History

Washington District 9 Little League encompasses 15 Leagues on the East side of Lake Washington just east of Seattle. It includes the Cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Sammamish, Mercer Island, and the Snoqualmie Valley from Duvall to North Bend and all the County land in between these areas/Cities. Over 14,000 boys and girls ages 5 thru 18 participate in Softball and Baseball in these 15 Leagues and District 9 is also home to the annual Little League Baseball, Inc.’s Junior Softball World Series hosted in Kirkland at Everest Field each August.

Washington District 9 started as part of Washington District 2 with teams in Kirkland and Redmond. After several years Leagues in Burien, Highline, Issaquah, Bellevue and the Snoqualmie Valley were added and the then District 2 area (all of Northwest Washington) was split up into several Districts. District 9 was formed by assigning the Leagues in the areas south and east of Seattle to it and included Highline, Burien, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah and the Snoqualmie Valley. At that time, there were two Leagues in Kirkland, one League in Redmond, one League in Issaquah, five Leagues in Bellevue, one League in the Snoqualmie Valley and one League each in Highline and Burien. Shortly after that time, Highline was moved to District 7 and the rest remained as part of District 9. In 1979, Burien also moved to District 7.

In 1978, there were Leagues in Burien (left in 1979) Bellevue American, Bellevue Evergreen, Bellevue National, Bellevue Federal, Bellevue Thunderbird, Kirkland American, Kirkland National, Redmond, Issaquah and Snoqualmie Valley in District 9. Bellevue Evergreen and Bellevue American Little Leagues combined to form Bellevue West in 1980 and Redmond split into two Leagues and became Redmond East and Redmond West. In 1983, Redmond changed their boundaries and became Redmond North and South. In 1987, Snoqualmie Valley Little League split into two Leagues, Snoqualmie Valley and Sno-Valley North. In 1988, the two Redmond Leagues then again split into three Leagues, Redmond West, North and South. In 1990, the Snoqualmie Valley again split into three Leagues, Snoqualmie Valley, Fall City and Sno-Valley North. In 1994, Issaquah split into Issaquah North and Issaquah South. Redmond South changed their name to Eastlake in 1995 and North Issaquah changed their name to Sammamish in 2003 and Bellevue Thunderbird split into two Leagues becoming Mercer Island and Bellevue Thunderbird. That brings District 9 up to the present 15 Leagues.

1974 – Kirkland went to the first ever Little League Softball World Series in Freeport, Long Island, New York and placed second

1980 – Kirkland National went to the Little League Baseball World Series and placed second in the USA

1982 – Kirkland National went to the Little League Baseball World Series and won the World Championship

1993 – The Big League Softball team from District 9 (girls from 4 Leagues in the District) went to the Big League Softball World Series in Mesa, Arizona and won the World Championship

2004 – Redmond North went to the Little League Baseball World Series and placed third in the USA

2009 – Mercer Island went to the Little League Baseball World Series and placed fourth in Pool “A” in the USA

2013 – Eastlake Little League went to the Little League Baseball World Series and finished 3rd in the USA Division.

1999 to PRESENT – Thanks to the Junior Softball World Series volunteers, Washington District 9 was awarded the honor of hosting the Little League Junior Softball World Series since it’s inception in 1999.

As a reward to the locally based committee, Little League International has given them the opportunity to place a host team in the Tournament every year.

The District has chosen to award this honor to the District 9 Junior League Softball Champions. This means they do not have to win the state title or the West regional title to qualify for the World Series.