May 2025 – Brylee Mallard, Fair Grove, MO
May Contest Winner is Brylee Mallard of Fair Grove, MO! And, congratulations, Mom!

April Contest Question
MVM – Most Valuable Mom!
Do you have the BEST baseball mom? Nominate your mother for ‘Nokona Mother of the Year’ by telling us why she deserves the title, and how she impacts your life – in baseball/softball and otherwise. Give us details, share a specific story, and improve your entry by including a pic or video. Mom gets a prize, too, of course! Good luck!
Winning Answer
How much my mom does for me and my brother can’t be put into words, I can only try to explain all she does through some of her actions. Some of my core memories are of me and her on our way to get coffee singing I’m the Only One at the top of our lungs or her spending hours on end braiding my school or travel ball colors into my hair. I remember the first sport I did with her and that was Cheer. Cheer was my mom’s thing and something she took very seriously and loved very much. When I wanted to quit because that group of girls wasn’t the type I wanted to hang out with my mom did nothing but support me. But that is only the beginning of it.
After I fell in love with the game of softball, my mom who has never been one to research, or even sit down for more than 5 minutes for that matter, started looking up drills and sending them to me at all times of the day, even when I was in school. I still come home to “why haven’t you watched the video I sent you yet,” most of the time I tell her, “because I was busy getting an education,” and we both laugh about it. My mom became insane at knowing drill even my dad who had played baseball didn’t know.
Though finding drills isn’t the only thing my mom taught me, the biggest reason why my mom deserves this award is because she showed me how to work hard and believe in myself. From the ages of 6-14 I was awful at sports and really only played them because I had to. My mom always says,” the harder you work for it the greater the reward,” and boy was she right. I am currently a starting catcher for a 16U travel team, travel varsity for my school team, and hit my first home run in April. The first person I looked to after that was my mom, who’s cheering I heard above the rest.
I tell you this to say that my mom is the reason I didn’t give up. She stressed to me that not all things are going to be easy, so it is the working hard for them that counts. I took this piece of advice to heart. I remember my mom staying up with me countless nights in the summer timing my blocking and pop-up, not to mention all of her tips on how to improve them. My mom may not be able to throw or catch a ball, but she sure knows how to help me during a slump and when I am doing well. I am the luckiest girl in the world to have a mom who cares as much as mine does about my interests even when they’re not hers. I don’t know what I would do without her. She is my rock. I can count on her no matter what and love her dearly.
This is a little poem I wrote called a Once In A Lifetime Kinda Mom:
My mom is a once in a lifetime kinda Mom
She might never be good at catching or throwing a ball
But she is my once in a lifetime kinda Mom
She has been there through it all
My once in a lifetime kinda Mom
The first person I turned to after my first bomb
That once in a lifetime kinda Mom
The one that pushed me through it all
My one and only once in a lifetime kinda Mom!