The girl who wanted a game

In 1970, in Corpus Christi, Texas, a ten-year-old named Cheri Boyd wanted a sport of her own. Her mother, Shirley Boyd, along with Barbara Miesen and Marty Caldwell, took that seriously enough to build one — starting the Laguna League out near Flour Bluff High School.

They chose kickball deliberately. Every girl already knew the game from elementary school recess, and — the part that still defines this organization — nobody had to be a gifted athlete to belong.

It was something all girls could play without having outstanding athletic talent.Shirley Boyd, co-founder

The first season enrolled 24 girls, ages 8 to 15. It took recruiting to fill three teams: the Doves, the Sandpipers, and the Penguins.

How it grew

1. 1970Three women, one league. The Laguna League opens in Corpus Christi with 24 girls and three teams.
2. The decades afterThe game travels. League by league, kickball spreads across South and Central Texas. Fields get named for the volunteers who built them — Inez Cofer at Oso, Jerry Smith at Southside — because in this organization the people who show up are the ones remembered.
3. TodayEighteen leagues, seven cities. Little Miss Kickball International serves nearly 5,000 girls across Texas in four divisions — Pee Wee, Junior, Senior, and Teenage — from age six through eighteen. Practice starts in March, the season runs April into June, and the state tournament crowns champions over the Fourth of July weekend.

“Everybody plays” is a rule, not a slogan

Plenty of youth sports say every child matters. Little Miss Kickball wrote it into the rulebook: every girl on the roster plays a minimum number of innings in every game. Not if the score allows. Not once she has earned it. Every game.

It's a sport open to any girl from 6 to 18. In kickball, everybody gets to play at least three innings every game.A past LMKII president

That one rule is why a girl who has never played a sport in her life can sign up in March and be a starter in April. It is the reason a league like this belongs in a city, and it is the standard we hold ourselves to.

The Cheri Boyd Memorial

Cheri Boyd — the ten-year-old whose wish started all of it — later died of cancer. Every year Little Miss Kickball plays the Cheri Boyd Memorial tournament and awards a scholarship in her name. Fifty-six years on, the girl who wanted a game is still the reason thousands of girls have one.

The charter comes to Haltom City Impact Girls Kickball

Haltom City Impact Girls Kickball is a chartered member league of Little Miss Kickball International — the newest link in a chain that began with 24 girls in Corpus Christi. We are a Texas nonprofit corporation, formed by parents and volunteers out of the northeast Tarrant County kickball community, with 501(c)(3) status in progress.

Our founding board did not come to this new. They came off the fields — coaching, umpiring, keeping the book, and running player selection for a neighboring LMKII league. They know exactly what a season asks of a family, and they built this league to ask less of families and more of itself.

Our first season opens in 2027, playing the same four divisions, the same rulebook, and the same road to the July tournament as every LMKII league before us.

What we carry forward

• Every girl plays. The minimum-innings rule is our floor, not our goal. No girl rides a bench here.
• No family priced out. Sibling discounts, early pricing, and scholarship help exist because the promise of 1970 doesn't hold if cost decides who plays.
• Everything on the record. Team placement, money, and decisions are written down and shown to the families they affect — and that protects our volunteers as much as our families.
• A hometown, not a franchise. Our girls, our fields, our families in the stands — carrying a fifty-six-year Texas tradition under our own name.