"Little League Baseball" and "Little League" are registered trademarks of Little League Baseball, Inc., Williamsport, PA 17701, and are used here for identification purposes only. If you're looking for the official Little League Baseball home page, click here. Links to web sites for many individual leagues and districts can be found in the links section of this site.
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(June 2024) -- We have added historical coverage of Virginia state tournaments to the Unpage site! Click on the left side of this page to explore past state tournaments and district champions. As part of this expansion, we are commencing our coverage of the 2024 Virginia state tournament -- click for details. If you can provide results or pairings for Virginia district tournaments that are not listed on this site, please contact the Unpage.
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Our coverage of the Virginia state tournament launched on June 1, 2024. Click to contact the webmaster with any comments or questions about this site.
Little League Baseball began expanding beyond its Pennsylvania roots shortly after the conclusion of World War II, and Virginia was among the first states to establish permanently chartered leagues. A league in Alexandria was chartered briefly in 1948 and was invited to compete in the second annual National Little League tournament that same year, but did not renew its affiliation with Little League Baseball in subsequent years.
In the meantime, local civic leaders affiliated with the Kiwanis Club service organization in Falls Church had read about Little League Baseball, and inquired with Little League's national headquarters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, about chartering a league in their community. Al Root and George Gallagher were among the individuals who helped to organize the league, and in 1949, the Falls Church Kiwanis Little League became the first permanently chartered league in Virginia.
Several other Virginia communities soon formed their own charters, and in 1951, the first-ever Virginia state tournament was held. Four Eastern Virginia leagues -- Charlottesville, Danville, Front Royal, and Timberville -- met to determine an Eastern Virginia winner, with Charlottesville emerging victorious and advancing to a state championship game against Norton, which was the only tournament entrant from Western Virginia. Norton -- the first integrated Little League program in the South -- defeated Charlottesville, 12-3, and was crowned as Virginia's first-ever state champion.
It would be several years before Virginia next held a state tournament. During this era, Virginia was part of Little League's Region 4, which typically encompassed New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Virginia leagues often faced leagues from neighboring states in early levels of tournament competition.
In 1957, though, Little League revised its tournament structure to the state-based format still used today. Virginia was organized into four districts, and champions from these districts met to determine a state champion. Virginia's 1957 state tournament was actually held in Tennessee -- Bristol Western Little League's field was on the Tennessee side of the state line in that border community -- and in each year since this time, Virginia's state tournament has produced a champion which advanced to face out-of-state leagues in deeper levels of tournament competition.
Over the years, the number of leagues and districts in Virginia has expanded, and today, there are sixteen districts in the state. All district champions advance to the state tournament, and the Virginia state champion advances to the Southeast Region tournament, which is held each August in Warner Robins, Georgia. The Southeast Region champion advances to the Little League World Series
Nine Virginia leagues have participated in the Little League World Series. Tuckahoe National Little League's 1968 all-star team achieved Virginia's best-ever tournament finish when it reached the Little League World Series championship game before falling, 1-0, to Wakayama Little League (Japan).
| Virginia Little League World Series Qualifiers | |
| Year | League |
| 1948 | Virginia Little League (Alexandria) |
| 1953 | Front Royal Little League |
| 1954 | Hampton Wythe Little League |
| 1968 | Tuckahoe National Little League (Henrico) |
| 1972 | Vienna National Little League |
| 1976 | Tuckahoe National Little League (Henrico) |
| 1993 | Tuckahoe American Little League (Henrico) |
| 1994 | Central Springfield Little League |
| 2019 | Loudoun South American Little League (South Riding) |
Click to view a timeline showing the evolution of the Virginia Little League tournament structure.
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