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They’re just 12 years old, but there is a real chance they will soon be world champions.
The Boerne Little League team is named Texas West, but everyone in Boerne knows them as their team.
Coach Greg Yost says, as a team improves enough to win titles, there’s a lot of pressure.
“And then of course, you make it to all stars, and the pressure ratchets up,” Yost said. “Going to the state tournament, the kids felt a lot of pressure, but boy, when you get to the region tournament and ESPN is present, and there's TV filming your every move.”
The boys seem to have absorbed that pressure and turned it into baseball skills at game time.
“I'm feeling amazing, actually, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said shortstop player Kase Yarbrough.
“I'm grateful for it. I'm honored to be on this team, and it's just amazing. I originally trained at two, but my first game, T-ball game, was at four,” he said.
He was asked what intangible attribute may eventually leave them as national champions.
“The chemistry, definitely. We've all known each other before it even all happened,” Yarbrough said.
Kasen Martinez thinks that time spent to get to this point also makes them good friends.
“We're just really good teammates because we've been through all this like time and like practicing together,” he said. “So we know what we can all do, and we trust in each other to step up and do their job, and that's like we're all together as a team.”
The team’s belief in itself has built through the summer, game after game, practice after practice.
“It feels amazing because we didn't think we would like make it this far because like we're just like normal kids from the city, that like had their dream and we've made that dream come true,” Martinez said.
Preston Baird plays third base and pitches. And he understands that wins and losses aren’t always the only thing that matters.
“We're usually pretty locked in as a team, and I think we could do it if we really worked as a family,” Baird said.
He also clearly understands the concept of ‘team.’
“We trust in each other to step up and do their job, and that's like we're all together as a team,” Baird said.
The Boerne Little League team is already looking forward to its first game in Williamsport, at 2pm on Friday, Aug. 21.
