A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
There's a Reason Why Softball Teams Keep Coming Back to Bentonville, AR
Meet Coach Kyle Lem, head softball coach at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and champion behind the return of the Alvy Early Memorial Classic Softball tournament. He and Visit Bentonville CEO, Kalene Griffith, joined us to talk about softball, women's sports, and the amazing amenities here in Bentonville. From the economic impact of sports on a destination and why Visit Bentonville continues to host successful softball tournaments through unreasonable hospitality.
Find out how you can host your next tournament here or make plans to visit the tournament while you're in town through this link.
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Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt, and today we're excited to speak with Coach Lim and Kayleen CEO, of Visit Bentonville. This is a special episode for softball fans, women's sports advocates and locals. Coach Kyle Lim has led the University of Arkansas Monticello softball program since 2019. You've served as the interim head coach and worked as assistant coach and hitting coach Prior to UAM. You coached high school softball and you've earned multiple championships. You coach high school softball and you've earned multiple championships Coach of the Year honors. You're a busy guy. I know you're planning for this tournament, so thank you so much for carving out some time and being on the podcast.
Coach Kyle Lem:Thanks, for inviting us.
Beth Bobbitt:Of course. So let's start with a little bit about your background. What led you to coaching?
Coach Kyle Lem:Well, you know I was a typical small sport, small town school guy, graduated with about 45 in my class, so you played all the sports, graduated from Woodlawn, Arkansas, so had opportunity, really through an injury, to play college baseball. You know I had football dreams but you know, when you're about five, eight and about a buck 60, that's probably not the best in the world. I actually got hurt my junior year of high school and had an opportunity to play high school. I was a pretty good high school baseball player but kind of get in the weight room and stuff like that. So it drove me to walk on and play at Henderson, which I got blessed and got to go down there and get my degree and then I stayed because the way I got sick my freshman year and to play my year of eligibility I had to start my master's program.
Coach Kyle Lem:Well, then I started looking at the core curriculum. I stayed a summer, one summer, two, a fall and a spring and I had a master's degree and just by chance, my roommate at the time was the ga for the softball team, um, which was coach richard brewster, um at henderson at that time, and he played actually slow pitch softball with us and it was like, hey, come on and uh, volunteer, be my student assistant in the fall. Um, my wife now we were uh dating in college. She was one of the first fast pitch players in arkansas that came through that played nothing but fast pitch. And then, you know, I got exposed to the college side of it. Never really, you know as much as I love baseball, never really decided to go back type thing. Kind of found my niche as a coach in softball and then got out, got a high school job and somehow, by fortune or fate, landed in this job.
Beth Bobbitt:I love it. It was meant to be and I'm sure it's so different being on the other side. You know a player to a coach, but talk a little bit about you know the differences in baseball, softball and then being a player and being a coach, you know pretty much the same things that come through it.
Coach Kyle Lem:You know softball happens a lot faster, smaller fields, shorter games. You know I coach football in high school as well too, and I coach female athletes in the softball side of it. It's just kind of I found what I found passionate about as far as that goes. Um, not that I don't love baseball and everything else is just something about getting up in the morning, coming to work with our athletes and everything else in the fast pitch side of it. So, um, that's what I like the most.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, wow.
Coach Kyle Lem:And then you know the difference is on the other side of it. I don't think anyone really understands until you get to cross that line. Um, of course I didn't realize it either, cause you know, when you're a high school kid or college kid, you know the things that your coaches make you do. You kind of go through it and you kind of you don't appreciate it until you get removed from it for a couple years. And then you know, when you got that short connection, it's like man, I can't believe that I was like that. And then you get 10, 15, 20 years into it. It's like man. I really appreciate what they really did for me back then as far as that goes.
Coach Kyle Lem:But I don't think anyone's ever really to sit across on this side of the fence until you sit in. What I always say no one, no one's really ready for the big chair until you sit in it, type thing. I think I learn stuff every day. I think I remember some things that I forgot from years past from day to day, and then of course you're always trying to learn and get better.
Beth Bobbitt:So it's a it's a definitely evolving thing sure, and you know the adversity being injured you you have. You have some real perspectives and real life experiences that I'm sure make you a better coach. So sounds like it's a good match, and so we really want to talk to you today about this major NCAA event, the Alvey Early Memorial Classic. It's the annual softball tournament that brings hundreds of people here to the region. This year that your team, the blossom softball team, is hosting. So it's happening the weekend of february 7th through the 9th in bittenville. Tell us a little bit about the man alvy early. Who was he? What's the history of the tournament?
Coach Kyle Lem:give us some background well, the man himself, you know, just kind of one of those weird things. I wasn't expecting to coach college softball when I got here. You know, to be perfectly honest with you, I wanted a better high school job, um, and I had some really good ones, but I felt like that. I wanted to be in a bigger place and just didn't have the experience on the resume and stuff. And I had met coach early through and, honestly, I was moving down to monticello at one point in time to be the assistant softball coach at the high school and then I got to work a camp with coach early in the summer and then, um, fate took us another direction. So I just stayed in touch with him and had that connection and, uh, back in the fall of 2014, it was actually August he called me on the phone and said, hey, man, I've got an assistant coach spot that they promised me next year and I've got a GA right now that I just let go of, and I've got a GA that's probably going to go home at Christmas and I'd like you to come there and take that job. And we were kind of going through some life stuff with me and my family and things like that it was like, hey, if you're going to do it, just do it. My whole plan was to work three to four years coach early, gain that experience that I needed and hopefully find a high school job that I could get and sit in.
Coach Kyle Lem:Once I got down here on the collegiate level and really started recruiting and your day-to-day operations and stuff like that, I kind of enjoyed what I did. And then working for coach early, it's just, it's an experience you had to experience. I mean, the man was a legend, um, as far as in division two softball he's a. He's a legend, he's a winner in every, every definition of the word as far as a collegiate coach, um. But I think I learned a lot more, not necessarily about softball from coach early, but just about life in general how to operate, how to manage, how to manage people, how to use your connections and stuff like that. I think I learned more about life than I did about softball with Coach Early, which is not necessarily I didn't learn, but I think his education on that side of it was beyond invaluable, um. And you know we miss him, you know it's it's one of those things that it's tough to sit in the chair sometimes and we still got reminders on the wall and everywhere else.
Beth Bobbitt:You know you know, those are all his old t-shirts and things like that.
Coach Kyle Lem:You know we keep him, so we try to stay in touch with tradition as much as we can. Um, we don't want to forget the things that he built down here, because he built a legacy program down here, but we're just trying to get back to that point. But, honestly, words don't describe him. To be honest, you just had to know him to love him.
Beth Bobbitt:Well, I think you've done a great job describing him and honoring the tradition and honoring him as a person. Do you know someone who'd love to play in Bentonville? Share this episode with them and let us know how it sparked a conversation. We are here for you every step of the way as you plan your visit to Bentonville. Are you into outdoor sports? Listen to our latest episode with Nat Ross to hear about the first ever Send it South Bike and Music Festival. I'd love to bring Kayleen into this conversation For new listeners. Kayleen Griffith is the CEO, president of Visit Bentonville for about 20 plus years, very known and loved in the community, but also you know very much in the tourism and hospitality industry, and so we want to hear a little bit about this tournament, what it means you know for Bentonville and the impact, but I'd love to hear your connection with you know with Coach first, and with softball itself. Why is this important to you?
Kalene Griffith:Well, being a former college athlete and playing softball in college, softball is a passion of mine from since I was a little girl playing, and then, of course, more recently having a daughter that played. From the time that she was eight, really till about five, I started a little small fry program for little softballs, because she wanted to play and there was nothing for her, so we were able to do that. So what it did, though, is that she has a passion for it. She played multiple sports, but she became passionate about it, and she played for Coach Early the son in high school, played for Coach Early the son in high school. So there was that connection with Kent Early that really opened up the door to Alvy Coach Alvy Early, which then opened up the door to Coach Lim. But I was fortunate to be in the room with Kent and Alvy and talking about what could we do to bring the softball up here, and Kent called and said hey, we're thinking about doing something for this softball tournament and to bring in something in February, and I said, oh, february is a great month because, you know, it's not a busy month for us. It's a great time for us to build a tourism product in our community, and so it had this passion of finding a time when we needed it, but then also having a passion for softball and knowing like, okay, what are we going to do to make this tournament happen? And Coach Early Kent, the son, and I talked a lot about what were the logistics were, and then, of course, we connected with Coach Alvey and it became this opportunity for Coach Alvey to bring in teams from all over the I think it was like nine or 10 states initially and then, and then we went to talking to Coach Kent early on how we're going to do this and what our expectations are, and it ended up being one of my favorite events because it was really one of those big events that we could, you know, grab hold of and have a lot of fun with. And you know, I always tell people I got paid to go and work an event that really wasn't work, because I have such a love for it. Being able to work with Coach Alvey was inspirational.
Kalene Griffith:It is hard Sometimes, I think, when I talk about him. He is a special guy. He made my daughter feel very loved in so many ways. Just, they share a birthday, so we would always bring a birthday cake for him on. It was always during that February 14th date. He's a Valentine's baby and so we always brought a birthday cake for him and he just was.
Kalene Griffith:That was special to him and then it was special to us to be able to do that. But he just had that way of making you feel like you're, you're part of his family. I feel like I don't know Coach Slim can probably talk a little bit about that but he was just one of those guys that I always felt like I could have a softball conversation with him, I could have an adult conversation with him, and he always had insight. But it was always so calm, cool and collect. Even when I was like can you believe this? He was always super calm, calming and just really was became a friend multiple years after we had this tournament. It is, it's more than just a tournament.
Beth Bobbitt:It was just a relationship we got to build which, alongside that is, you know, allowed us to build the relationship with coach lem also so I love that there's that foundation and connection there and truly you're doing a great job honoring him, but also, you know, it's amazing to see what this has become. So this is is it the 14th or 15th?
Kalene Griffith:year, Coach Lem I. I keep saying it's 14th, but it might be the 15th.
Coach Kyle Lem:Well, it was the spring of 2011 when we first started bringing teams up there. So right at the 14th.
Kalene Griffith:Yeah, okay, so it was 14th I couldn't remember.
Kalene Griffith:I kept going back Is it the 14th? Was it the 10th or the 11th, or 2010 or 2011?
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, and talk about the scale of this. I mean, you mentioned, the number of states involved. How many athletes, what kind of athletes are we seeing coming to this tournament?
Coach Kyle Lem:You know we've had as many. We've had as many as 32 teams before we settled on a number 20. Um, I think for the city of bentonville it helps us out a bunch with scheduling and stuff like that just to make it a better playing experience for the most of the teams and stuff. Because, cause February in Bentonville, you know what you're getting into. There's going to be weather concerns and stuff like that. We got a finger cross. It's going to be great this year we're due one. But I mean you're going to get some of the best in the country. You know what I mean. I mean, for example, I mean the division two national and the Division II National Champions of UT Tyler's coming. You know they just got voted preseason number one you got.
Coach Kyle Lem:Just looking at my sheet right here, you've got just in our conference alone, you know you got Southern Arkansas is coming. Southern Arkansas has been to eight straight regional tournaments since 2016. Harding has been in a region last year and the year before Harding's finished in the top part of our conference. You know Arkansas Tech's been continually good in our conference as far as that goes. And then you look at the MIAA conference You've got Washburn. You've got Missouri Southern. You've got teams like that with the recent success going to regionals and things like that. And then you've got some great teams from the GOVC coming. You know what I mean? Illinois Springfield played in the regional the year before, so I mean you're getting some good quality Division II softball. I mean you're looking at really good athletes that are coming through there.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, so we can count on the excellence of the players. What else, from just an experience perspective, what have you seen? What's the support like in Bentonville for softball? Well, there's a reason why we keep coming back.
Coach Kyle Lem:You know what I?
Beth Bobbitt:mean.
Coach Kyle Lem:Kayleen knows this man. We've had a good relationship for a long time and you know from a weather perspective, you know we fight some things as far as that goes, but you know the big part about Visit Bentonville and having the tournament at Bentonville from an accessibility standpoint it's awesome. The fan experience is awesome. As far as having opportunities to do other things as well too, it's easily managed.
Beth Bobbitt:What kind of things do they get to do while they're here? Do they have time to experience?
Coach Kyle Lem:Well with our schedules and stuff like that. For us, for example, you know, being in southeast arkansas there's not a lot of uh, just from a restaurant experience from a, all those kind of things. We don't get a ton of that down here, and some other places don't either. But the way we set the schedule up and stuff like that and every team does their things a little bit different obviously, but for us it's awesome because there's more opportunities for the kids to go out. It's the second weekend of February. The parents are generally in the bleachers. A lot of a lot of parents come. A lot of grandparents come and watch their babies play, which is awesome. Um, you know we're one of those teams that will let our kids go you know what I mean as soon as they're done, so they get to spend some time with their family as far as that goes. So I think it's a great experience. And, like I said, being it's the second week of the season, a lot of teams are still feeling out their stuff. The kids are super excited they're. You know we don't get a lot of opportunities to play tournaments and stuff like that for about the first three weeks of the season, so you're kind of measuring up where you're at as a team and stuff like that. So the kids are still super excited. They don't get they're not in quote unquote the ground of the mid season and stuff like that. So from a playing perspective, from an atmosphere perspective, as far as that goes, obviously visit Bentonville and coach Kent over at Bentonville.
Coach Kyle Lem:We have improved upon it every year that we've been up there. We've tried to make things easily accessible for the teams. We've tried to make it a better experience all the way around. Like I said, there's a reason why I have to reach out every year to Ms Kayleen and be like look, we've got to make it work, because it's awesome For the teams that come. It's very centrally located. As far as for the teams that do come into it, from a budgetary standpoint, we're all looking for better opportunities to make the budget stretch as far as we can. It's good for travel, it's great for hotels, it's good for entertainment. As far as that goes, I mean, there's a lot of benefits going to it.
Beth Bobbitt:Well, speaking of, let's talk, Kayleen, a little bit about the tourism impact. What have you seen over the years?
Kalene Griffith:Yeah, I think one of the things that we love is that they usually come in for three to four nights. Some of them will come in that are coming in a little bit further. I think we have seven states this year that are coming in and that varies from seven to nine states depending on the teams that come in. For the tournament that's a little over 500 players.
Coach Kyle Lem:That's only the players.
Kalene Griffith:That's not counting any of the parents. So we know the economic impact is probably right around the 200 or, yeah, 259,000 or and it can vary there depending on the tournament, the time of the year, that type of thing but we know that about $259,000 are being put back into our community from this event and that includes hotels, dining out, going to Walmart and buying something, even some of the entertainment, such as if the. You know that the parents are probably hitting crystal bridges if they can, if the players cannot. So the families are looking at what's going on in the community and they're impacting all of our local businesses and that's been a huge asset for us and we're seeing that in, you know, from some of those families that have decided to come back and visit. I know I've ran into a couple parents that saw me and had met me at the and said, hey, this was great, we loved it, we loved here. When we came back in February, we wanted to come when it was a little bit nicer and got to experience a little bit warmer weather.
Beth Bobbitt:Yes, understandable. Yes, well so, great for the players, great for the community. It's also, just you know that visibility for women's sports in a moment where you know I think that's really important, and so I just incredibly a positive experience for everyone. Coach Lim, let's wrap with a question for you about a Bentonville memory or experience. We'd love to hear, just you know, something that was really meaningful in terms of a place you went or a moment with the players, something that happened in Bentonville that you can share.
Coach Kyle Lem:Well, you know it's kind of sentimental when it came to it. You know Albie passed away on us in the summer of 18. And you know it was my first time out as interim head coach, as a Bentonville tournament the next year and everything else, so and it was just kind of one of those things that you know you can't describe it. You know you couldn't fill the shoes. You know I'll put his hat in the third base coach's box for the first out and let him have his moment. You know what I mean. So that will always be memorable to me, just the opportunity to be at this level with Coach Earley and everything else, and all my first memories of being there honestly, were those tournaments being early in the year. So Bentonville always holds a special place in my heart.
Coach Kyle Lem:As far as, when it comes down to that, like I said, working with the great people at Bentonville, like I said, kayleen and Kent and the various people that visit Bentonville that have helped us throughout the years, as far as make this tournament the success that it always is, far as make this tournament the success that it always is, um, you know it all just ties together as far as that goes. Like I said um, there's a reason why we keep coming back, there's a reason why teams will start hitting me up very, very early in may. Um, we're not even done with season yet and they want to know what the bracket looks like, who the team signed up, and it's always a. It's always a, it's always a mad dash there in may to get it signed up. But like this year, for example, I mean I put the feelers out for the Bentonville tournament, probably on a Monday in May and I had the tournament filled by Wednesday.
Coach Kyle Lem:You know what I mean with backups, you know what I mean. So it's kind of one of those things that the tradition is there. They know that the visit to Bentonville is going to make it about as good as it possibly can. Like I said, memorial Park has upgraded their facilities. They work with us great. Obviously, playing at the high school is a beautiful facility.
Beth Bobbitt:So those are just the memories that.
Coach Kyle Lem:I have Everything connects and, like I said, bentonville as far as from a tourism standpoint and being the hub of you know, there's a couple different tournaments going on that weekend, but being one of those big central hubs for college softball during that weekend in February is very special to us.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, well, this is a very special event to Bentonville as well the Alvey Early Memorial Classic, February 7th through the 9th. Spectators are welcome, correct? And there is a fee that would go toward Bentonville High School softball programs. So a wonderful thing. I understand there's social media live streaming softball programs. So a wonderful thing. I understand there's social media live streaming. That will happen, so if you're not able to be here, you can watch online. Coach Lynn, thanks so much for being here. This was just a really fun opportunity. You got all excited about the tournament now.
Coach Kyle Lem:We're looking forward to it. Like I said, it's always a great experience, always good to work with good people. Um, you know, that's that's the biggest draw of coming back to bentonville. To be honest with you softball, softball. But like kayleen said, you know, one of the cool things was being able to meet kayleen and and keela through keela's recruitment and getting hooked up with coach kent and just the whole surrounding, everybody surrounding Bentonville makes it special.
Beth Bobbitt:Well, you make it special, Coach Lem, that's right.
Coach Kyle Lem:Hey, I'm just driving the bus, no big deal.
Beth Bobbitt:Oh, there's more to that. Well, thank you both. Thanks, Kayleen, for stopping in. Thank you.
Coach Kyle Lem:Absolutely, thank you.
Beth Bobbitt:As always, visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American town. Give us a follow on social media, sign up for the newsletter and check out our website at visitbittenvillecom. Thanks for listening.