As Hawai'i youth baseball teams celebrated World Series victories during a parade yesterday, the biggest winner could be the state's youth baseball leagues with increases in participation, according to baseball officials.

Youth baseball applicants flooded Waipi'o one season after manager Clyde Tanabe and his Waipi'o team narrowly missed the semifinals of the 2002 Little League World Series for 11- and 12-year-olds.

"When we got back, enthusiasm picked up in Little League," said Tanabe, whose 2002 team posted a 2-1 record in Little League World Series pool play, but was eliminated because of a tiebreaker rule. "Now I think it's going to be overwhelming. I think participation will increase because of what they did."

West O'ahu defeated Curacao, 7-6, on Michael Memea's game-winning seventh-inning home run to win the Little League World Series (ages 11 and 12) Aug. 28 in South Williamsport, Pa. The O'ahu All-Stars captured the Cal Ripken World Series (12 and younger) title Aug. 21, defeating Team Mexico, 1-0, in Aberdeen, Md.

Many youth baseball coaches and administrators believe the recent success of Hawai'i teams will increase interest in youth baseball — a sport that officials said could use a boost in participation and image.

In Hawai'i, an estimated 15,000 kids play in Little League, Cal Ripken, Babe Ruth and P.O.N.Y. baseball programs, down from 19,000 after the soccer boom hit the state, according to Bob Kawamoto, a former state Little League administrator who is now the Little League district administrator for the Windward area and Kaua'i.

According to one manager, the recent success could trigger the image makeover of youth baseball, and may help the sport gain some pizazz among youth and viewers.

"When you're young, I think out of basketball, football, and baseball — baseball is probably the nerdiest of sports," said O'ahu All-Star manager Gerald Oda, whose team was one of three honored during yesterday's parade in Waikiki. "If you don't love the game, it's boring to watch. That's what some people think."

However, the excitement generated by West Oahu's dramatic march to the Little League World Series title will shed that boring perception, and carry youth baseball for a while, Oda said.

"Especially, the Little League World Series, and how exciting those games were, I think more kids will realize that baseball is a fun sport, a great sport," Oda said. "I can't imagine any kid watching the World Series after what 'Ewa Beach (West O'ahu) did and say they don't want a chance at that same thing."

Oda hoped the publicity garnered by Hawai'i's teams will spark an increase in the state's youth baseball participation.

"I think we will see a spike in play, but it's a matter of whether or not that enthusiasm carries," Oda said. "When Clyde took his Waipi'o team, I actually coached Little League, too, and we actually had a spike (in participation), but it was a temporary spike."

Regardless, the success of this year's Hawai'i teams will help promote the sport, said Carl Watanabe, state commissioner for the Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth leagues.

"I would like to say it would have a positive impact on informing the general public that there are programs available for youngsters to participate in," Watanabe said.

Hopefully, Watanabe added, the recent feats will spark interest in adult volunteers who are needed to keep programs alive. Often, youth baseball volunteers are scarce, overworked and underappreciated, baseball officials said.

HELP ALSO NEEDED

"You always need coaches, you always need leadership. You need program leaders, and things of that nature," Watanabe said. "While you may have the kids, if you don't have the coaches, you can't play. You can have the coaches, but if you don't have the administration, you have the same problem."

Mike Victorino, the Little League district administrator for the Leeward area that encompasses world champion West O'ahu, agreed with Watanabe on the difficulty of securing volunteers.

"Volunteer work is volunteer work," Victorino said. "They'll volunteer for the first day and a half, and when they find out how involved it is, you lose them.

"We have really overzealous, committed people at the beginning of the season because they're all gung-ho. The kids are signing up, registration is going, tryouts are going on, and coaches are registering ... but after the first or second week, people become too busy, they drop, you scramble for assistant coaches, you scramble for umpires. By the end of the end of the season, you're down to a handful of people."

To add to that, Victorino said Little League baseball has some of the strictist rules in youth baseball. Coaches and managers must pass criminal history checks, youngsters are restricted to certain types of pitches to preserve their arms, and players must be recruited within district boundaries.

"To keep a coach for a couple of years, that's pretty good," Victorino said. "You really have to have a desire for this. You have to really love baseball. You have to love the kids, and then you have to follow Little League philosophy."

Victorino anticipated West O'ahu's success will increase registration within the West O'ahu boundary that runs from Geiger Road to Farrington Highway and separates at Waipahu.

"I can only presume that registration is going to skyrocket over there," Victorino said. "The only problem is they live in an area that is surrounded by league boundaries. They have (approximately) 14,000 population within their boundaries and they can only recruit or register kids within those boundaries."

For fairness, Little League does not allow teams to select players from an area bigger than 20,000 population, according to district administrator Kawamoto.

"The really good thing about Little League is it gives everybody a chance to win," Kawamoto said. "Otherwise, if you go to Hawai'i Kai or Mililani, naturally you're going to have more kids to pick from — there's an unbalance."

Waipi'o manager Tanabe said West O'ahu's victory has inspired many, and is a watershed moment for Hawai'i youth baseball.

Until West O'ahu's feat, Hawai'i had never won a Little League World Series major division (ages 11 and 12) title. Pearl City came the closest at the 1988 Little League World Series, defeating Spring, Texas, 5-4, to win the U.S. title, before losing to Taiwan, 10-0, in the championship.

"I think they'll give hope to the next generation, or the next 10 years of Little Leaguers out here in Hawai'i that it can be done — it's not unattainable winning the World Series," Tanabe said.

Kawamoto added: "We like to stress: 'You can be up there, too, if you try hard enough.' "

Reach Brandon Masuoka at bmasuoka@honoluluadvertiser.com.