The Little League International campus in South Williamsport, Pa., is colorful, magical, magnificent, and inspiring. It’s also wonderful, breathtaking, and just downright cool. There is certainly no shortage of adjectives to describe what goes on here every August along the mighty Susquehana River.

All of this pageantry and excitement (as well as a 25-foot grassy hill for kids to slide down) from the Little League World Series has recently been parlayed to a brand-new Southeast Region Headquarters in Warner Robins, Georgia. The $5.5 million state-of-the-art facility is drawing rave revues across the board, and it’s a destination that is quite the consolation prize for teams not fortunate enough to advance to their respective World Series.

The 26.08-acre complex serves as the hub of Little League activity for the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The stadium on the complex, Little League Southeast Park, seats 2,500 fans with a hillside area around the field bring capacity to around 5,000. In addition, the compound includes a maintenance facility, restrooms, concession stands, a gift shop and batting cages.

“We want these facilities to truly reflect Little League,” said Chief Financial Officer Dave Houseknecht, who served as Little League International’s point person on the project and made 12 visits to the site over the course of the construction. “We want them to be nice, neat, clean, and functional. We don’t want to overextend our means, but we do want them to be aesthetically pleasing and well received in the community.”

One could argue the regional site was well deserved after Warner Robins’ recent success at the Little League Baseball World Series and the Little League Softball World Series. The baseball all-stars advanced to the Little League World Series in 2007 and 2009, with the 2007 team winning the title. Not to go unnoticed, a team from Columbus, an hour and a half away from Warner Robbins, won the World Series title in 2006. A team from the same league has also returned to this year’s tournament looking for a second championship.

On the softball side, Warner Robins American Little League won its second straight Little League World Series on August 18, defeating Burbank (Calif.) Little League, 8-6, at Alpenrose Stadium in Portland, Ore.

Warner Robins was selected as the site on December 9, 2008. Its dedication took place June 12 of this year, just prior to the start of the Softball World Series. A few weeks after that, it hosted the baseball regional tournament.

Chris Deighan of the Warner Robins Sun News said the two tournaments were “quite a success” and that “the few problems with microphones and scoreboards were more than made up for by the enthusiasm of the fans and the efforts of the volunteers.”

Southeastern Region Director Jennifer Colvin and her staff began operating in the 10,400-square-foot Administration Building in early February when they moved from a temporary office (provided by Flint Energies) in Perry, Ga.

“It’s done!,” exclaimed Colvin when asked about her favorite part of the complex. “We can establish some type of normalcy now. It was a challenge. You try to educate people on ‘yes, we’re building a baseball stadium,’ but it’s for kids. The end result is the place is absolutely gorgeous.”

“The community has been phenomenal,” she added. “Houston County as a whole loves their youth sports. There’s absolutely no doubt about it. The newness of it, the intrigue of the new facility, really drew the folks in the community to assist. We had some of the largest crowds during regular pool play games that I’ve ever seen.”

Throughout the process, including the groundbreaking in May of 2009, a number of people and companies came together to make a vision come to life. Financial and in-kind support was provided by Houston County (Ga.), the Houston County Development Authority, the City of Warner Robins, Flint Energies, OneGeorgia Authority and Musco Sports Lighting.

The facility was constructed by International City Builders of Warner Robins with Director of Construction Mark Christianson leading the charge. CFO Houseknecht said it was a “four-person construction team” that got the project done. The team included himself, Christianson, Colvin, and project manager Jay Flescher.

Houseknecht also noted there were other individuals who were very important in the process, including Morgan Law, the economic development director for Houston County, and Mike Long, an attorney in Warner Robins who works for the development authority.

“I think Jen will be very happy when she returns after the World Series because the facility is built,” Houseknecht said. “I think it was stressful for Jen to do her normal duties as regional director and be involved in the construction. It will be nice for them to settle in to the normal operations.”

“We very much embrace the community where we can and get them involved, and Warner Robins is a good example of that,” he added.