NSA Hall of Fame: Jay Huffstickler (2002)
CATEGORY: Player
YEAR INDUCTED: 2002
Jay was an above average Class C ball player who supported the NSA from the first year NSA entered the Carolina’s. He did as much as any one person in the Carolina’s to get the NSA off the ground and support the program. Jay played in every NSA tournament held in those early years. He has played in countless NSA tournaments all across the country. He and his team went to Texas in the early years when only a few teams would travel for NSA. His team also played in the early tournaments in Atlanta, and Jay also played on the only NC team to go to the first NSA Super at MidWest Sports Complex in Indianapolis. There are no statistics as to what Jay’s lifetime batting average was, what his fielding percentage was, nor how many times he went to bat, nor how many homeruns, singles, doubles or triples that he has hit in his lifetime. Those aren’t important to his induction into this Hall. What is important is that 99% of the time that Jay Huffstickler played the game of softball…he was playing NSA.
In the early years when NSA in the Carolina’s was trying to get off the ground and NSA was in competition with another major association, Jay would volunteer his team to umpire the tournament that would go head to head against the other association in order for our Directors in the Carolina’s to charge half the price. It worked, and the all the teams started playing NSA. On countless occasions, Jay would be playing in an NSA tournament and would leave between games and come back with chicken, BBQ, or a ton of food from somewhere, and he did this not just for the tournament directors but for the NSA umpires as well. From 1986 thru 1996, Jay Huffstickler played in every NSA tournament held in NC, every NIT, State, and World Series that was held in his classification, sometimes playing up in class to give support to the tournament. Jay was such a well liked player that other players and teams followed Jay where he was playing. The NSA could not have asked for a better player to help promote the NSA in the Carolina’s in those difficult early years than Jay Huffstickle.
On November 7th, 2002, Jay Huffstickler became the 6th player and the 1st non-major player to be inducted into the NSA Sports Hall of Fame.
