‘This is a dream come true’: Tacoma dad raves about Soundview Little League’s trip to the World Series

Soundview Little League in Tacoma will take the field Wednesday in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, representing the Northwest region as the sixth straight Washington team to win the regional tournament.

Dan Huteson, whose 12-year-old son Smith is on the roster, joined “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio from Williamsport to describe what the moment means for a team that has been building toward this goal for four years.

“This is a dream come true. Not only for my son, for myself, this whole team,” Huteson said. “We’ve worked really hard for this event. We’ve been together for about four years now, give or take a few boys, and have just worked night and day, tournaments, daily, weekly, but these guys have just gelled together for the last few years and have really made an asserted effort to be able to make this their goal, and to be able to have such a lofty goal and then actually be here is unreal.”

The connection runs deeper than coaching for Huteson, who grew up playing Little League in the same area.

“Federal Way National Little League is who I played for,” Huteson said. “I wore number three as an All-Star, and now my kid was just issued number three to play in the Little League World Series as well. So, it’s all come full circle.”

A Tacoma father’s message before the biggest game of his son’s life

Huteson said he was able to see his son briefly the day before the interview, and described what he wants his son and the team to keep in mind as they take the field Wednesday.

“I literally saw him yesterday for about an hour and took him out to get a little bit of ice cream,” he said. “Literally the last thing that I said to him as I gave him a big hug was that you are here for a reason. You did what you needed to do to be able to be in this moment. I want you to give every single one of those boys a hug from me and let them know the exact same thing: that this was our goal, this was our time, this is what we’ve dreamed about, everybody deserves to be here at this moment as a collective.”

The kids are growing up in Williamsport — and they don’t need their parents

Gee asked Huteson what he has learned about his son through the journey. His answer went well beyond Smith.

“Man, just watching this kid grow up, watching not only my son, but all of these boys are also like my son, and just watching them now be self-reliant,” Huteson said. “My son was playing ping pong with a Dominican Republic kid yesterday. He said that they’re on the same lower level with South Korea, and that they’re having a great time with them and learning different handshakes, and can communicate well with them there.

“They’re just growing up right in front of our eyes, unfortunately, a little too much. Each time that we see them, they’ve grown an inch,” he continued. “And that’s the best part about it is they’re getting the experience that barely anybody in their lifetime is ever going to experience, and they’re just taking full advantage, and it just makes my heart happy just seeing that they don’t need us. And I don’t want them to need us. I want them to be able to just do what they do out there and enjoy every little moment that this opportunity provides.”

Rally meat, a team grandma and a community behind them

Huteson said the families have become as tight as the team, bonding through years of travel ball, state tournaments, and now a cross-country trip to Pennsylvania.

“One of the dads on the team brought out the rally meat from one of the local meat stores where you could get some good pepperoni and things of that nature, but we’ve all had these little things that we’ve incorporated based on the personalities that have gotten all of us together as a collective whole up to this point,” Huteson said.

“My mom’s been on this trail with us as well, too, the whole way, and they’ve adopted her as like the team grandma,” he added. “And just everybody takes care of our family just like we take care of everybody else’s family as much as we possibly can.”

Soundview Little League, representing the Northwest region, opens play Wednesday at noon on ESPN against Phenix City Little League from Alabama.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.