Round-robin play in the District 7 tournament has been ongoing this week at Central Saanich Little League and will culminate with the championship game at noon on Sunday
CLEVE DHEENSAW
Times Colonist
The road to the greatest youth tournament in all of sports is running through the Island this year. Nothing in hockey, soccer, basketball, rugby, football or cricket can match the annual Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where 11- and 12-year-old baseball players play in front of up to 40,000 fans at the stadium and a television audience on ESPN in the U.S., TSN in Canada and stations throughout Asia.
Every Little League in the world is eligible and picks an all-star team from their park to join the hunt. Round-robin play in the District 7 tournament has been ongoing this week at Central Saanich Little League and will culminate with the championship game at noon on Sunday. The semifinals are today with Hampton and National meeting at noon and Beacon Hill and Central Saanich at 3 p.m.
The District 7 champion will advance to the B.C. championship tournament beginning next Saturday at Trout Lake Little League in Vancouver. Last year’s provincial tournament was hosted by Lakehill Little League at Ambassador Park.
The B.C. champion will represent the province at the Canadian Little League championship to be held at Layritz Park in Saanich from July 29 to Aug. 7. The Canadian champion will advance to the 2025 Little League World Series from
Aug. 13 to 24 in Williamsport.
Because it is hosting the Canadian championship, the Layritz team is automatically into the nationals, and as such does not need to take part in the district or provincial tournaments. Instead, it is preparing with exhibition games against U.S. teams and teams in older divisions.
“The organizing committee for the national tournament at Layritz is doing a great job of getting ready,” said Tak Niketas, administrator for District 7.
“The bleachers are already up and there is a new scoreboard.”
B.C. teams have dominated and represented Canada in the Little League World Series 29 times. B.C. teams have won the Canadian championship every year since 2005, except for 2013 when East Nepean of Ottawa was national champion, and in 2023 when host North Regina upset Vancouver Little Mountain 4-3 in the national final.
Whalley, from Surrey, making its seventh appearance, represented Canada last year in the 2024 Little League World Series.
Major-leaguers from B.C. who have played in the Little League World Series include Michael Saunders from Gordon Head in 1999, Adam Loewen from Kennedy in Surrey in 1996 and Jason Bay of Trail in 1990.
The two teams from the Island to have represented Canada in Williamsport are Esquimalt-Vic West in 1974 and Gordon Head, with Saunders, in 1999.
No Canadian team has won the Little League World Series. The only Canadian team to reach the final was Stoney Creek, Ont., in 1965.
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