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A gaggle of excited 9 and 10-year-olds loaded up on a bus on their way to represent Team Alabama at the Diamond Youth Baseball World Series. The Valley 10U All Stars will spend a week in Bossier City, Louisiana with their first game on Thursday. 

The boys got a proper send off by the community from the Valley Sportsplex on Tuesday night. 

“I think they’re just excited to be together and going to Louisiana to continue this journey of baseball for another week,” said Head Coach Justin Whitehead. “They’re a really close team… Seems like they had more fun in the hotel than on the field in Dothan.”

The boys travelled to Headland to compete in the state championship earlier this summer. After a great win, Whitehead and his assistant coaches, Casey Anglin and Joe Carswell, are optimistic going into the World Series.

This is Whitehead’s first year serving as head coach, though he has been an assistant coach since his son, Hudson Whitehead, was six years old. 

“It’s special. It’s nice to see him being a part of something like this,” Whitehead said. 

But Whitehead wasn’t the only parent at the Sportsplex there to see the boys off on Tuesday night. A large crowd of family and friends, including Valley Mayor Leonard Riley, came out to wish them luck. 

“We’ve just been keeping doing what we’re doing. It’s been working so far,” Whitehead said. “… We were able to get on the field a couple times, on some turf, to get them used to that instead of dirt and grass.”

The roster is made up of Cole Carswell, Cayden McCarley, Reason Lacy, Hudson Whitehead, Baylor Anglin, Noah Lynd, Ingram Smith, Mason Landrum, Benton Earl, Easton Allen, Hugh Chambley and Walker Wright. 

The boys, most of which have been on the team since 8U, have developed an energetic dynamic on the field, according to Whitehead. 

“They’ve really played a lot of baseball,” Whitehead said, adding, “Hopefully, we’re making some decisions that go our way and get a little bit lucky.”

The team’s strength seems to lie in that close relationship the boys have made over the years. 

“I think that the closeness of the team and how much they really enjoy playing with each other makes it alot easier for them to go out there and give it their all for each other,” Whitehead said. 

This will be the first year since 2021 that a Valley team has gone to the World Series. The same group of boys went first in 2019 and again two years later.

“They’re I think freshman or sophomores in high school now. We actually know a lot of the boys,” Whitehead said. 

It’s safe to say Whitehead and the rest of the team is hoping for the same success as in 2021 in the first game on Thursday at 10 CT.