Middle East Little League Team Makes Big Trip

Baseball constantly puts players on the road. But an 8,000-mile road trip is more than most players bargain for.

Yet the Dubai Falcons, an 11- and 12-year-old Little League team, has made the 8,000 mile trip from their home in the Middle East to Naperville. The 11 players – who ethnically represent the United States, Canada, India, Pakistan and Indonesia – are spending the next two weeks in the area prepping for a Little League World Series regional qualifier in Poland.

Greg Sproule, president of Dubai Little League, said the team wanted to compete prior to the qualifier, but it was impossible to do so in Dubai. Sproule said Dubai’s Little League season ends in April, as the area experiences temperatures higher than 100 degrees with 80 percent humidity during the summer.

Falcons head coach Bill Hickey admits traveling to Naperville wasn’t his first thought. Hickey, 48, said the team originally looked for tournaments around Dubai and then in Europe. The team then searched around the East Coast of the United States. But Hickey’s three searches failed to find a tournament that worked for the Falcons.

That’s when Hickey looked around Chicago. He found two tournaments in the suburbs, including the Naperville Firecracker Classic. Hickey returned to the 11 families and suggested the trip to Naperville.

“The good luck that we have had is unbelievable; one of the families actually lived here,” Hickey said. “They said you couldn’t pick a better place to go. So we were like, ‘We’re going.’”  

Ray Braun’s family lived in Naperville for a little more than a year before moving to Dubai. Braun, 12, said the trip to Naperville has given him a chance to play baseball in an area where he thought he would never play. He also said it’s been a chance see his old friends.

“I like to see my friends. One of them has seen me play so far,” Braun said. “I’ve missed American food, Target and seeing my friends.”

Other players, like Yash Sachdev, 12, said they have been enjoying the weather in Naperville. The players said it is nice to play in area with trees and weather that compares to Dubai’s winter.

But all the players agree the highlight of their trip so far was attending Monday’s Chicago Cubs victory over the Colorado Rockies.

During batting practice, the Falcons were allowed onto Wrigley Field. That’s when Cubs hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo visited with the kids. Jaramillo talked with the Falcons; providing them advice on hitting and fundamentals.

“He came over and really spent a lot of time talking to the boys, more than I would ever expect any of the coaches or players to do,” Hickey said. “I’m a guy from New Jersey, a Yankee fan, but I have to say from that experience yesterday…I’m a Cubs fan.”

Sproule, 47, said the hospitality from the Cubs, Naperville and the Falcons competition, like the Elburn Express, has impressed the 38 people who have made the trip from Dubai.

“We’ve been welcomed with open arms beyond our imagination,” Sproule said. “The reception and hospitality, and true hospitably,…has been overwhelming."