La Crescent's summer baseball and softball tradition reaches back more than 60 years.
Organized youth baseball was documented as part of La Crescent's summer recreation program by 1965. Just two years later, local recreation schedules included dedicated summer softball for girls. Long before online registration, travel tournaments and electronic scorekeeping, La Crescent children were already spending their summers learning the game on community diamonds.
Over the decades, summer ball grew through a partnership among local families, volunteers, the City of La Crescent and the La Crescent-Hokah School District. City recreation programs introduced generations of younger players to T-ball, beginning baseball and recreational softball. Community assistance programs also helped make sure financial hardship did not prevent children from participating.
Today's La Crescent Youth Ball organization carries that tradition forward. The current nonprofit corporation received federal tax-exempt recognition in 2016, and the AppleSmash tournament was already welcoming youth teams to La Crescent that summer.
La Crescent Youth Ball is governed by local volunteers and serves children who live in or attend the La Crescent-Hokah School District. Our teams participate in the Seven Rivers Athletic Association and compete throughout the Coulee Region, southeastern Minnesota and neighboring communities.
The program continues to depend on the people who have always made summer ball possible: volunteer coaches, parents, sponsors, field crews, tournament workers and young umpires learning responsibility through one of their first paid jobs. Together with the City and School District, those volunteers care for the diamonds at Abnet, Old Hickory, Veterans and the school athletic complex.
The equipment, uniforms and fields have changed over the years, but the purpose has remained remarkably consistent: teach the game, build teamwork and sportsmanship, create lasting friendships and give every child the opportunity to belong to a team.
Every summer adds another chapter to a story that has been unfolding in La Crescent since at least the mid-1960s—and that continues with every first swing, every inning and every player who takes the field.