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Bethesda Blue Rays

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Chevy Chase, MD
Bethesda Blue Rays

Maryland youth baseball development team with players from Maryland's Montgomery County Little League. But Williamsport is the goal for our players.

The Bethesda Blue Rays are a development team for players from the Montgomery County Little League. Not officially associated with, endorsed by, or representing MCLL or Little League.

Address

4105 Jones Bridge Road
Chevy Chase, MD
20815

Website

facebook.com

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Our Story and Mission

The Bethesda Blue Rays formed over breakfast in July 2017. We were four Montgomery County Little League 11u All Stars coaches lamenting premature elimination from the 2017 Maryland Little League 10-11 District 2 tournament. Our boys had the talent but not the experience; we wondered what the other teams in our district had that we did not? We figured it out. And then we set about doing it our way, the Bethesda Blue Rays way.

--- The Bethesda Blue Rays’ inaugural season--2017/2018--was a 12u team of players from the Montgomery County Little League - Lower County. Our goal was to populate our players onto the summer MCLL All Star team; to then win the 2018 Little League Maryland District 2 championship, and to then compete in the state finals. In summer 2018, the Montgomery County Little League Lower County all star team (MOCOLOCO) won the MD2 Little League tournament, including six wins in a row from the loser’s bracket, defeating the winner’s bracket champion twice in dramatic fashion. That team of 13 included 11 Blue Rays who then went on to finish 4th (of 50) in the state of Maryland.

In 2018/2019, a brand new Blue Rays team played 11u and were comprised of 2019 Little League age-11 and 10-year olds. In summer 2019, two Blue Rays made the MCLL 10u All Star team that were runners up in Maryland’s Little League District 2; six Blue Rays made the 11u All Star team that won the MD2 championship. That team then won the 10-11 Maryland State Championship and tied for 4th-6th place at the Eastern + Mid-Atlantic Regionals in Beverly, Mass.

For 2019/2020, the Blue Rays expanded, adding a 10u team made up of MCLL players aged 8-10; the elder Blue Rays team moved up to 12u. Our goal for the 12u team is for its players to make the 2020 MCLL 12u and 11u All Star teams and to win the 2020 Little League Maryland state tournament, and to compete in Bristol for the Mid-Atlantic Championship (Regionals). The 10u team functions as a pipeline for finding, selecting, and developing talent for MCLL.

To achieve our goals, our players must develop and refine fundamental and then advanced baseball skills; our coaches--who are all unpaid volunteers who believe in the spirit and mission of Little League--must possess expert knowledge of Little League tournament rules and play; our players and parents must foster a strong community bond. It is this community trinity that makes the Blue Rays special.

We are not a “travel” organization.

We are not a business, or quasi-non-profit.

We are a development organization that plays extra games in a Sunday fall/spring “travel” league, with some extra tournaments thrown in for fun.

Our players MUST play spring MCLL ball.

What’s our record? Which tournaments have we won? How far do we travel? We don’t care, none, and not far. These mean nothing to us.

We teach baseball; we don’t burn arms; we don’t yell or scream; everyone plays, and everyone plays most positions. The Blue Rays is where our Little League players learn new skills, try new positions, and gain confidence through experience.

Oh, and we do it for a fraction of what the local “travel” teams cost.