Perry Junior League sends 10 teams to Dixie Youth World Series

PERRY, Ga. — The Perry Junior League has grown into something that very few, if any, little league programs can compare to.

The dedication from the players, parents, coaches, the organization and community has shone bright in the 10 groups that will be representing Perry and Georgia in the Dixie Youth World Series.

The 6U, 10U, 12U and 15U girls are playing from July 28th to Aug. 2nd in Alexandria, Louisiana. The 12U girls play in their championship on Aug. 1st.

The 8U girls play in the World Series championship from July 28th to Aug. 2nd in Fairview, Tennessee.

The 6U boys placed second in their World Series that took place July 21st through July 23rd in Rockwood, Tennessee.

The 8U boys placed third in their World Series that took place July 28th through Aug. 1st in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

The 10U and 12U boys will play in Ruston, Louisiana from Aug. 4th through Aug. 9th.

It must be very rewarding for anyone involved in the process to get this far, but for PJL president Dewayne Heard, this is personal.

“It means a lot to me personally. I grew up playing in the PJL,” Heard said. “My dad helped build a lot of these fields, he was part of PJL for a long time. My twins are sophomores at Perry High School, they all went through PJL…It’s pretty cool to see how much we’ve done at PJL to effect what happens in middle school and high school. We’re getting these kids more prepared to play school ball on a higher level.”

The players on each of the 10 teams have experienced what it takes to become a successful athlete.

They’ve put in the long hours during the summer to prepare for the district, state and World Series tournaments, even after the regular season ended in May.

For those that stick with it, it will be invaluable experience heading into middle and high school sports.

“It shows that these kids are putting in the work,” Heard said. “If you ride by our park at night during All-Star season, they’re all practicing. I guarantee you there’s probably 100 cars in the parking lot. They’re working for two and three hours in the heat. Basically they give up their whole summer. They’re starting school now, and we ended the season at the end of school. They’ve been practicing and preparing for district, state and World Series the whole summer. It just takes a lot of dedication for them, especially these parents and coaches. All of our coaches are all volunteers. It’s on their own dime a lot of times to do this stuff. We really appreciate all of them.”

It’s that work from the players and coaches that have sent so many teams to represent Georgia in the World Series, and this type of success is likely to draw in an even bigger crowd for leagues in the future.

“It’s crazy how much we’ve grown at Perry Junior League over the last four years. We went from around 450 kids play, to this year we just missed 900. Even in our fall league right now we’re right at 325, I think.” Heard said.

“I think this is the first time we’ve had a team from every age group represent the state of Georgia for the World Series,” he added. “All four of our boys programs had a team to go to state. Our 6U boys actually took two teams to [the World Series]. One team actually ended up beating out the team that won state at the World Series, so we wound up second in the World Series. The rest of the teams all won the actual state championship. All four of our girls: 6U, 8U, 10U and 15U.”

But it takes more than the hard work of coaches, players and parents to send so many teams off to the World Series. Gas, food and hotels aren’t free, even for state champions.

“As you can imagine when you’ve got 10 teams going to the World Series looking for fundraising and all that good stuff, it’s been crazy the amount of support our community has poured into them,” Heard said. “There’s been a lot of donations to these guys and girls…I think last week the 10U had a night at Salsa’s in Warner Robins, everybody that ate there, 10% went to our 10U All-Star team.”

“It’s just been crazy,” he added. “It costs a team probably close to $10,000 to $12,000 to travel and stay two or three nights at the tournament. We try to get it to where these parents don’t have to pay for that. We try to get enough donations to help them go without having to do that. We as a park give each team that wins state $1,000 to go to the World Series. It’s been a big support from everybody in the community. We’ve had whole a lot of local businesses that’ve put a lot of money into our program, we definitely appreciate it.”

It’s this kind of outpouring from the community that helps leagues like this grow. The sheer dedication from everyone involved in the Perry Junior League is astonishing to watch, and it’s something that not many people can claim to have seen anywhere else.

To those teams that are still battling it out in their respective World Series, make Perry proud!

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