As Little League teams from all around the world take in Williamsport and its surrounding areas an extra special trip for Coeur d’Alene, Idaho will be made before the team departs for tonight.

In the fall of 1990, Coeur d’Alene Little League manager Sean Cherry was a second Lieutenant in the Marines, and he found himself in Pennsylvania for the first time. A small group decided to visit Gettysburg for an emotional trip that put the Country’s history on full display.

Cherry was 23-years-old at the time and on the possible brink of deployment for the Gulf War. The trip helped Cherry understand just how special of a Country he was blessed to be in. It also showed that a lot of the freedoms we enjoy today came at a cost for past generations.

Cherry will do all the typical stuff with the Coeur d’Alene players as it remains in Williamsport for the World Championship. They are scheduled to go to a Met’s game in New York. There will be shopping around the area. There will also be a trip to Gettysburg as Cherry attempts to give the group of players a brief history lesson.

The trip back in 1990 was especially moving for Cherry as the walked the grounds, feeling the sacrifice made for the good of the country. It also moved Cherry, as second lieutenant in the marines at the time and as the Gulf War was going at the same time of his training, there was a chance he would be deployed.

“There’s nothing like seeing the place where history happened,” Cherry said. “It’s a very moving trip when you’re in the military and facing potential war. That was at the beginning of the first Gulf War.”

As a young 23-year-old facing a situation like war, the grounds made the sacrifices that much more real for Cherry.

As he takes his group of baseball players through the site, there will be plenty of chances for them to understand what it means.

“We’re going to take in some of the local sites,” Cherry said. “We are taking a run to Gettysburg. Kind of a little forced-fun to educate the kids. Show them some of the things they don’t get to see living in the west. We’re going to take that opportunity to do that, and hopefully, their history teacher appreciates that from us.”

The ultimate goal is to help his players get a more in-depth understanding of how fortunate they are to be playing baseball at the highest level of Little League.

At the conclusion of the West and Northwest Regional Tournaments, it was nearing 2 in the morning when all the teams were forced to pack up and clean their rooms. Throughout the overhaul after a week-long tournament, the Couer d’Alene kids and the players from Honolulu joked and exchanged contact information.

“In San Bernardino, during the region tournament we were connected with them,” Braeden Newby said. “When we both won we partied with them in the bathroom and their rooms.”

The groups knew they would be seeing each other again as they prepared to play in Williamsport. The bonds were on full display as Sean Cherry, Christopher Reynolds, Newby, and Avery Cherry explained who they would be cheering for the rest of the Series.

“We’re going to stay until Monday, and everybody is really excited to see how this thing shakes out,” Sean Cherry said. “We’re really pulling for the West. We’re really good friends with the coaching staff, and some of the kids have become good friend with the players on the team. We’re here until Monday to root those guys on.”