Hattiesburg is once again preparing to welcome championship baseball teams from across the Southeast.
The City of Hattiesburg announced this week that it has been selected to host the 2027 DBB Junior Boys World Series, continuing the Hub City’s growing reputation as one of the South’s emerging destinations for youth baseball tournaments.
The national tournament will be played at Jaycee Park in July 2027, although the exact dates, game schedule and ticket information will be announced later. The Junior Boys division features 13-year-old players, with teams and their families expected to travel to Hattiesburg from 12 states.
For Mayor Toby Barker, the announcement represents more than simply landing another tournament. It is the latest payoff from the city’s investment in youth sports facilities and the preservation of a baseball program that has helped define Hattiesburg for generations.
“Baseball is part of Hattiesburg’s identity, and this selection reflects both the strength of that tradition and the investments we continue to make in facilities for our young athletes,” Barker said in the city’s announcement. “We look forward to welcoming players and families from across the Southeast and giving them a World Series experience that reflects the hospitality, energy and community spirit of Hattiesburg.”
The 2027 tournament will be another major showcase for the newly re-builtJaycee Park complex, located near Hattiesburg High School along Quinn Street.
Jaycee Park reopened in 2023 following a renovation costing slightly more than $4 million. The project was funded primarily through Hattiesburg’s one-percent tax on hotels, motels and restaurants, with additional support from the Hattiesburg Public School District, Hattiesburg Convention Commission, Forrest County Board of Supervisors and VisitHATTIESBURG.
The complex includes two diamonds capable of hosting baseball. One is the permanent home of Hattiesburg’s DBB program, while the other is primarily used by Hattiesburg High School softball but can be converted for baseball during tournament play.
Despite sometimes being described simply as a “turf complex,” Jaycee Park is not completely artificial.
Both diamonds have synthetic-turf infields with permanent striping, but the outfields remain natural playing surfaces constructed with a sand base and an underground drainage system. That combination allows the fields to retain the feel of a traditional grass outfield while making the complex more resistant to the summer thunderstorms that can disrupt multi-day tournaments in South Mississippi.
Other improvements included expanded bullpens, covered bleacher seating, upgraded concession areas, modern restrooms, a meeting room, a landscaped entrance plaza and additional paved parking. The spectator awnings were designed to provide protection from foul balls while also offering shade and shelter from rain.
Those features were not added solely for local league games. From the beginning, city leaders envisioned Jaycee Park as a tournament-caliber facility capable of bringing state, regional and national events to Hattiesburg.
The 2027 World Series selection is another indication that the plan is working
Although the complex itself is relatively new, the baseball tradition it carries is much older.
The main baseball diamond at Jaycee Park retains the name Cameron Field, preserving the identity of the historic field that previously stood inside Kamper Park.
Cameron Field was named for Jack Cameron on July 13, 1979, honoring his 15 years of service as a coach and league director. Cameron also served as president of the Hattiesburg Optimist Club, the organization that has supported the city’s Dixie Boys and DBB programs for decades.
For generations, the old Cameron Field at Kamper Park was where Hattiesburg teenagers learned the game, competed for city championships and prepared for postseason runs. It became closely associated with one of the most successful community-based youth baseball programs in the country.
In 2022, the city announced that Cameron Field would be relocated from Kamper Park to Jaycee Park. The move allowed the Hattiesburg Zoo to expand with the Serengeti Springs water park while giving the baseball program a modern two-field complex with the capacity to host larger tournaments.
City leaders understood that moving the program would be emotional for former players and families. Memorials, engravings and other pieces of the original Cameron Field were incorporated into the entrance plaza at Jaycee Park, while commemorative jars of dirt from the old field were offered to former players, coaches and supporters.
The 2027 Junior Boys tournament will not be the first World Series played at the renovated Jaycee Park.
In July 2025, Hattiesburg hosted the DBB Boys World Series for 14-year-old players, bringing 12 teams from 10 states to the city. It was the first World Series conducted at the new Jaycee Park complex.
VisitHATTIESBURG projected that the 2025 tournament would generate approximately $2.4 million in economic impact, with visiting families filling hotels and spending money at restaurants, stores and attractions throughout the area.
That event provided the first major national test of the rebuilt complex. Two years later, Jaycee Park will host the Junior Boys age group, making Hattiesburg a repeat destination within the DBB organization. The distinction between the Boys and Junior Boys tournaments is important. The 2025 event featured the 14-year-old Boys division, while the 2027 championship will feature the 13-year-old Junior Boys division.
Before Jaycee Park hosted its first World Series, Hattiesburg welcomed another national youth baseball championship in 2023.
That summer, the city hosted the Dixie Youth Baseball Division I and Division II AA World Series at the Larry Doleac Complex inside Tatum Park. More than 20 teams from 11 southeastern states competed for the organization’s 8U coach-pitch championships from July 27 through August 1.
The 2023 tournament was closely related to Hattiesburg’s larger youth baseball tradition, but it was not the same age group or organization as the DBB Junior Boys World Series coming in 2027.
Dixie Youth Baseball, now generally branded as Diamond Youth Baseball, primarily serves younger players. DBB, formerly known as Dixie Boys Baseball, oversees the older teenage divisions.
The two programs therefore represent different branches of the community baseball system:
- 2023 at Tatum Park: 8U Dixie Youth/Diamond Youth AA World Series.
- 2025 at Jaycee Park: 14U DBB Boys World Series.
- 2027 at Jaycee Park: 13U DBB Junior Boys World Series.
The 2023 tournament was still an important moment. It marked Hattiesburg’s first time hosting that Dixie Youth championship in 25 years and was projected to create a multimillion-dollar economic impact.
The city’s history with major youth baseball championships reaches much farther back than 2023.
Hattiesburg hosted Dixie Youth World Series competition in 1989 and 1998, with the earlier tournaments featuring older Majors-level players. The 2023 coach-pitch tournament was therefore the third Dixie Youth World Series held in the city.
The 1998 event was especially large, with Hattiesburg hosting both the Majors and AAA divisions. When the World Series returned in 2023, VisitHATTIESBURG described it as the city’s first opportunity to host that organization’s championship in more than two decades.
Hattiesburg’s older-age DBB program also has a lengthy World Series history of its own. The local organization reports dozens of appearances, multiple national championships and two previous occasions hosting a Dixie Boys World Series before the modern Jaycee Park era.
That history helps explain why the 2027 selection feels less like the arrival of something entirely new and more like the continuation of a longstanding Hattiesburg tradition.
Youth baseball tournaments have become an increasingly valuable part of Hattiesburg’s tourism strategy.
Unlike a one-night concert or single sporting event, a World Series keeps teams in the city for several days. Players generally travel with parents, siblings, coaches and supporters, creating demand for hotel rooms, restaurants, groceries, entertainment and other services.
The city expects the 2027 tournament to bring visitors from 12 states. VisitHATTIESBURG Executive Director and CEO Marlo Dorsey said the event would create meaningful economic activity while strengthening the city’s position when bidding on future tournaments.
The impact extends beyond Jaycee Park. Visiting families may spend their downtime at the Hattiesburg Zoo, Serengeti Springs, the Pocket Museum, restaurants throughout downtown and Midtown, shopping centers or other attractions around the Pine Belt.
It is the kind of event that allows a municipal sports facility to serve two purposes at once: providing a home for local athletes throughout the year while generating outside revenue through tournament tourism.
By the time the first pitch is thrown in 2027, Cameron Field’s journey will have come full circle.
What began as a beloved community ballpark at Kamper Park has been rebuilt as the centerpiece of a modern complex capable of hosting national championship baseball. The dirt and dimensions may have changed, but the purpose has remained largely the same: giving young players a place to compete, develop and represent Hattiesburg.
The city has now hosted World Series tournaments at Kamper Park, Tatum Park and Jaycee Park across several generations and age divisions.
The 2027 DBB Junior Boys World Series will add another chapter to that history, and another opportunity for Hattiesburg to show why baseball remains such an important part of the Hub City’s identity.
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