By Bruce Karnick

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Hastings Youth Athletic Association, or as we know it, HYAA held its annual meeting where new board members are brought on and board executives are elected, on Monday, October 18 at Green Mill. Often times, the formalities of board meetings follow the same formalities of City Council and Commission meetings, which is Roberts Rule of Order. That long, tried and true format means there are certain formalities that need to be followed.

The Meeting started with President Cindy Lyon calling the meeting to order, they established the parameters of the accepting new members, the executive election and discussed some business before closing the meeting for elections. Closing the meeting was a formality required because the old president needed to end the meeting with their end of the cycle in the position so the new president could open the next meeting.

New at-large members that were welcomed were: Randi Moulder, Angie Strain, Jason Stoffel and Mitch Woodwick.

There was one at-large member that stayed on the board for another term, Nick Odman.

With the at-large members added, the executive elections could take place. The new members needed to be voted in before they could vote on the executive board.

The executive board consists of a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary. There are also director positions, Traveling Softball Director, Traveling Baseball Director (9u-15u), Traveling Baseball Director (16u-18u), Director of Volunteer Services and Director of Equipment (Baseball). The board talked about adding a Director of Equipment (Softball) but could not do so until the elections were complete, and the new board year started.

Of these executive positions, a major change was about to happen. President Cindy Lyon has been on the HYAA board for 21 years, with the majority of that time being the board President.

“It’s time, I went back as far as I could find and that was 2005, I’ve been on the board since 2000,” explained Lyon regarding her presidency.

She has been a mainstay in the youth sports world for Hastings for a long time. Her involvement in the majority of the tournaments at Veterans Park has been a large part of the tournament’s successes. Between in house tournaments, travelling tournaments, youth state qualifying tournaments and even portions of the youth state tournaments themselves, Lyon has been involved with them all over the years. She drags fields, grills burgers, runs concessions, shops, and so many other things behind the scenes that makes HYAA go.

Luckily, for HYAA, Lyon is not disappearing all together. Her plan is to stay on doing many of the field duties as needed. For folks like Lyon, working a baseball field truly is their gardening.

Along with the President stepping down, HYAA is losing other long-term volunteers. John Thurmes, long time Softball Director is stepping down. Bobby Neuville, Equipment Director is stepping down, ending his 15-year involvement with the HYAA board, and new Raider Head Baseball Coach Ryan Stoffel is stepping down. Stoffel felt it was the best decision to step away from any potential conflicts of interest being a voting member on the HYAA board and the head coach at the school.

This cannot be stressed enough, the four folks that are stepping down, Lyon, Thurmes, Stoffel and Neuville are a huge reason HYAA has been around as long as it has. Their dedication to Hastings youth sports has been incredible and Hastings owes them a huge thank you for their countless hours supporting our kids. Of course, there are hundreds of other volunteers, folks like Gordy Grossman and so many others that have been a big part of HYAA’s history. This is not a slight on them, they were instrumental too. But these four are changing their roles right now and have changed thousands of kids’ lives recently.

With the four departures, come new opportunities, new ideas, new leadership, and those positions need to be filled. Sherri Leflay was elected as the new president, which opened her secretary position. Adam McNamara was elected Vice President. Lynette Peterson is the Treasurer and Cindy Lyon moved into the secretary spot to be part of the board to help Leflay transition into the Presidents role.

With John Thurmes stepping down and no one stepping up to take the Traveling Softball Director position, he agreed to be the interim director until a permanent one was found, but he indicated that needs to happen quickly. Jason Stoffel will be taking over the Traveling Baseball Director (9u-15u) from his brother, Mitch Woodwick is the new Director of Equipment (Baseball).

On a personal note, I would like to thank Cindy for all the help she has offered me over the years I have been part of Hastings baseball. Cindy was the one that taught me the basics of field care, especially the drag machine we use out there. Without that solid base for me to start from, I never would have been able to develop the skills I have to groom the fields the way we do for the kids. Every day out there is a learning experience, and I am glad that part of that has been with people like Cindy, Ryan, and Bobby. Thank you again for everything you guys have done thus far.

If you would like to learn more about joining the HYAA board, please visit www.hyaa.info.’