.
He also decided that he’d like to beef up the summer Little League program so he took that over too. He and his wife, Emily, organize the concession stand, sponsorships, scheduling, and fundraising to make the program thrive. It is a lot of work but they are passionate about doing whatever it takes for this youth program.
In January of 2018, our father underwent open-heart surgery to fix a faulty valve. My brother and I rode down to St. Louis to be with my mother in the hospital. I got to spend the day with my Mom and brother and I enjoyed getting some uninterrupted time with him to catch up about all the things going on in his life. What I remember most was a perfectly orchestrated meet up just off the interstate at 10:00 p.m. after leaving the hospital. We were joyful for a successful surgery and needed to get something to eat. But FIRST, we needed to pick up a Juggs pitching machine which he’d just bought on Craigslist for a steal.
Softball has become an important way of life for many in their tiny town. Not only are Ryan and Emily working their butts off for that youth program, they have a tribe of dedicated parents and young people who have stepped up and also taken on leadership roles. The parents have committed to lots of practice in and out of season, travel ball, volunteering, and fundraising to make this work for their kids.
Ryan had a vision. He worked to make something out of nothing. He worked for a program that the school and town could be proud of. From the outside looking in, it looked hard. It looked like there were obstacles at every turn. There were.
People told him they thought he practiced too much, that travel ball is too much of a time commitment. I told him he talked about softball too much. His team knocked all the paint off the walls in their small gym with their pitching machine. People never like the decisions that are made when it comes to playing time. I don’t think hearing those comments and knowing that people are upset is ever easy, but when you have a vision, you have to get thick skin.
After four short years, the junior high team has been to state twice. They placed 8th in 2018 and placed 3rd in 2019. There is now a pipeline of young girls who want to be involved in softball that look up to these dedicated athletes and want to be in their shoes someday, my daughter included. The team is full of talented athletes who are getting some of the best life experiences and making memories they will treasure forever.
I know a change agent when I see one. I live with one. He is impossible to turn off, and you’d die trying. Shawn’s muse is economic development through ideas, grants, and government funding. Ryan’s muse is sports and youth programs, namely softball. I don’t think his goal was to place 3rd at the state tournament, even though that is a worthy achievement and his family is as proud as punch. His goal was to be state champions.
If you think this is the end of the story, I think you are wrong. I don’t know the next step and what he’ll do to get there, but I know he does. If you tell him he can’t do it, he’ll work harder to prove you wrong.
My daughters won’t get to play school ball for him, but I am praying they will have the chance to play travel ball for him. We had our pick of a couple of different travel ball teams this year but when it came down to it, I just couldn’t think of a better coach or a role model than Uncle Ryan.