Urbandale Players Score Lessons in Teamwork as They Pursue Little League World Series Championship

It’s baseball – granted, the grand slam of baseball at the Little League level – but for the best of Urbandale’s young sluggers, there’s more to this week’s trip to Williamsport, PA, than living a dream they’ve nurtured since before they were able to properly swing a bat.

Urbandale takes its first at-bat Friday in the 2013 Little League Baseball World Series, the pinnacle of a whirlwind All-Stars season that began earlier this month. They face the winner of the Mid-Atlantic division at 7 p.m. CDT, and if they go the distance, they’ll bring a crown home from the championship game on Aug. 25. All Little League World Series games will be broadcast on ESPN.

These 11- and 12-year-old All Stars are the best of the Majors, in Little League speak the division for boys ages 10-12. Just getting to Williamsport was “against the odds,” said Sarah Ball, still hoarse from cheering on her son, Brendan, and the rest of the Urbandale team in a 3-2 nailbiter against Minnesota in the Midwest Regional finals.

“Usually, you clap a little bit louder than golf,” she said.

But this is different. This is huge. And as media requests increase with each win, these 14  boys are starting to grasp just how big it is, said team manager Robert Ball, Sarah’s husband.

“We haven’t been back to Des Moines since we left for Indianapolis (for the Midwest Regionals, Aug. 2-9),” he said. “We tell them about things that are going on, and as they’re being interviewed, they are starting to realize the whole magnitude of all of this.”

Friday Fundraiser Shows Hometown Support

Also back home, supporters and businesses are passing the hat. The Little League organization covers players' travel and lodging expenses for the most part, but their families travel on their own dime.

A fundraiser to defray those expenses is planned for Friday at Overtime Hub, Sports and Grub, 4810 86th St., from 4:30 to 7 p.m.

“It’s wonderful that they won and hopefully they will continue,” Overtime manager Kari Dougherty said.

Overtime is more restaurant than bar, Dougherty said, and it’s a favorite hangout for coaches and their players to grab a post-game pizza and wings.

With the Iowa State Fair opening its final weekend Friday, Dougherty expects there will be plenty of space for Urbandale fans to watch the game on ESPN.

This isn’t the first local team that’s made it to the Little League Baseball World Series. Urbandale was last represented in 2009. It’s 2005 Senior League team claimed the World Series crown. Robert Ball said Overtime’s support is typical in a town that appreciates youth baseball.

“Local businesses have really stepped up and are helping us,” he said. “It’s not an inexpensive sport.”

Also key to Urbandale’s Little League success are the parents.

“There’s a good tradition at Urbandale, and it’s set forth by all the volunteers,” Robert Ball said. “There’s not a single paid position and all us dads on the board are involved in coaching.

“That’s the key: They’ve established a standard out there for giving everything you’ve got.”

Keeping an Eye on the Ball (But Having Fun, Too)

Amid the flurry, Robert Ball is trying to keep the boys focused on the games ahead – a goal that mostly works itself out.

“These kids all go to the same middle school and Urbandale is a close-knit community with neat sports programs,” he said. “They’ve known each other for a very long time, and I think that’s the neatest thing with these kids. They know how to get each other motivated.”

Win or lose Friday, the Little League World Series berth is a trip of a lifetime that the 14 Urbandale youths have been dreaming about before they were hanging out at the Urbandale Little League field at 4871 78th St. watching their brothers and cousins play ball. A large picture of Urbandale’s 2005 senior league World Series champions at the hometown field has served as inspiration for the team.

“This is a bunch of boys who have played together in Little League since they were 5 years old, and as soon as they were 9 and could be selected to an All-Stars team, they’ve been dreaming about this,” Ball said. “Since they were 5, they’ve been going to see that picture, and they began to realize this is a possibility, that they could do this, too.

“They’re living the dream now, I tell you.”

Elite 16 Winnowed from 6,600 Teams

In advance of Friday’s series opener, the boys are getting pointers on their swings, pitches and fielding from experts at The Baseball Factory, and getting a taste of what it’s like to play in a stadium that rivals many in Major League Baseball.

Sarah Ball says that for the most part, the boys are unfazed.

“They’re like, ‘yay, we won,’ and then it’s ‘oh, we’re in an airplane,’” she said. “They’re not stressed. They’re just having the time of their lives.”

It’s against the odds that they made it at all. Some 6,600 teams were in the hunt at the beginning of the All-Stars season. Only 16 made it to the World Series, and only eight of those teams were from the United States.

The cultural value of the trip can’t be understated, the team manager said.

“They’re meeting kids from other countries and trying to communicate with language barriers,” he said.

They’re also learning lessons about how to function as a team that will serve them well later in life.

“They are learning about being teammates,” Robert Ball said. “They are learning about being resilient and coming back from defeat. We lost four games in this tournament, and came back each time to a winning streak. Tough games build character, and they’re building up some self-esteem and confidence in themselves and each other.”

He hopes the takeaway for his son and his peers is an appreciation of the importance of being part of a team and playing a role that helps the whole succeed, and beyond that “a bunch of self-confidence and self-respect. If we lose, being good sports about it, and if we win, being good sports of it.

“Outside of winning and losing baseball games, this just builds character.”

Meet the Team

Members of Urbandale’s Little League World Series team are Alex Augustine, Brendan Ball, Chase Brundage, Ty Cowley, Grant Garwood, Brook Heinen, Joshua Neyens, Will Pattison, Sam Petrillom, Garrett Purcell. Brady Roberts, Carter Troncin, Sam Young and Lucas Strain.

Check out the roster on the Little League web page and watch videos of player introductions.

Read more about Urbandale’s dream team: ‘I’m in Disbelief, Pretty Much’: Did Urbandale Earn Trip to Little League Baseball World Serie

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