2011 State Championship Tournament Update Letter - June 2011
Chapter Two
Good Mornin Missouri - It’s June and only three months until your state championship tournament. Your hosts see everything coming together
for a truly outstanding event. Please don’t let the gas prices scare you away. Things will be getting better and you won’t want to miss
this great indoor venue.
First of all, the information update:
The Awards Dinner, on Saturday, 3 September, will be catered by Dowd’s Catfish House and BBQ of Lebanon. The menu will include sliced
brisket, smoked chicken and fried catfish with three sides served buffet style. Expect the price to be $16. This will include your drink
(water and tea) and dessert. Dessert options will be cobbler or cream pie. Selections will be determined later. Children 12 and under
will eat for half price. Seconds will be permitted. The dinner will be held in meeting rooms B and C, adjacent to the horseshoe courts.
Dowd’s will also provide the concession food throughout our event.
The membership meeting will be held in the same rooms on Friday, 2 September. The Cowan Civic Center is your one stop shop for all
scheduled events.
YMCA facilities which include indoor swimming pool, exercise area and gymnasium are also located in the civic center. A daily fee of $5
entitles you to use these facilities as well as the city water park located off the premises.
The main parking lot is behind the Civic Center on the east side of the building. This is also where the main entrance is located.
There should be plenty of signage to get you where you want to go. The front entrance facing Elm Street will be closed for everyone except
city employees.
Concessions, souvenir sales, game related sales and check-in will be located inside the main lobby area. The lobby area will contain the
awards horseshoe for presentations and tables and chairs for those utilizing the concessions. The main MOHPA administration area will be
located at the back of the lobby away from the main entry doors in meeting room A. Bulletin boards will be located along the perimeter of
the lobby area.
The courts will be set up in the main arena north of the lobby. There will be 32 courts organized into two groups of 16 courts each divided
by a safety fence and draping to eliminate distractions. The courts will be numbered from 1 to 16 on the left side of the arena moving away
from the lobby. Courts 17 to 32 will be on the right side of the arena. Bleachers will be set up on both the north and south ends of the
arena. Seating will be available in a balcony area above the west side of the arena. Access to the balcony is by stairs and elevator for
everyone’s convenience. We anticipate that junior pitchers and the higher average pitchers /championship classes will be placed on courts
1-16 for better visibility by spectators. Balcony visibility of courts 17-32 may be somewhat limited due to the distraction fencing which
will run the length of the arena. Since the MOHPA scoreboards are somewhat small and the courts are spread out, I would recommend bringing
binoculars to check the scores.
Now, for information on our souvenir packages - This year’s shirt color will be red. We selected red because it really makes our logo stand
out. You can find the logo at the end of this article. We will be selling only tee’s during the tournament but you can preorder polo
shirts if you so desire. If you preorder tee’s or polo’s your name added on the back will be included in the price. Tee’s $13 - Polo’s $20.
It will cost $2 for your name at the tournament. If you would like your first name on the front it will cost another $1. Our shirt lady
will be available throughout the tournament. If we do run out of your shirt size we will be taking special orders to satisfy your needs.
We don’t want anyone to miss out on a properly sized Tee. Email Jim directly at jbainter@charter.net to place your special order.
You can pay me when you pick up your shirt.
Other souvenirs will include embroidered caps and towels, coolie cups and state pins.
Your hosts will be selling beer and root beer apart from the food concession. We will be open each day for the duration including during
the meeting and awards dinner.
I would like to remind you that the Super 8 Hotel is our host hotel. The Best Western Hotel is a sister hotel and both offer the same
rates - $57/Single, $64/Double. These properties are conveniently located to the civic center. Please support them. Our recommended RV
park is the Happy Trails RV Park also conveniently located. There are many other motel/hotel/RV options in the Lebanon area, with rates to
meet you budget.
The recurring theme around Lebanon is Historic Route 66. There is a Rte 66 museum with all the nostalgia items and memorabilia as well as
Mr C’s Route Post, about 5 miles north of the civic center on Old 66. There’s more memorabilia and his own root beer is distributed
nationally. We will have it available in the civic center - but don’t miss stopping by. All kinds of shopping await men and women.
Antiques, quilts and crafts, knives galore and many specialty shops and restaurants who have all supported our efforts to make this year a
special event.
When you are in the Lebanon area let the shopkeepers and business people know you are with the horseshoe association and thank them for
their overwhelming support. We may want to come back in a year or two and we will need their help once again.
If there is more information to be disseminated before the Labor Day weekend, it will be posted on the MOHPA web site along with this
article and the original article contained in the February issue.
See you soon -
Jim Bainter
Marshel Keith
Jim Caufield
Ed Eliason