We’ve worked really hard to get to this point and collectively, we are just really proud of how things went. We cannot thank those that joined us from outside the organization enough for their help. With out those people, we could never have had the quality presentation we had on and off the field.”

Tony Kaiser

The Hastings Hawks have been working hard the last decade to make major improvements to Veterans Park in order to host additional state level tournaments and all that work paid off this weekend with their first ever hosting of the Region 5C tournament for the Minnesota Baseball Association (MBA). The Hawks are part of the Classic Cannon Valley League (CCVL) which is part of Region 5C along with the Twin Rivers League (TRL). All three CCVL teams along with five TRL teams participated in eight games held at Veterans Park.
Justin Plein, manager of the Red Wing Aces, is the tournament director for Region 5C and he said it was time that Hastings could host.
“You know, we've seen the work Hastings has put in the last three, four years to get their field, to keep improving the playing surface. The playing surface has been great all weekend. We knew they were ready. They have built up that infrastructure of support too, which is big. That's what you need. You need to have a lot of people do it. You find out, once you host it, that it's not a two-man crew, it's a lot of people type thing. I think that's where the biggest thing was that we knew they had the infrastructure and the playing surface ready to go,” said Plein.
The biggest concern for hosting a tournament of this magnitude is really the behind-the-scenes stuff. Having enough volunteers to run concessions, sell tickets at the game, do all the stuff in the press box and do the field resets between games.
“When a team hosts for the first time, you're just trying to make sure everyone's there. You want to have support for them as much as you can. You know there's going to be hiccups along the way, especially the first time you do it, because you haven't got that process of doing it in place yet. It doesn't matter if it's the first time or the 10th time, there are going to be hiccups and just, you just have to work through it,” said Plein. “The weekend so far has been great, we had great crowds Saturday and for the first two games on Sunday so far. Hopefully that continues here the last couple of games. The field has played very well, and the Hawks have done a great job as hosts all weekend. They should put their name in the hat to host again.”
It was clear the Hawks board members were pretty wiped out after the weekend was over. When they had a chance to catch their breath and breathe a collective sigh of relief, they all just stood in the concessions stand reflecting on the tournament.
“It was tough and tiring but so worth it,” said Tony Kaiser. “We’ve worked really hard to get to this point and collectively, we are just really proud of how things went. We cannot thank those that joined us from outside the organization enough for their help. With out those people, we could never have had the quality presentation we had on and off the field.”
They did not do it alone. The City of Hastings did a lot of off-the-field landscaping and clean up, the players helped with the field resets, volunteers from outside the organization jumped in to help and even some former board members joined in to make the tournament a success.
The Hawks social media has been talking a lot about ‘it takes a village’ to do these kinds of things, and that village really stepped up.