The Council Rock Newtown Baseball bid for the Little League World Series began way before their current 18-game winning streak earned them a coveted spot to represent the Mid-Atlantic region in Williamsport this month.
You may be able to trace it back to when these now 12-year-old middle-schoolers were just 7 or 8 and first hit the diamond in their Bucks County hometown. Or maybe their success was born on the local fields where they practice with dedication and focus — not on winning — but learning and loving America's game.
That focus and consistentcy, their coaches say, is how this team of best friends ― who go to school together, play basketball and flag football with and against each other in the baseball off-season ― will cut through all distractions and hype of the international competition, where they are already getting tons of attention.
That happens when you're the winningest team going into the 2024 Little League World Series, getting off the bus undeafted in your last 18 games.
Pride of Bucks County:How to watch and support Council Rock Newtown Baseball's Little League World Series bid
"Back at the Eastern Regionals, Doug, Kyle and I decided we were going to make sure these kids enjoy the heck out of every moment of this," said manager Brad Hamilton, of Newtown, of an early conversation he and coaches Doug Peiffer and Kyle Neeld had. "We don't want them to miss a thing, they've worked so hard."
But when it's time to practice, that's when all that matters is baseball. That's how these expereinced coaches will keep their young team focused, and perhaps winning.
"It's about good crisp practices," Hamilton said Monday before that day's planned three-hour practice, which will continue each day until game day on Thursday when Council Rock Newtown takes on the Southwest's team from Boerne, Texas at 7 p.m. with the game airing on ESPN.
"We keep the process the same between the white lines," Hamilton said, a term his team has come to know from their coaches. "It's all about consistent practices."
And of course he would love to win, but the manager, whose son Dean is on the team, is more concerned about his players learning the game, playing as well as they can and having an "awesome experience."
"If you do all the things, winning is a great reward for it all, but its not everything," Hamilton said. "You don't have to win to be successful."
Bucks County and beyond supports CR Newtown
But Council Rock Newtown's wins this season have been impressive and have them in the spotlight for this chance of a lifetime. It seems the world, and certainly Bucks County and the Delaware Valley, have noticed.
"The support has been overwhelmingly awesome," said Hamilton, who has been fielding calls and texts from near and far since the team's win over Washington, D.C. on Friday in Bristol, Connecticut, securing CR Newtown's place in the Little League World Series, the team's first trip there in 19 years. "It's a good overwhelming."
The team is feeling the love, being adopted by Philly sports fans all over the Delaware River, and even at the Jersey shore where Keenan's bar in North Wildwood posted a sign congratulating them that made the rounds on social media Monday, and as a Pennsylvania team in Williamsport.
"We have received so much love starting with the (Council Rock Newtown Athletic) association, the coaches we've played against, out to Philadelphia, our workplaces, and back home," Hamilton said. "It just spread like wildfire. And you know Philly, and that fan base, Philly's got your back and we're seeing it. I don't know if the boys know all of it yet, but they certainly will. They're getting the love as the little rock stars they are."
The team, managed by Hamilton and coaches Peiffer and Kyle Neeld, includes: Gavin Caudill, Rocco DaBronzo, Wes Esteves, Brody Gage, Greyson Gage, Dean Hamilton, Saverio Longo, Tyler Neeld, Brayden Peiffer, Nick Schiller, Will Siveter, Ryan Uhl and Tyler Wexler.
Little League Baseball World Series 2024: schedule, scores, TV channel, brackets
Council Rock Newtown Baseball's path to Williamsport
They deserve it. The path to Williamsport has been tough, including Friday's game that featured cool temperatures, driving rain, two long rain delays and a talented opponent. "The was a really hard one, but the boys did a phenomenal job dealing with all the distractions. We always overcome," Hamilton said.
He said the team handled the considerable pressure, including the national spotlight and the unfamiliar rules of TV since the game aired on ESPN, "so well."
"The boys kept it together through two long breaks," he said. " ... They did an amazing job being 12-year-old boys and keeping their heads in it. They were just phenomenal."
There was little time to celebrate the 5-1 win though.
Council Rock Newtown didn't come home to Bucks County to rest up before heading to Williamsport. The boys took the bus that day to Williamsport, about three hours from Newtown in the northeastern part of the state. Hamilton said his team was "so tired, but so happy," and it made for a quiet bus ride for a bit, but when they were within an hour of the legendary complex the buzz on the bus got louder as the excitement and reality set in.
"We made it," Hamilton said with a happy laugh through his hoarse voice from the demands of the last few days.
The team did get to have dinner with their families, who Hamilton said are also key to the team's successful run.
"They're so important to all this, the siblings being dragged around to all the games, the parents trying to work in between, make travel plans, do laundry," he said. "Our families are amazing."
CR Newtown is a special team with a special bond in the Little League World Series
The bond of his players is also a difference maker, Hamilton said.
Unlike other teams that have a mix of 10, 11 and 12 year olds, Council Rock Newtown is filled with all 12 year olds, and unlike other teams, Newtown Little Leaguers need to live in the town, so they're neighbors, classmates and teammates.
This team also consists of a "core group of boys" that have played together since they first stepped on a baseball diamond and continue to play on travel and in-house teams together.
"They're all 12 and go to school together and are genuinely best friends and want to see each other succeed. Their bond is special and its palpable," Hamilton said.
The 13 boys are now living in the dorms with all the other teams' players in Williamsport, something they are getting used to since they have been dorm residents for the last two weeks as they have advanced. "It's a lot on a 12 year old, but we're checking on them and checking that they're OK," Hamilton said. "It seems fun at first, but there's a lot to it."
Since being in Williamsport they have done press, had team and individual photos done and, of course, practiced.
"They are really enjoying all of it," Hamilton said. "But they are also very happy to be on the field when it's time to play."
