KIDS HAVE DREAMED ABOUT WILLIAMSPORT
system in 1976, reaching the 2014 U.S. championship game and eventually being awarded the U.S. title after a disqualification by its opponent.
Silverado beat Mountain Ridge, 8-5, last month then faced the same squad again in the championship game, where Silverado rolled 11-1. “We use that (2014 run by Mountain Ridge) as a motivator,” Apeceche says. “Let’s show what Nevada has. That team did it; why can’t we?”
Silverado will get its shot at regionals, where it will battle five teams — from Southern California, Northern California, Hawaii, Arizona and Utah — for one World Series spot. Those games will be broadcast online by ESPN. If Silverado makes the World Series, the games will be broadcast by ESPN nationally.
“These kids watch it on TV every year, and that is one of their dreams,” Apeceche says. “Obviously, making it to regionals alone is a big deal, too.”
Silverado’s players say they’ve enjoyed the experience to this point, from the seven-hour drive in a 15-person van to Carson City, to the sleepovers at the hotel. “They’ve had a blast,” Apeceche says. “My favorite part was on championship day. They were playing music, and all the kids were dancing on the field. Driving up to state in a van was (also) something I won’t forget. I had to stop every two hours, because you know how (kids are) — so full of energy you can’t keep them calm.”
Watching the team members throw 70 mph fastballs and belt 250-foot home runs, it can be easy to forget they’re just 12 years old, but off the diamond, they act their age. “Staying in the hotels is so much fun,” Broc says. “We have pillow fights, fart in the rooms, stink up the vans, it’s awesome.” One of the most difficult aspects of coaching can be molding kids into a team, but Apeceche says that’s been easy.
“That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve noticed — they all get along,” he says. “It’s hard to put a team together in a few weeks, and they’re very coachable. None of these kids have an ego that feel they deserve to play a spot. They realize this is an opportunity to go far as a team.”