MIDDLEBORO – Middleboro Little League summer baseball is in full swing as the town’s top youth ball players play in tournaments and train in the intensive All Stars program.

All star players are nominated by their coaches during the spring season to best represent Middleboro against other towns and potentially on the national stage. 

“Basically we take the best of each age group, put them on a team, and it’s really competitive baseball,” said John Tessier, coach of the All Stars 10U team. 

Those on the 12U team are the oldest group of All Star players and are coached by Jesse Wright. At the end of the year, athletes can play in the Middleboro Little League Senior Division or try out for the middle school team. 

Players on the 12U team are 11 and 12 years old and in 2022, Middleboro’s 12U team represented New England in the Little League World Series, a set of tournaments featuring top-ranked teams from across the country and the world.

Wright said that the group of kids that he coaches are special to him.

“The group of players I have, I wouldn’t trade in for all the gold in Fort Knox,” Wright said.

Sherilyn Carney, vice president of the Middleboro 12U Nationals team, said a highlight of the 2024 season was participating in Districts, where the team competed for a chance to play at the Little League World Series. 

Though the team got eliminated, she said, “they had some good wins and they put up a good fight.”

Beyond the 12U team, kids of other ages also have a chance to play some competitive summer ball.

Tessier coaches the 10U team, which doesn’t have a national tournament like the 12U group, but still has a rigorous training program with plenty of competition.

Tessier added that players on his team practice nearly every day and play up to five games during weekend tournaments.

“The kids who play, they grow more in these two months than they do all season long,” he said. 

“They eat, sleep and breathe [baseball] for two months and it really just accelerates their development.”

Tessier said that his goal for the 10U team this season is to win a tournament, which the team came close to last weekend at a competition in Hyannis. Tessier has his eyes set on winning a home tournament this weekend in Middleboro.

Chris Shanahan coaches the 9U team, which has a season record of 8 wins and 5 losses. Shanahan said that the coaches are working to develop the kids as players and people, learning sportsmanship, teamsmanship and supporting each other as a team.

“I want them to develop individually and get stronger as baseball players,” Shanahan said. If all 12 players on his team sign up for baseball next year, he said, “I did my job as the coach.”

Not only do coaches value the kids on their teams, kids value their experiences in the summer All Stars season too.

Payton Wright, Jesse Wright’s daughter, is the only girl playing in 12U Little League baseball this year, her last year in the Middleboro Little League. 

“I learned a lot from him over the past years and it’s special to be playing with everyone,” Payton said of being coached by her dad. “And everyone appreciates me being there.”

Payton said that it’s not awkward being the only girl on the team.

“Everyone’s like my family pretty much,” she said.

While players and coaches may treat each other like family, they bring a fierce sense of competition to the field. 

“Any team you talk to on the South Shore of Massachusetts will say when they see Middleboro on their schedule, they know they’ve got to bring their A game,” Wright said.