It’s been a banner year for Capitol Hill Little League (CHLL). Wait, strike that: actually, it’s been a three banner year.
On a hot Sunday morning, CHLL’s all-star team was crowned champion of Washington DC’s 12U Little League state championship, becoming the first Capitol Hill team to ever win the 12U championship.
Photo: Tanya Myers
In that moment, CHLL swept the 2024 DC State Championships. CHLL’s 11U team had already come out from behind to take the win a week earlier. On July 4th, the 10U team marched in the Capitol Hill parade with their championship banner, having taken the state title June 30.
“At the beginning of this summer,” 12U Head Coach Brian Thomas said, “I and the other coaches asked the boys to buy into what we were trying to do: buy in as a family, be tight-knit, win and lose together. No matter what happens we’re resilient and we work together as one cohesive unit.”
That could be a guiding principle for the CHLL, as well as the team. The three simultaneous state titles are also the culmination of 13 years of hard work for CHLL, which has grown from 120 to 700 players since 2011. The 700 kids play on 50 teams across divisions for 7 to 12 year-olds. CHLL offers baseball and softball, including a Challengers team for kids with special needs.
The kids and parents alike are thrilled to have the opportunity to represent DC at the regional tournaments.
Studio K Photography, Courtesy CHLL
“It feels like a load has been lifted now that we won the DC state championship,” said Tanya Myers, mother of 11U CHLL player Ellis Myers.
Coming of Age
It’s a turning point not only for CHLL but for the DC State Little League. Going into 2024, CHLL had won just two DC Little League championships in any age group. They took the banner in the 10U division in 2012 and again 10 years later, in 2022. Northwest Little League and Capitol City Little League (which draws from upper Northwest) have historically dominated the DC youth baseball scene, winning every 12U championship but 2018.
Participation in CHLL has practically become the norm for kids on the Hill. 10U coach Jack Smedile says the league is coming into its own, crediting past League President Katie Holloran and current President Adam Goldman with helping it mature and grow. CHLL was designed with a focus on teaching young players how to throw, catch and hit, emphasizing opportunities to practice and play as well as free clinics.
In 2019, two diamonds opened at The Fields of RFK. “Those two additional fields that we used there have been huge in of us being able to accommodate the growth,” Smedile said.
The People
But the biggest factor in the success has been the volunteers. The increasing number of players requires additional parent volunteers to coach and manage teams or fill positions on the league board.
11U Coach Roberts points to CHLL volunteers like Adam Meier, the 10U Coach during the 2022 Championship win who has helped build the league up for more than ten years, as three of his sons played ball.
Roberts said he expects CHLL to be competitive for a long time, citing that level of commitment to the league from kids and parents.
“You know, it’s kind of an iron sharpening iron moment,” he explained, “where the more kids that do play and the better those kids are, the better everybody gets.”
Volunteerism is key at the younger levels as well. Jenny Harper is mom to Mac, a player on the 10U CHLL team; her husband has been assistant coach on several teams over the years, including for their daughter, who plays CHLL softball. Harper herself is working to coordinate fundraising and travel as three baseball teams go to different tournaments.
It got to the point, Harper said, where baseball was just what the family did in May and June. But it was especially intense the week leading up to the championship game.
“It felt like we lived our lives at the baseball field that week,” Harper said, “but it was also really fun and just such a joy to see the kids persevere and come out on top.”
Harper said the entire experience has contributed to her son’s growth and development. “Nerves are definitely a thing,” she said. “And, you know, this whole mental part of baseball is real.”
Community
Harper said that the community is key to the success of CHLL. “For me, frankly, that’s one of the pieces of Capitol Hill Little League I really love the most.” Even after the 10U team won the championship, capping a grueling week of baseball played in record-breaking heat, the families were reluctant to part. Instead, they went to the pool together and later, celebrated the championship with dinner.
The Capitol Hill community and CHLL are deeply intertwined. In 2023, CHLL even won a Brickie, presented to them by Councilmember Charles Allen (Ward 6-D) for their work as a community organization.
But CHLL is not only linked to the community—it also helps weave it together. Capitol Hill is a community full of children who live right next to one another but who could be attending different schools. The league is a chance for those kids to meet one another and bond, all part of one team.
“When I talk about playing Capitol Hill baseball,” said 11U Coach Roberts, “there’s two sides: one is what we do on the field, and the other is what we represent. They’re playing for a league, and they’re playing for the entire community, which has stood up and invested in Little League as something that they can .”
There are more than 100 sponsors and more than 200 volunteers giving their time to make CHLL happen, he said. ”And when [the kids] put on that jersey, they represent all of them,” Roberts said.
Both the sense of community provided by CHLL and the sense of a collective achievement are perhaps clearest by looking at two of this year’s champion teams. Take the 10U and 12U teams together and you’ll find not one, but three sets of brothers.
Phil Toomajian is the father of William Toomajian on CHLL’s 12U team and Jackson Toomajian on the 10U team. In 2022, William was part of the CHLL 10U team that won the District Championship. Jackson was with him, watching as he competed in the regional tournament in Rhode Island. That’s when he became friends with Finn and Ethan, now his teammates on the 2024 10U team. “Those guys were the bat boys for their older brothers back then.”
“Little League and this group in particular has been kind of a nice connection for kids from other parts of the neighborhood,” Toomajian said. The kids from these three families go to different schools, he said. “[CHLL] has really been their unifying connection.”
Road to Regionals
Now that all three teams have won the DC championship, they advanced to Little League regional tournaments up north. The 11U team won two games (the first by a score of 6-1) in Cranston, Rhode Island before falling out of the regional tournament in the third game. Meanwhile, 10U is two down as they nead into their 11 a.m. game Tuesday in Cranston, Rhode Island. The 12U team advanced to the big show in Bristol, Connecticut where they were down by one after the weekend, but they had a chance to come back Monday, Aug. 5 vs. Delaware at 5 p.m. (watch it on ESPN).
Between travel, lodging, supplies and food CHLL estimates these trips will cost each family more than $1,000. Harper said that CHLL believes that cost cannot be a barrier that prevents any kid from having the experience.
“I think what’s really important to us is that all kids who are on these teams are able to say yes to go into these regional tournaments, regardless of their financial situation,” said Harper.
The CHLL State champion teams have been busy fundraising money to help the team get to their regional tournaments, already hosting a car wash and setting up a stand outside of Nats Park. The CHLL teams also have a collective GoFundMe to finance their respective trips.
Fans can watch the CHLL 12U team on ESPN+ as they try to make history and become the first DC team to reach the famed Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
“One of the biggest lessons has been just dreaming big,” Toomajian said. “I mean, when the [10U] kids went two years ago, it was unheard of, and Capitol Hill had not been competitive or winning these tournaments.”
“It’s a good life lesson,” he said. “Aim high and work hard and you never know what’s gonna’ happen.”
Learn more about CHLL by visiting https://www.chlldc.org/ Follow the 12U team as they play in Williamsport at https://www.littleleague.org/world-series/.
the team by donating at www.gofundme.com
