Pressurized pre-teens
Published: August 5, 2009
Thebest 11- and 12-year-old baseball players in the Kaiserslautern MilitaryCommunity opened pool play Tuesday in Little league Baseball's EuropeanRegional Tournament in Kutno, Poland.
Recoveringfrom a debilitating 14-hour bus ride to the European headquarters of LittleLeague Baseball, the KMC All-Stars, champions of Germany, downed the CzechRepublic 8-1 on Tuesday and were to face England, a perennial power in thistournament and 16-4 victors over Turkey on Tuesday, on Wednesday.
Awaitingthe winner of the 11-nation European event is a trip to the Little League WorldSeries in Williamsport, Pa., where pre-teen ballplayers from around the worldwill face a media crush, try to perform on national and internationaltelevision and generally attempt to maintain their equilibrium thousands ofmiles from home and family.
Thequestion's been asked thousands of times, but is the experience ofparticipating in what arguably has become the biggest youth sports event of theyear worth all the pressure these children endure to do it?
Ifyou're a former Little Leaguer, especially one with tournament experience, howabout telling us how you reacted to and coped with the inevitable pressure?Were you aware of it? Did it affect your play? How'd you do? Have you anyadvice to offer the kids from KMC as they deal with their first internationalevent?
KMCcoaches have access to this blog at Kutno. Help them out if you can, please.
- Ifyou'd like to keep up with the European regional, go to the tourney Web-site athttp://www.littleleague.org/series/2009divisions/llbb/qualify/europe.htm.Results are posted daily, and we'll try to keep you posted on KMC's progressdaily in Stars and Stripes.
