The Sweetwater Valley Little League team got star treatment during their welcome home celebration Tuesday night at the Sweetwater Valley Little League Sports Complex.
Teenaged girls chased them with camera phones all around a ballfield hoping to pose for photos with their favorite player.
Grown men and women asked for their autographs on shirts, jerseys and whatever else was readily available.
Fans hooted and hollered at every chance for the teens.
There were also wide smiles and lots of pride by the hundreds of Sweetwater Valley Little League fans who welcomed the team home from Williamsport, Pa., where the 12- and 13-year-old boys from Bonita made it deep into the tournament.
“We came home to a special crowd,” catcher and second baseman Ariel Armas said. “We didn’t realize we had all the fans behind us and it’s been a real cool journey having all the people supporting us.”
With all the national attention the team had brought to the little Sweetwater Valley community, it would be perfectly understandable for a player or two to think they were entitled to such a celebration.
But pitcher and left-fielder Dante Schmid said the tournament helped him remain level headed.
“I learned to stay humble, never be too cocky because fans want to watch the humble people; they want to cheer for players with character and loyalty,” he said.
The foundation for Sweetwater Valley Little League started years ago when County Supervisor Greg Cox and the rest of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors made a deal with Caltrans to secure the land from the Sweetwater Union High School District, which at one time wanted to build a junior high school at that location, and converted it to what is now the Sweetwater Valley Little League Sports Complex at 3321 Conduit Road.
“These kids really put Sweetwater Valley on the map,” Cox said. “People didn’t even know where Bonita or Sweetwater Valley was.”
Several video montages with in-depth interviews with players and coaches and game highlights played on a giant television screen that was placed near the warning track in center field.
The South County has recently developed a rich history with Little Leaguers playing in the Little League World Series.
In 2009 Park View Little League from Chula Vista won the world title. And in 2013 a team from Eastlake scored the National title after narrowly losing to Japan in the world championship game.
Dante Schmid said he used the success of past South Bay teams as motivation.
“The 2009 (Park View Little League) team inspired us, and in 2013 the (Eastlake Little League) team also proved that we could win so we knew it was dobale and we tried our best,” he said.
Little League parent Blanca Izaguirre-Lopez said the Sweetwater Valley team cemented its legacy and gives hope for future Sweetwater Valley Little Leaguers.
“It just feels good for them to finally represent our town,” she said.
While the team did not get as far as its predecessors, Ariel Armas said no one should shoulder the blame.
“We won as a team and we lost as a team,” he said.
