Little Leaguers® across the world could not play the game they love and make lifelong memories without a safe field to run onto. Volunteers with a focus on field maintenance step up to the plate each season in communities all around the world to make sure the baseball and softball diamonds are ready for the players, coaches, and umpires on game day and this includes the volunteer grounds crews at the Little League® Baseball and Softball World Series (LLWS™).
Without the dedication and attention to detail by the volunteers who make up these crews, fans would not be in awe when they turn on their televisions or take a seat in the stands to see the iconic Howard J. Lamade and Volunteer Stadiums in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, or Stallings Stadium at Elm Street Park in Greenville, North Carolina, for the first time. Spectators wouldn’t sit and ponder if it truly is grass or if it’s turf, how the designs in the outfield grass are made, how the lines along first and third base are perfectly straight, or how the infield dirt is the perfect shade of brownish-orange.
While the players will be the ones making the iconic plays on the field, and coaches will deliver the motivational speech that will be remembered by many for years to come, it is the team of volunteers who wake up well before anyone else to water and drag the infield, mow the grass, and draw the batter’s box that creates the stage that allows all those great moments to happen.
Meet some of the dedicated volunteers who help bring the iconic fields in Williamsport and Greenville to life, and the experience they have had over the years working with each of their teams:
Little League Baseball® World Series
For Jeff Fowler, volunteering on the grounds crew at the LLBWS is a family tradition. Before Fowler began overseeing the volunteer crews during each summer’s event, it was his father that held the position after putting together his first crew for the 50th LLBWS in 1997. It was in those early days helping his dad that Jeff learned the ins and outs of field maintenance and what it means to have both Howard J. Lamade Stadium and Volunteer Stadium in the best condition possible for the players, coaches, and umpires.
“There are a lot of great memories that have been made in Williamsport for my family and myself,” said Fowler. “The greatest joy I get from coming here is the first time the players see the field when they walk into the complex and the first time they walk on it. I remind myself every year that things change around the complex – new gift shop, updated batting cages, etc. – but the field is what people remember year after year and makes the experience so much more special for these kids.”
Working with Rob Guthrie, Little League Turf and Groundskeeper, Fowler pulls together a team of volunteers from more than 20 different states to travel to Williamsport as volunteers. As the coordinator of the crew, it is important to Fowler that everyone understands their role and how it contributes to their shared goals.
“We’re there to help Rob and his team, and make sure their hard work shines. While some new people join the team every year, there is a core group that comes to help every year and welcomes the newcomers, ” said Fowler. “We are a team. It’s a family reunion when we come back to Williamsport and see each other. Nobody is above someone else or a task they are given that day. We are all there for the same reason, and that is to make the fields the safest fields those kids have ever played on. The aesthetics of the field are a bonus, but safety is our number one common goal.”
When you ask Fowler his favorite part about working with his grounds crew, he will tell you that it is an unfair question because he loves it all. From a blade of grass to a piece of clay, all of the little things for Fowler add up to create his favorite moments on the field and the memories he will carry with him off the field.
Little League Softball® World Series
After working with an all-female course maintenance crew at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, Sun Roesselin was looking for her next challenge when she heard that Chris Ball, East Regional Sports Field Category Manager for “Ewing Outdoor Supply” and member of the LLSWS Committee who organizes the grounds crew, struggled to find volunteers as the international tournament came to its new home in Greenville for its first year.
“I’m a former softball player myself, played all through college, and I thought it was a pretty cool combination of passions here. I gave Chris a call kind of out of the blue, and I asked what he thought about us putting together a group of women to come and help out on the grounds crew,” said Roesselin. “He was like ‘Absolutely, let’s do it. Let’s figure it out. I don’t care what we have to do, but we’re going to make it happen.’”
At the 48th LLSWS in 2022, history was made when Roesselin and her crew of 15 volunteers stepped onto the field as the first all-female grounds crew in the event’s history. Now, as she heads into her fourth LLSWS with a group of Women in Turf by her side, Roesselin recognizes the impact they have made and continue to make year after year.
“To be involved in showcasing what sports field managers do as a profession in front of young athletes, to show them that this is a great career path, and that women can succeed in this career path because there aren’t very many of us across the country, is super cool,” said Rosselin. “Our crew is very unique in that we have all ranges of careers from high school students studying turf grass, to people who have been in the industry for 20 years, and the coolest part is when we get to see the younger crew members take charge. They step up, take leadership roles, and find a new confidence in themselves. To see them take hold of that opportunity is life-changing for me.”
Also on the crew is Chuck Dean, a mechanic by trade. Dean was asked by Ball to join the grounds crew to make sure the equipment being used was functional and safe and to help flip the fields between games. Feeling like he missed his calling and happy to now spend his time “playing in the dirt,” it was an easy answer when Ball asked Dean to continue as the crew’s mechanic after the women took over the on-field work.
“When Roesselin and her crew of women came in, Chris asked if I would stay on so we would still have a mechanic. I love doing it, and I have always been in a baseball atmosphere with both of my sons playing college baseball,” said Dean. “I’m more behind the scenes now, and to watch the ladies go out on the field and get it ready between games, it is really amazing to watch how cohesive they are together.”
His role might not be on the field with the women, but that does not stop him from making new memories year after year with them. In 2024, after the final days of the LLSWS were moved to the field at nearby East Carolina University, a few of the girls on the crew were braiding each other’s hair during a break. With Dean’s hair being the right length, they asked if they could braid his hair, too, and it was again an easy yes.
“It sounds corny, but that is a memory that sticks out to my mind and a funny moment we shared together,” said Dean. “My favorite memories are tied to watching these young women do what they do, and I get to learn so much from them in the process. Every day I ask questions to get different perspectives and learn why things are done a certain way, and I am grateful that Chris and the ladies just let me get my feet wet and learn from them.”
While the weeks spent together are filled with new memories and fun moments, Roesselin, Dean, and the rest of the grounds crew spend a majority of their time working as a team with one common goal in mind – to provide an iconic field for the Girls with Game who travel from across the world to play the game they love.
“Our job is to provide a top-notch field, but then how are we going to get there? What roles are we going to play? How are we going to fit the puzzle pieces together so that we achieve that goal,” said Roesselin. “Everybody has different strengths and experiences, and kind of like what Chuck talked about earlier about just asking questions of like, ‘Hey, how come you’re doing this task this way?’ How do we make that the best outcome? How do we become more efficient just by having those conversations out of respect? So I think everybody has strengths, and when we put those strengths together, we’re unstoppable at that point.”
To learn more about the Little League Softball® World Series, Presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, or the Little League Baseball® World Series, Presented by T-Mobile, visit LittleLeague.org/WorldSeries. Interested in becoming a Little League volunteer, visit LittleLeague.org/Volunteer.