About this time each year, after most schoolchildren have put away their backpacks for summer break, the youth leagues get underway.
In some locales, youth athletics begin even earlier, around March or April.
In Tallahatchie, at least historically, T-ball, baseball and softball activities commence in late May or early June.
Such was the case with Terry’s Sports Academy, which plays home games on Robert Hill Field at the Charleston Industrial Park.
Mr. Hill, for anyone too young to remember, is credited with founding a summer youth baseball league for Charleston-area Black children in the mid-1970s — first on the Charleston Middle School athletic field and later on a few acres of land in the Depot Subdivision.
City businessman Cedric Terry plays a key role in helping to keep the tradition alive, heading up the present league, which he said serves about 75 local youth ages 8 and under, as well as 9- and 10-year-old boys and girls. The teams still are predominantly Black but are open to any comers.
Terry’s work with youth athletics started about 2002 with the Robert Hill Youth League, named in honor of the late Mr. Hill.
Terry’s academy also offers flag football and, coming soon, flag soccer.
At present, Terry and other volunteers are concentrating on the diamond.
On the day of the first games of the season, June 4, Terry was spotted manning a concession stand under a canopy at Robert Hill Field, helping to organize and set up food for spectators and players.
Later, when it was time for team photos, Terry did his best impression of Clark Kent, thrice switching shirts to stand alongside players of the three different ball teams for which he coaches, donning gold for the Lady Tigers, navy blue for the Tigers and orange for the Orioles. A lack of volunteer coaches pressed him into triple duty, he said.
In addition to playing intramural and hosting out-of-town competition at the local field, Terry said some of the teams also participate in travel ball, mentioning Batesville, Grenada, Greenwood and Water Valley as occasional game day destinations.
Terry is but one in a long and continuing line of local residents and organizations offering the youth of Tallahatchie County something safe and productive to do on some of the long, hot days when school is not in session.
Rosebloom Recreational Park and the Mississippi Roadrunners Track Club are two others still active, and everyone involved in these endeavors is to be commended.
