In the beginning…. there was an annual T-ball game sponsored by Catawba County Mental Health’s Early Childhood Intervention Services (ECIS). Then, in 1994, the Hickory Crawdads came to town…and teamed with Catawba County Mental Health and Conover School’s Blueprints of a Dream to develop four teams of players and buddies (players’ helpers) who enjoyed a seven-week season culminating with the final game at L.P. Frans stadium (home of the Hickory Crawdads).
In 1996, a Winter bowling league formed. The bowling league grew in popularity over the years. Unfortunately, we ended our bowling program when our bowling center partner, AMF Colonial Lanes closed down.
We added swimming, but the swimming program has changed over the years and as of last year, 2022, we did not offer swimming. We hope to add it back again at some point in the future.
We did add a choir for a few years, but the choir is not active as of 2022.
We obtained the use of a building in Hildebran, NC. It is here that we offer Game Night on the 1st and 3rd Friday of every month year-round! Game Night is a time to socialize and fellowship over light refreshments. We have board games and some materials for art projects. We have Bingo where everyone wins 3 times and gets a prize off the table. Sometimes we have special guests that mix up this event, but always are assured to have fun.
Now, it is the year 2023. Looking back over the last 29 years, we can see that friendships have formed and families have grown up in the league. Our number of players and families have increased tremendously. Young players that played the games in the first few seasons are now coaching the next generation. Its hard to say exactly how many players participate in our events, because some play t-ball, but do not bingo. Some play bingo, and not t-ball. We estimate that 250 players have participated in our league in the past year and I can say that we have 115 t-ball players in the 2022 T-ball season.