This time of year, Fort Dodge fills with the sound of cheers, the smell of concession stand grub, and the electric feeling only a state tournament can bring. For a few days, our community becomes the heart of girls’ high school softball in Iowa. I love it.

There’s something special about teams taking the field at Harlan and Hazel Rogers Sports Complex – some making their first state appearance, others carrying on a legacy. You see fans in coordinating shirts, siblings with homemade signs, and coaches who’ve likely been through more sunburn and bags of sunflower seeds than they’d care to admit.

Softball is fast. It’s sharp. Everything from the pitching to the baserunning is urgent. And it’s whip-smart. It’s also about grit, about building trust pitch by pitch, inning by inning, game by game. You gotta know your teammates have your back.

We know a little something about that here in Webster County, so we’re proud to host the state tournament each year. We know what it means to work hard, to show up for each other, and to take pride in something bigger than ourselves. It’s not just a game – it’s a story told year after year. We’re honored to provide the backdrop.

I’m a spectator, not an athlete – but to me, what happens on those diamonds always has a touch of poetry and romance to it. Not in a hearts and flowers way, but in an underdog heartbreak come from behind fingers and toes crossed making deals with a higher power way.

That’s true in softball. And for me, it’s just as true in baseball.

Maybe that’s why this week stirs up memories of another field, another team, and a lifetime of belief in the underdog.

I’m talking about my family’s generational devotion to the Chicago Cubs. We know what it’s like to have no fingernails left by the seventh-inning stretch, to pray with every fiber of our being, to roll our eyes at the endless ridicule. We know the joy of a deep home run on Waveland Avenue, and the ache of watching our team blow a lead. And when the Cubs finally won it all in 2016 – well, we cried. I knelt next to my dad, and we cried. Because for us, it wasn’t just baseball. It was him. It was home. It was hope – 108 years of it.

That same fire shows up every July here on the far north side of town. Kids falling in love with the game. Teams creating stories they’ll tell for years. Coaches showing how to win – and lose – with class and dignity.

So to all the teams competing this week: Welcome to Webster County. Play hard, be proud, and enjoy every moment – because this is what hometown pride looks like. And we’re honored to share it with you.

Niki Conrad is the chairwoman of the Webster County Board of Supervisors.