HUDSONVILLE, Mich. — A Little League Junior Softball team is ready to defend their title as they get ready to compete in the Junior League Softball World Series Champions after an undefeated streak.
Little League team 'Central', have won district, state, and regional tournaments. Now they will put their skills to the test in Washington.
13 On Your Side spoke to the team today who says they are grateful to represent West Michigan and excited for the new experiences ahead.
Manager, Shawn Veenstra said, "We obviously want to win because we're all competitors. But the second best thing is to just enjoy the experience."
The team will be traveling to Junior League Softball World Series next Sunday, where they will compete with teams from all over the nation.
While the players say it is nerve wracking to be in such a big tournament, they are remaining positive.
"Even if we do make an error, we got to pick each other up and just keep going," said player Kaelyn Berens.
And staying positive is easy for this group, the players say they are like 'sisters'.
"They're always singing and dancing and cracking up laughing. And they get along great,” said Veenstra.
Win or lose the team will experience plenty of new things with their teammates.
“It will be like a really fun experience meeting people from like, all over the world,” said player Ainslee Tomaszewski.
Veenstra says he hopes the players learn things from softball that they can apply in the real-world.
"I've coached a lot of different sports and a lot of different levels. And I've always said that, especially with softball and baseball, the adversity in the sport is kind of a mirror of what adversity looks like in life, you're gonna fail," says Veenstra."If you're a good hitter, you're gonna fail six out of 10 times as a softball hitter. And in life, you got to be able to pick yourself up if there's a little bit of a failure or some type of adversity. And I think a lot of times in sports. Kids are taught that."
You can watch the team play on ESPN Plus, and various live stream channels. You can find those details here.
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