Select Board honors Reading Little League team for historic championship run

Sep 9

(2-minute read)

The Reading Select Board presented a Certificate of Recognition on Tuesday, September 8, during the Select Board meeting to the town’s 11-year-old Little League division team for becoming the first team in Reading Little League history to win a state championship and go on to capture the East Region Championship.

Chair Melissa Murphy read the certificate aloud, which credits the Rockets with a “momentous” achievement: winning States before taking the East Region title on August 7. Murphy called it an incredible year for Reading Little League.

Pat Silva, the team’s coach and parent of one of the players, told the Board the whole season had been a highlight, from the team’s run through the state tournament to its East Region Championship against 12 other state champions in Beverly, in which the Rockets outscored their opponents by a combined 30-3. “We won everything they possibly could this season,” Silva said.

Board members offered their own congratulations. Vice Chair Karen Rose-Gillis, who said she has two sons of her own, now much older, who once played Little League, thanked the team’s parents for sticking with the season through a rainy April and for the support, teamwork, and life lessons they helped instill in the players. Member Chris Haley, who watched the championship game, said it “wasn’t even close” and told the team to keep playing their hearts out, adding that the Little League World Series should be the goal next year. Member Karen Herrick closed with a simple message: “Teamwork makes the dream work.”