WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania — There is one word Hamilton West Side Little League parents are trying to keep away from their 12-year-old baseball players this weekend: "SCHOOL."
For their classmates back home in Hamilton, the school year has already begun, but for the West Side players, summer break is continuing a little longer as they prepare for one of the biggest games of their young lives.
“Well, school is a dirty word up here,” Hamilton West Side parent Brion Treadway said. “You bring up the word school and those kids, you take the joy away from them. So we don't talk about that. We're just here to finish this off and hopefully cement this memory.”
The team will take on Henderson, Nevada, at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Howard J. Lamade Stadium with the U.S. championship on the line. The winner advances to Sunday's Little League World Championship.
For Hamilton West Side, simply reaching Saturday's game is already historic. The Great Lakes champions are making their sixth trip to Williamsport and have reached the U.S. championship game for just the second time in program history.
Around Williamsport, the team has found something beyond the competition.
Hamilton has brought plenty of its own fans nearly 500 miles east, roughly a 7-hour and 30-minute drive, but Treadway said his family has been surprised by how many people from other parts of the country have started pulling for West Side.
“One of the most remarkable things is seeing random people in our Great Lakes gear,” Treadway said. “And we say, ‘Hey, where are you from?’ And they say they're from Massachusetts or Connecticut and they have adopted our team because they like the way we play.”
That support was on full display Friday at "Williamsport Welcomes the World," a downtown street festival filled with Little League fans from around the country and the world.
Fans wore jerseys representing their hometowns and countries, traded and displayed pins, took pictures and danced to live music. Mixed into the crowd were Hamilton supporters, including plenty of people wearing West Side gear.
The Ohio pride was hard to miss.
At times, the familiar “O-H” and “I-O” call-and-response echoed through the streets.
Julie Treadway, Brion's wife and the mother of West Side standout Boone Treadway, said the support feels familiar even hundreds of miles from home.
“Hamilton is a baseball town,” she said. “There is such a history there. West Side Little League has an amazing history. And we can feel the support from home.”
She said the family has seen people back home rallying around the team on social media and gathering at local spots including Gina's, Shooters, Eli's and Pohlman Lanes Bowling.
“Everybody we know,” she said. “The support we have from home, we can feel it.”
She says more Hamilton supporters are expected to make the trip for Saturday's game.
The players, meanwhile, have tried to maintain some normalcy amid the national spotlight.
After their recent games, the team has continued practicing and working on its game. Coach Ken Coomer said the players were at an indoor batting facility Friday night until roughly 8:30 or 9 p.m.
Then it's back to the field.
Boone Treadway, one of Hamilton's standout players on the mound and in the field, will be among the 12-year-olds taking to the diamond Saturday with a chance to put West Side one win away from the Little League World Championship.
For all the attention surrounding them, their parents say the players are still finding time to simply be kids, playing video games and pickleball between practices.
But Saturday will be different.
The stakes are as high as they can get.
And whether they're surrounded by Hamilton friends and family or strangers from Massachusetts and Connecticut now wearing Great Lakes gear, the West Side players won't be short on people cheering them on.
Hamilton West Side plays Henderson, Nevada, at 3:30 p.m. Saturday for the U.S. championship. The game will air on WCPO 9 News.
