PEA RIDGE — After nearly a decade of spending every Saturday through the winter at the gym, Kevin and Ronda Hall are hanging up their YCB hats.

YCB - Youth Competitive Basketball - and the Halls have been synonymous for the past nine years. Ronda has been the coordinate of the Pea Ridge YCB organization.

“I love the game of basketball,” Kevin Hall said, adding that he played as a child in Calico Rock.

“You learn about life playing basketball. You learn you’re not going to win at everything. You’ve gotta learn how to compete, how to lose.”

Kevin has coached whatever grade one of their three children were in. Now, their youngest child just finished his last YCB basketball season. Next year, Joey,12, will go on to junior high basketball.

Elder brother, Jacob, 16, a sophomore, plays basketball for Pea Ridge High School. Elder sister, Jessica, 19, is a sophomore at North Arkansas College where she also plays basketball.

Ronda, a native of White Hall, and Kevin, a native of Calico Rock, moved to Pea Ridge in 1998. In fact, they were building their dream house northeast of town when Ronda found out she wasexpecting Joey, their third child.

“We’d lived in northwest Arkansas before that, but were moved to both Utah and New York state with Wal-Mart,” she said. When the couple was first married (in 1989), they lived in Rogers. Kevin is an operation manager at the Wal-Mart Jewelry warehouse.

Ronda, who has a master’s degree in education, has been a substitute in the Pea Ridge schools for the past 13 years.

Ronda played softball when she was a student.

Kevin played basketball.

When the Halls eldest child, Jessica, was in third grade, they realized she was good at basketball and enjoyed playing. A YCB group had been organized in Pea Ridge and the Halls began to be involved.

“Mike and Kerri Kelly started it in Pea Ridge.

Mike asked me if I’d like to take it over,” Ronda said, explaining how she became coordinator for the Pea Ridge YCB. Pea Ridge is just one part of the larger organization and all coordinators meet regularly and vote on rules for the group.

There are 11 town in the northwest Arkansas YCB and some towns have two teams.

“This is my ninth year,” Ronda said. “I’m retiring.”

“Kevin has always coached our kids. He moved up with each of them,” she said, adding that over the past nine years there were two years that their children weren’t in YCB, but Kevin still coached. “A lot of kids’ parents coach. He (Kevin) seems to know what to teach these kids.”

There have been several occasions, Kevin said, where there have been youngsters without as much natural athletic ability, but a lot of heart and a willingness to work.

“To me, that’s the most fun ... their family andfriends are all shouting,” he said. “A large percentage of our kids go on to play high school ball.”

Hall remembered one child in particular who couldn’t even catch a ball when he was in the fourth grade, but by sixth grade, he was one of the best because of his desire and because he worked at it so hard.

Ronda remembered a little girl who was just happy to be a part of the team and always cheered her teammates.

“I think heart is the most important,” Kevin said.

“You can have all the natural ability, but will stagnate at ninth and tenth grade without the heart.

“You’ve got a kid who works his tail off to be better. It’s all about the fun,” Kevin said, adding that in the small town of Calico Rock where he grew up, thepastime was going to high school sporting events.

“You support your kids out there busting their tails. They’re going become the mayor, the business leaders,” Kevin said, emphasizing the importance of townspeople supporting the youth of a community.

“I’m for Pea Ridge. I want every kind to know I’m for Pea Ridge!” Kevin said. “I want to see the gym full, whether you’ve got kids playing or not, go to the games.”

“I wish everyone in the community would come to the games. It’s the best $3 they’ll ever spend. It’s great entertainment.”

Half of the games are played at home and half are played on the road. On the days in town, at least one of the Halls is at the gym the entire time.

There is a registration fee for children to enroll in YCB. Those fees aid in paying for the officials. Ronda said she also gets people, usually older student athletes, to work the clock, the gate and the scorebook.She arrives before the first game to prepare for the day and stays long after cleaning up and locking up.

For home games, several different organizations have run the concession stand in order to raise money for their origination including the PTO, the junior high cheerleaders, one year it was a junior high girls traveling softball team and this year the high school sophomore class.

“They’re a big help,” Ronda said. The sophomore class sponsor took on the project this year and the class sponsor organized all workers.

Funds are raised by registration costs and by gate fees. The registration cost is still just $25 per player. “I’ve kept it low so the children can all play,”Ronda said, saying that other communities charge as high as $75. The youth basketball players get to keep a T-shirt, but return their uniform at the end of the season.

One of the hardest parts is the complaints but Ronda smiled and said, “A long time ago, I learned, that when someone complains, I just ask them if they want to help.” She said that usually quiets the complainer.

The new coordinator will be Kari Fletcher, a 2002 Pea Ridge High School graduate. Fletcher said she played at the Rogers Activity Center when she was young and later at PRHS.

She works at the Boys and Girls Club and coaches the sixth-grade girls. She has coached for three years.

News, Pages 1 on 03/09/2011