GREENVILLE, North Carolina — Summer 2026 is going to be very memorable for the Weaver family from Snohomish, Wash.
Jeff Weaver, like most parents with three kids, is juggling a lot of activities on an August day, let alone a sweltering one in Greenville at the Little League Softball World Series, like he’s experiencing today.
Weaver’s oldest daughter, Jaliyah, is the lead-off hitter and second baseman on the Snohomish girls team representing the Northwest division at the national tournament. He’s also one of the assistant coaches on the team.
Today is an off-day for the team after the Snohomish squad won its last two games on consecutive days in the consolation bracket due to a lopsided loss in their first game against a potent southeast Florida team, 14-0. Today also happens to be his younger twin daughters’ birthday, which requires a party of some measure as the family made the 2970 mile trek with the Snohomish teammates for this sporting chance at a national championship, or as the kids say, “Natty.”
Birthdays and baseball. Summer road trips. Tournaments and titles. Family and friends.
“Oh my gosh, this summer has been,” Weaver, pauses to contemplate the magnitude of the moment, “It’s been crazy. It hasn’t even felt like a summer. But you know what? It’s a once in a lifetime thing to get to the World Series, so it’s, it’s all worth it.”
Weaver tells the EverettPost.com, after the opening loss to SE Florida, “We really challenged our girls after that first game to play Snohomish softball and focus on us. They really accepted the challenge and responded well. And after two back-to-back wins, we’re starting to look more like ourselves and how we played to get here.”
That chapter of Weaver’s summer 2026 chronicle involves the Snohomish girls U12 team winning a state championship, advancing to a regional championship in San Bernadino, Cali., and winning that title to advance to the girls World Series.
In the first World Series game, Snohomish lost badly. “We have a thing called connected softball,” Weaver says about the team’s coaching philosophy, “and connected softball means we’re playing for one another. Being all together on the field and also our chemistry off the field. If somebody is dragging their head, then you know, a teammate comes over and says, hey, you got the next one, so just kind of keeping everybody up and ready to go and staying in the present.”
Those principles have emerged as Snohomish has bounced back in the consolation bracket games winning 7-3 on Tuesday against Helotes, TX and 9-1 yesterday against Quebec, Canada.
Which brings us to today’s rest day. Weaver says, “We had practice this morning in the batting cages. I just want to make sure that our girls are staying sharp mentally and physically. Making any adjustments to their swings that need to be done. And then, for the rest of the day, our girls are gonna hang out with family and parents. And you know, for me, I’m going to my daughters’ birthday party down here. And then, relax and focus. Not do too many physical things, and then we’ll be refreshed and ready to go tomorrow.”
Friday, Snohomish squares off at noon PDT against the SE Florida team that beat them 14-0, but during the EverettPost.com interview with Weaver that game is still in progress. The SE Florida team just lost to North Carolina, 5-2.
During the interview, without knowing the next opponent, Weaver is asked about the message to the team for the quarter final game and replies, “I think the message to the girls is to keep playing loose and playing free. I mean, that first game, you could tell that our girls were tight and nervous. That’s just not how our girls play. So, just be themselves and that’s good enough. Instead of focusing on other teams, we want to focus on ourselves.”
Key players on the team, Weaver says are catcher, Harlow Knisely, who has played through a leg injury, and pitcher, Maddie Locke, who has led the team on the mound.
“She’s really carried us, pitching-wise to this point,” Weaver praises. Of Kinsley’s injury, he adds, “she could have easily come out and caved in, but she’s tough. She said, ‘No, I’ll be okay,’ and she finished out the game. Yeah, we got some tough girls on this team.”
Offensively, Weaver calls his daughter, Jaliyah, “Our catalyst. Hitting-wise, she’s a lead off and we feed off of her energy when she gets on base.”
The Snohomish team is tight knit according to Weaver. “Nine or 10 of the girls were all on the same team during the regular season of Little League, so they have experience playing with one another,” he says, “and then we selected a few other girls to make it a 12 person All-Star team” for the post-season tournaments. The players and parents are all from Snohomish.
The girls, like the boys who play in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn., only have this opportunity at this age. There’s no “running it back” next season with a talented collection of players like this teaming up again.
“This is the marquee event for us,” Weaver shares. “So, a lot of these girls are older on our team. There’ll be some girls that are younger and they’ll make their own team (next summer). But a lot of these girls will not be eligible anymore.” That adds to distinct memories that are taking shape on the diamond for Snohomish.
“This has been a heck of a ride,” Weaver enthuses. “This has been great. I work with two amazing coaches and Jeff Crawford and Drew Locke, and we really have great chemistry together. We know the pulse of our team, and so it’s been great working together, and I think it’s one of the reasons that you know we’ve been able to get this far for us.”
The Snohomish girls next game is Friday Aug. 7 at noon PDT in the Little League Softball World Series and the game will air on ESPN.