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On Wednesday, October 13th, Hastings welcomed 32 teams and countless fans and families from across the state as we hosted the High School State Softball Tournament for the fourth year in a row. The Masked Blogger (TMB) greeted the Hastings Tribune with much anticipation on Wednesday because TMB is so proud of this community, everything it does and everything it offers. What a great day to stick out our chest a little farther and a little prouder. TMB started to read the article about the tournament on the front page and turned with eagerness to the rest of the article, only to be startled by the continuing headline, “Hastings officials uncertain about the future state softball bid.” What? Must read on to find out what would lead “Hastings Officials” to make such a determination. Was it this darned economy that everyone likes to blame things on? Obviously our amazing softball complex must be double booked with national tournaments and other great events that we are able to look such a gift horse in the mouth. TMB was compelled to read on to determine what our dilemma was.
Our mayor was quoted: “We are honored to be the host city for the 2010 NSAA State Softball Championship.” Hmm, no hint there. Then a statement from the Executive Director of our Convention and Visitors Bureau: “It’s a win-win for our community. Getting all those people here and the recognition we get for it statewide…..I believe it’s something we will bid again.” But wait a minute…that is not what the sub-head said above. What is going on?
And then…there it was. Apparently when we talk about “Hastings Officials”, we are talking about Greg Holiday, activities director for Hastings High School. Mr. Holiday went on to say many things but the one that caught the TMB’s attention the most: “It just seems to be getting tougher every year to get volunteers…That’s something that is kind of a determining factor in whether we can do this. If we can’t get volunteers, we won’t rebid.”
WHAT?
There are two main issues here. The first is the most disturbing. The fact that we have over 24,000 people in our community who ALL directly or indirectly benefit from us hosting this tournament, and we cannot get a few dozen to spend a couple hours helping make it happen is ridiculous. Are people too naive to see the value that events like this bring to our community? Or are we just too selfish to care because we see no direct value in it for ourselves? The people who give of themselves through their time, talent and treasures are what make Hastings such a wonderful community. We need to figure out, and real quick, how to change people’s perception as to what their role in the community is. If we want to host festivals, rodeos, races, tournaments and other great events, everyone in this community needs to understand how important they are.
The second issue is with Mr. Holiday. As an apparent representative of “Hastings Officials”, how dare he use the hassle of gathering volunteers in the community as a reason to stop bidding this event? Just as obvious that a tournament like this cannot happen with out the collective work of the entire community, it should be just as important that Mr. Holiday understand that he should use more than his personal hardships to determine its future. Hundreds of people donate their time and money to this community every day by serving on boards and committees and donations to local organizations. Do you think these people enjoy spending their hard earned money or their precious time away from their families and hobbies? What if all these people decided to stop supporting their community because it was a little inconvenient? This community is built on people enduring some hardships because they understand what is in the best interest of the collective whole. I would hope Mr. Holiday or at least his boss or board will remember this when deciding whether or not to re-bid this tournament.
The competitiveness for these types of events across our great state is fierce, and there are many reasons the 2011 Nebraska High School Softball Tournament may not be back, but the fact that Mr. Holiday has to do some “begging and pleading to get people to help” should not be one of them. As a community we should be embarrassed this was an issue to begin with. As a school system, we should be embarrassed it made it into the newspaper—especially during a time when we’re hosting a statewide event.
About the author: The Masked Blogger
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Hastings needs to keep this event. I volunteered for 3 hours on Wednesday and will do another 3 on Friday–why? I don’t have any children or relatives or even acquaintances playing. Why? Because I was asked to help and because I did it last year and had a blast!
Greeting all the people from around the state and the genuine thanks that they didn’t have to travel all the way to Omaha was a bonus. Yes, there were complaints about the drive — from Omaha people –truly they were wearing Omaha school attire. There were complaints (some) about the gate price — from Omaha people — which is set by the NSAA–if this were in Omaha, it’d be different. Not the case.
Mr. Holiday, do this for Hastings and for the hundreds of peoople who come out and are so grateful that it is in Hastings. The volunteers will appear; they always do.
Yes, what a shame that the negative comment had to appear in the Tribune during the tournament! At least we should keep our dirty laundry to ourselves and wait until the tournament players and officials leave town! And it sounded in the article like another organization did most of the recruiting for volunteers, anyway, not Mr. Holliday. Please, Mr. Holliday, let Hastings make full use of our beautiful facilities and allow us to offer them to large organizations like the NSAA for tournaments! It can only make Hastings a better place to live!
Clearly, this is an unfortunate article for the Tournament, Hastings, the Hastings Public Schools, and, in particular, Mr. Holliday.
Please know that I have visited with Mr. Holliday about the comments this article reports him making. The basic accuracy of this article is not in question. On the basis of my discussion with him, however, I believe Mr. Holliday never intended his minor worries to be made public. Mr. Holliday helped bring the softball tournament to Hastings and I know he will continue to work to have the tournament here.
Now that Mr. Holliday’s comments have been made public, however, I too must weigh in and make a public comment. As Superintendent, please know that the Hastings Public Schools will do everything that it can to keep the softball tournament in Hastings. Why? Because the Board of Education wants it that way, because it is good for our students to see this level of competition in their “back yard,” and it is good for our community.
I look forward to being at the gate to facilitate this event tomorrow afternoon.
It is my hope that we can now go back to doing what we do best: working together to provide one of the premier sporting events in this state.
I am going to make a response here to The Masked Blogger, name unknown.
In my first year as an administrator at Hastings High, I thought it would be great if we at least threw our hat in the ring to TRY to get the state softball tournament to Hastings. Bob Moderow was willing to help pull this off and has been unbelievable in his attention to detail and tireless efforts. We have, BY FAR, the best facilities in the state for this event and why not showcase this.
It was our intent to bring this event to Hastings, something that people said we didn’t have a shot at getting from Omaha, and it is also our intent to KEEP the state softball tournament in Hastings.
Mikki does an outstanding job of getting volunteers every year for this. Many of these people are doing multiple shifts though due to the limited number of people volunteering to help out. We can do better in that area.
I was also confident in the Hastings Park and Rec, Bob Moderow (my predecessor), the visitor’s bureau, and the chamber. When we started this process, over four years ago now, we needed to make sure everyone wanted it here. We visited every single motel to see what they were willing to do for teams coming in. All of this information was compiled and put in our power point presentation to the NSAA. We hadn’t even gotten back to Hastings when we received the call that we had won the proposal in a 5-1 vote from NSAA board.
The volunteers have been fabulous to give of their time to put on a premier event. In talking with Mikki at the Chamber at the beginning of this week, she was having trouble getting the list completed. At the start of the tournament, there were still five slots not filled in. We have managed to get it filled with several people volunteering for multiple shifts.
Our community is a HUGE winner in this event and the hope is that they all will see that and step up to help keep it here. We run a top-notch event and aside from a few people that don’t like the fact that they can’t bring their own food or beverages into the complex, it goes very smoothly. Our volunteers shouldn’t have to deal with people throwing drinks at their feet and cursing at them. I know those initial things made some people leery about wanting to come back and help, but I think we are making great strides in that area and people are getting more and more used to the idea.
The NSAA helped us after the initial year in allowing us to sell an all day pass so that people could come and go. That helped immensely. It also allows the fans to visit our local businesses better without having to pay to reenter the premises.
Keep things positive and please step up to help rather than fighting against each other. THIS IS AN OUTSTANDING EVENT AND IT BRINGS PEOPLE TO TOWN. There are a ton of comments from people that state that they didn’t know Hastings had everything they have.
By the way, we have put in for State Volleyball too and will be taking our first turn at helping host this event in conjunction with Grand Island. This was a HUGE WIN for the central part of the state. We plan on making that a remarkable experience for volleyball athletes and their fans as well.
Thanks for the opportunity to share. Gregg Holliday, Hastings Public Schools Activities Director