Graney: Amid hoopla, Henderson All-Stars quietly confident

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Whirlwind: A column of air moving rapidly around and around in a funnel shape.

Or, arriving at the Little League World Series.

If you get caught up in all of it, the gifts and ESPN cameras and instant celebrity status born around Lamade Stadium, it can swallow you.

One can easily forget there’s a task at hand. Playing baseball.

The most focused group of 12-year-olds usually figure it out quickly. Ryan Gifford hopes his Henderson All-Stars are among them.

Henderson as this tournament’s Mountain Region champion opens play in the World Series on Wednesday at noon (ESPN) against the Metro Region champion from Smithfield, Rhode Island.

Quiet confidence best described the Henderson team Tuesday. They seem really locked in.

“The kids look great,” said Gifford, the team’s manager. “We just got out of the batting cage. Hit for an hour. I think we’re ready to go.”

Added his son, pitcher Nolan: “We feel real good right now.”

Have some trust

Look. The experience is once-in-a-lifetime, so it’s easy for kids to concentrate on everything outside the game. Free bats and gear and being treated in a first-class manner aren’t the worst things, but remembering why you’re here can be tricky.

You have to trust as coaches that the correct message has been received. You have to trust that the long journey to this point delivered enough lessons.

It wasn’t an issue for Mountain Ridge in 2014. Yet being one of the most talented teams in that particular World Series didn’t hurt.

Maybe if it had known what was transpiring in Las Vegas during the run to a U.S. championship game — how crazy the town became following its every move — focus might have been an issue for the first team from Nevada to make it this far.

But it, like Henderson, was wrapped in the bubble that is this magical place. As long as your team remains alive, it’s as if nothing exists beyond those 225-foot fences.

“Every day we went to practice, we reigned them in a little,” said Bob Kryszczuk, an assistant coach for Mountain Ridge in 2014. “Let’s face it — they’re 12 years old. They’ve never been involved in something of this magnitude.”

Kryszczuk said coaches were actually more nervous than the players before the team’s opening game. Makes sense. Adults — for better or worse, and most often worse — usually hold onto results far more than kids. They’re crying one minute and running around playing the next.

The kids, not the adults.

Ryan Gifford doesn’t seem fazed by any of it.

His point: Henderson’s primary goal was to win a state championship this year. Once it accomplished that and headed to San Bernardino for regionals, the goals changed. Once it won there and secured its berth in the World Series, they really changed.

“We want to win some games, but being one of the 10 teams in the United States left is incredible,” he said. “We’re going to enjoy it. We’re trying to get better at baseball while we’re here, but it’s about the players and them having a great experience.”

It’s hard not to.

Throwing gas

Henderson knows little about the team from Rhode Island, save it will likely start a left-handed pitcher who, Gifford says, “throws gas.” So that’s what coaches did at Tuesday’s hitting session. Threw a lot of gas.

Kryszczuk has been there, done that, experienced it all. Nine years later — yes, it has been that long — he has some advice for those from Henderson.

“Take it all in,” he said. “It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Just relax. Have the kids focused on baseball but let them have fun. Don’t keep them too contained.

“Enjoy it all, because it can be a whirlwind.”

And not the type where air moves rapidly around and around.

Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.