Little League Tournament Play and the Williamsport Team Selection Process
Each year, our BYB league hopes to send teams at the 10u, 11u, and 12u levels to compete in Little League Tournament play, usually beginning right after school ends. The 12u team is generally referred to as the “Williamsport Team” and there is a special selection process, described below.
At all age levels, the competitive play begins within our local District (10). Massachusetts has a total of 16 districts. If a BYB team wins District 10, they compete to win the Section. There are 4 Sections. From there they compete to win the State of Massachusetts and after that compete to win the East Region.
11u and 10u teams compete only as far as the Region. But the 12u Williamsport Teams that wins Region will advance to Williamsport PA for the famous Little League World Series tournament broadcast on ESPN in August.
In 2017, BYB’s 10u team went as far as they could go by winning the East Region. In 2021, BYB’s 12u Williamsport Team was within one win of the Section. This seems to be about the furthest BYB teams have advanced over the decades. Please keep this in mind—the odds are against us getting to watch BYB ballplayers on ESPN in August. Nevertheless, our goal will be to have a lot of fun as we work hard and develop and learn and try our best.
At the 12u level, in accordance with the requirements of Little League, the Williamsport Team will be created through the following nomination and voting process:
- ELIGIBILITY: players who are league age 12u will be eligible for selection on the Williamsport Tournament Team.
- BYB President will solicit interest from coaches who want to be considered for the Tournament Team Manager (head coach) position. Per Little League rules, the Manager must be a head coach for a spring Majors team. Also per LL rules, the President of the League shall name the Manager (head coach).
- The Player Agent will send a poll out to all the players in Spring Majors to vote for those players among them that they would like to see have a place on the Willamsport Team. They will be picking from a ballot composed of All-Stars and HR Derby participants. The Player Agent will keep the results of this poll confidential. The Player Agent will have one vote at the BYB Williamsport Committee meeting (see below) and this vote shall reflect the views of the players in the poll.
- The BYB Williamsport Committee is composed of one head coach from each of the Spring Majors teams (including the 12u Tournament Team manager) and the Player Agent. Ten of the players on the Tournament Team will be picked through a number of rounds of balloting and discussion by this group. The BYB President and the Summer Travel VP may also be present at the meeting in order to facilitate discussion and provide information. The final two or three players on the Williamsport Team will be selected by the team’s manager.
- All deliberations regarding the selection of the Williamsport Team will be kept confidential. Players will not be told how they were selected.
If you have any questions regarding this matter, please direct them to the BYB President, the Player Agent, or the Summer Travel VP.