Mallory Donald presided over the meeting. Ryan Kelly provided the opening prayer. Lucy Sanguinetti led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Mallory led the club in the Four Way Test. The meeting was held at the Mugshots Bar and Grill in Hattiesburg.
Mallory then conducted the 50/50 raffle. Annie Jackson was the winner, however, she failed to draw the Queen of Spades, so the pot rolls over to next week.
Richard Topp introduced his guest today from the Salvation Army. Our club rings the bells for the Army each Christmas season. There is consensus that we will ring on December 3rd and again for one evening. Sign-up sheets will be ready for volunteers at our next meeting.
Lucy then introduced today’s guest speaker, Ben Smith. Ben is an assistant baseball coach at William Carey University. He is a native of Laurel. He first arrived at William Carey in 2004 as an infielder/pitcher. He joined the Crusader baseball coaching staff in the fall of 2008 and helped lead the Crusaders to a GCAC Championship and NAIA National Tournament in his first season. In 2010 he became the first ever coach of the Men’s and Women’s Cross-Country teams. In 2015 the Men’s Cross-Country team won the SSAC Championship and advanced to the NAIA National Championship.
Ben says the Cross-Country team members are the hardest working athletics at William Carey. They start running at 4:30 a.m. each morning and run multiple miles before they rest.
Ben talked a great deal about travel ball and the often-negative impact it has on children. He says the most serious negative impact in his opinion is that travel ball teams play ball on Sunday morning when they should be in church. There are lots of player injuries as a result of the pressure travel ball puts on the players. Travel ball is also very expensive for parents.
His number one advice for parents of children who play youth sports is to make sure they play in multiple sports.
There being no further business to come before the club, Mallory thanked Ben for his remarks. She announced that a board meeting will be scheduled either before or after next Tuesday’s meeting. She then adjourned the meeting with our motto: “Service Above Self.”