Whalley's Major Allstars play their opening game at the Little League World Series against Team Asia-Pacific on Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 14) starting at 2 p.m. Surrey time.
Whalley is Team Canada at the famous baseball tournament in Williamsport, Penn., to which the Surrey-based club has returned for the first time since 2018 and seventh time in history.
The 12 preteen players are having a great time so far, according to manager Stephen Young.
"Before the big tournament starts, today is the parade," Young told the Now-Leader on Tuesday.
"Williamsport gets packed with, like, 20,000 people or more in the streets, and each of the teams get put on floats and they're paraded through the city," Young added. "There's people everywhere and the boys sign autographs. It's beyond star treatment, I can't even explain it. The boys are getting treated like superstars. ESPN is doing all these interviews with them, all of this stuff, because it's one of the biggest sporting events of the year for them."
In Canada, Little League World Series games are shown on TSN.
Last Thursday (Aug. 8), it was a jubilant but rain-soaked celebration for Whalley when they clinched the 2024 Canadian Little League Championship in Kingston, Ont., where they beat Team Alberta 10-1 in the final.
Two days later, the team loaded up for a five-hour bus trip to Williamsport.
"We got here midday Saturday, settled in our dorm, and from there it's been a whirlwind," coach Young said. "Adidas fitted us with uniforms and shirts and shoes, all that, and with Raleigh they call it Christmas in August, so they all got bats and helmets and backpacks and all this swag, get them all decked out for tournament.
"Then we had a session with ESPN doing all these interviews and they get treated like superstars," he added. "They're trying to find story lines with the boys, right. One of the cool things was, one of our coaches, Eric Kluth, he told the boys that if we won Districts and kept winning that he'd shave his head. So yesterday, they rolled in with cameras and a pair of clippers, so half of Eric's head is shaved and half his hair is still there, straight down the middle. The deal is, tomorrow he'll come out for the anthem and they'll highlight that for a bit. It's hilarious."
Sounds like the Whalley players, coaches, parents and other supporters are making memories of a lifetime at the Little League World Series.
"For me, as a parent-coach, it's so cool to share this with Joe, you know," Young said of his son, Jozef, who plays on the team.
"We walked out today and stared at the field from the top of the hill and it's pretty amazing, a little emotional, you know. I dreamed about this as a kid, I'm now 48, and I feel like a kid right now. I grew up playing in Whalley and my dad coached there, same thing, so my family's been at Whalley for a long time.
"I came back to coach in my early 20s for a handful of years before I had kids, and once Joey was of age he played Whalley too," Young added. "I never got the opportunity to do this as a kid but saw my friends go, and in 2006 I was part of the planning team when they went, and then I knew a lot of the players on the 2018 team and buddies of mine coached them. And now here I am with my son, and it's a dream come true for both of us."
Young said Whalley's coaches don't know much about Team Asia-Pacific (Kuei-Shan Little League), but expect a battle on Wednesday.
"We don't really get to see a lot of information about these international teams, so our plan is just to go in there and keep doing what we're doing," Young said. "We're gonna throw our big guy at them, Ben Wegwitz, he'll be pitching, and he's been a big part of why we're here, so we'll put our big horse on the mound with the 11 other boys behind him. We'll see good pitching like we have all the way through, and we've been successful so far, so we'll see what happens."
This year marks the 11th time a team from Surrey has earned a spot in the Little League World Series, according to a post on littleleague.org. This is also the 27th time Canada has been represented by British Columbia at the tournament, the most of any province in the country’s 64 appearances.
Whalley's roster includes Xavier Cabalfin, Ronan Bobiles, Ben Wegwitz, Eric Popovich, Blake Anderson, Marek Kluth, Kayden Krestanovich, Jozef Young, Joshua Hernstedt, Riley Suvilai, Ray Dhasi and Rye Precioso. Coaches are Stephen Young along with Eric Kluth and Jason Wegwitz.
