The road to Williamsport ran straight through Main Street Boerne on Thursday.
Fans carrying homemade signs lined the street as police and fire vehicles escorted the Boerne Little League team to its final hometown practice at Northrup Park. The players are scheduled to fly to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, early Friday morning for the Little League World Series.
“It brings the community together,” fan Kellee Simmons said. “It gives us a chance to really celebrate with our friends, celebrate the hard work of these boys. We’re all so proud of them — and to put Boerne on the map for baseball.”
The majority of the players are 12 years old and compete in Little League’s Majors Division. The team has spent much of the summer traveling and playing its way through the postseason.
This is an entirely different roster from the Boerne team that made the community’s first trip to Williamsport in 2024. That team finished as the runner-up in the U.S. bracket and fourth overall in the world.
Coach and fan Charlie King traveled to Williamsport for the 2024 tournament. He described the atmosphere there as “magical” and said television does not do the experience justice.
“You see plenty of different generations of baseball players in Boerne,” King said. “It’s truly been an exciting time to be in Boerne, Texas. Boerne’s always been a baseball town. We’ve got a long history of it.”
Boerne’s road back to Williamsport
Boerne’s path through the Southwest Region tournament was anything but easy.
The team lost its opening game to Lamar Little League of Richmond, 10-3, before fighting through the elimination bracket. Boerne shut out Mississippi 10-0, avenged its loss to Lamar with a 3-2 victory and then defeated Louisiana 4-1.
The regional tournament was also disrupted by the disqualification of Tulsa National Little League. Little League International determined that a player who participated for Tulsa during an earlier stage of the International Tournament was ineligible.
Tulsa’s previous 3-2 victory over Louisiana was changed to a forfeit, making the Boerne-Louisiana matchup the regional championship. Boerne’s victory secured the Southwest Region title and a trip to Williamsport.
Tulsa families briefly obtained a temporary restraining order that could have required Boerne and Tulsa to play another championship game. A McLennan County judge later dissolved that order, allowing Tulsa’s disqualification to stand and confirming Boerne’s World Series berth.
“The amount of effort they’ve put in this summer is incredible,” King said. “I was talking to one of the parents yesterday at the batting cages. He’s been away from home for weeks and weeks because this is not just the end of the tournament. They still have two to three weeks there in Williamsport.”
Inspiring Boerne’s next generation
Thursday’s sendoff brought out some of the team’s youngest fans.
Liam Simmons and his sister Emma proudly displayed two handmade signs reading, “Go Boerne Go!” and “Boerne Pride — World Series Bound.”
Emma said she was “very excited for the Boerne boys to win.”
Amanda Greenberg attended the sendoff while holding her infant son. She hopes he could one day follow the players he is now watching.
“I just had this little one, so we’re hoping he plays when he’s older too,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg called the players “the town’s team” and predicted this could be the year Boerne wins it all.
“We think so,” she said. “We have faith in them.”
Simmons also has a family connection to Little League history. Her grandfather, Ray Plumb, managed Houston’s Westbury American Little League team to the 1966 world championship. It is one of only two Texas teams to win the Little League World Series.
Fans hope Boerne’s latest appearance inspires more children to play while also drawing attention to the community’s need for additional baseball infrastructure.
“I hope we see the demand increase for baseball, then we can add more facilities around here,” King said. “We’re in desperate need for more fields, more practice areas and more resources for the kids. We’ve got plenty of supply of kids but not enough supply of fields.”
Boerne will play its first World Series game at 2 p.m. Central on Friday, Aug. 21, at Howard J. Lamade Stadium. The team will face the winner of the opening-round game between the Southeast and Northwest regions. The game will air on ESPN.
Back home, Melissa Levy said the question is not whether people will watch — it is where.
“Every bar in the town has a watch party,” Levy said. “Everybody has it on. ‘Where are you watching it?’”
For one final night before the team headed east, the answer was Main Street, where fans sent the players off with a chant they hope will carry all the way to Williamsport:
“Let’s go, Boerne, let’s go!”