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In a season full of firsts for various Golden Gate Little League All-Star teams, the Golden Gate American seniors are hoping to help advance a budding reputation in Collier County.

The team will play in sectionals for the first time in league history this weekend at Golden Gate National against the District 9 and 16 winners.

Now that his team has a spot in sectionals, manager Lee Gariepy is hoping that despite its youth, the balanced roster will carry it into a state playoff bracket.

“I am expecting us to be competitive and I don’t think we have a lot of standouts, but we have a lot of balance,” he said. “Usually a team has four or five kids that they look to, but we have balance top to bottom, and one of our goals is to build a strong senior team going forward. Hopefully these kids can play big leagues next year as well.”

Last season, the senior All-Stars didn’t make it out of districts, and even though they didn’t make an appearance at the sectional tournament, Gariepy is hoping that the relative youth will work to his squad’s advantage when it comes time to start the round-robin tournament.

Should Golden Gate advance, they won’t have to go far to compete in the state tournament, which is held in Fort Myers this year.

“I would say the best part is that we are kind of like an unknown and maybe we can sneak up and surprise other teams a little bit,” Gariepy added. “These kids all play in high school and have experience in junior ball and they are all familiar with each other. What’s nice is all the kids have the opportunity to standout.”

While the team will have to wait and see exactly how well it stacks up against this year’s competition, assistant coach Jordan Martinez has an enthusiasm that, if his players can match it, could make just as much difference in the team’s performance.

“We have been working on hitting and we have a tough team this year; I think we are going to go far,” he said. “The pitching is going to be great and we have three or four guys that can start and we’re doing well from the top to bottom in our lineup – everyone is solid.”

In preparation for the tournament, the seniors have been working on the fundamentals, but with a team that has some pop in its bat, is sound defensively, and has a stable of players capable of throwing the ball well. The difference may be the mental toughness of the team.”

Golden Gate will play three games on Saturday to determine who advances.

“The level of play is going to be really competitive, because there are kids that are 16 years old and some of them have been playing their whole life,” Martinez said. “We have to hang in there and battle. We just need to take it game by game and concentrate.”