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Home  News Latest Conrad will be hub of district baseball, swim meet
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Conrad will be hub of district baseball, swim meet |
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Thursday, 24 July 2008 |
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Page 1 of 2 By Buck Traxler, I-O Editor
The motels will be full, restaurants are ready to serve the public, and the parks are expected to be overflowing with baseball and swim fans cheering on their favorite teams when they converge on Conrad for the district baseball and divisional swim meet coming up starting Thursday.
And as if that wasn’t enough to fill the plate, there will also be a Tri-county trap shoot on Saturday and a huge fun-filled evening at the Shooting Sports banquet at the Pondera Golf Club.
Fans from baseball and swimming tourneys are invited out for the fun and special auction.
Hosted by the Tri-County Cardinals, other teams coming to Conrad include the Sparkies and Stallions from Great Falls, Canadian squads from Lethbridge, Fort Macleod, Vauxhall, Medicine Hat and the NorthStars from Havre.
While not in Conrad, nevertheless, American Legion baseball has been around for a long time, first sponsored as a youth program in 1925.
This season, as it comes down to a close marked the 71st anniversary of competition on the field.
There has been a gigantic increase in the number of teenagers interested in supervised recreation provided by this program.
“In this city on July 17, 1925, by action of the South Dakota Department of the American Legion, the nationwide organization of Legion Junior Baseball was first proposed as a program of service to the youth of America.”
Those words are on a monument in Milbank, S.D., as a reminder of the beginning of the program.
Since that beginning in 1925, over one million young men have stepped up to the plate in Legion Baseball.
Conrad has had a Legion program for just a fraction of that time.
Players can participate in American Legion ball until they are 19 years of age. Usually they begin when they are about 15 years of age.
During the next four years, they can have fun playing baseball while developing skills and learning the importance of teamwork, discipline, leadership and sportsmanship.
The American Legion team in Conrad started forming with a vision from Dave Brown, who has sense moved to Texas, Dave Oien of Conrad, Dr. Dan Rausch and Steve Ahrens, both of Shelby, and Mike Pyette of Cut Bank.
With that, it is easy to see why the team is called the Tri-County Cardinals, although, this year the roster has a player from Choteau (Teton County).
Brown tells the I-O, “We wanted to bring American Legion baseball back to the Golden Triangle. The program has meant a lot to me because I got to see young men grow up and mature, and to further develop a love for baseball.”
He went on to add, The thrill of helping a young man continue his baseball experience in college has given me a wonderful feeling.”
He of course is talking about former players, Adam Oien and Zack Styren of Conrad, Craig Smith and Josh Pyette of Cut Bank and Jeremiah Rosenberger of Choteau who have all gotten to play college baseball. Luke Alford of Shelby can also be added to that list.
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