By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

The season is coming to a close for the baseball team that will finish in last place in District 1-4A. If you look strictly at results, you might think it has not been a success.

Not only have wins been hard to come by – there have been none – but so has scoring runs.

This is a team that basically started from scratch. There were very few games last year, some of which were forfeited for lack of players, and even those that were played would generously be described as disorganized.

But success isn’t always measured on a scoreboard. And when you look at it from that perspective, there have may not have been a bigger success story in local high school baseball this year than the Booker T. Washington Lions.

* * *

A backstop.

That’s it. That’s what BTW has for baseball facilities. Down the hill behind the school and next to the football stadium, the most action the baseball field gets is for parking places at the annual Soul Bowl football game.

When the baseball season started, they didn’t even have bases. There still is no pitcher’s mound.

But the school did have one thing going for it – opportunity.

BTW Principal Crystal Barnes called assistant football coach Josh Jones into her office one day and asked if he would be interested in reviving the baseball program. Not because she thought he was the second coming of former LSU coach Skip Bertman, but because of the way the students gravitated to him.

“Just trying to expose the kids to the game of baseball,” Jones says.

Barnes believed that Jones was perfect choice to get students interested. It didn’t take long to find out that Barnes was right.

On the first day, about 50 students – mostly freshmen and sophomores – came out to practice. That’s the good news. The bad news came when Jones found out he would have to trim the roster.

“We just couldn’t handle all of them with the budget for the program,” Jones says. “But for a person like me, it’s hard to do something like that because these are kids who want to do something.”

Jones got the numbers down to about 30. More bad news – that meant they needed gloves for 30 players and enough bats that could be shared. And catcher’s equipment. Plus helmets.

And, quite significantly, uniforms.

But it didn’t take long for those problems to be solved. Equipment donations came flowing in and, most importantly, the uniforms were ordered.

Two sets.

“That was a big thing for me this year, so that they could feel like they were a part of something,” Jones says. “Just small things like that matter to a kid. The old ones were mildewed. You would have thought I brought in top of the line, major league uniforms. They want to wear them at school.”

Little by little, things began to fall into place. “We’ve got bases now, but we really don’t have a mound,” Jones says. “One thing I love about these kids is that they don’t use that as an excuse or a crutch.”

Baseball is a tough game to learn and Jones knew the Lions weren’t going to compete for the District 1-4A title. One of the biggest obstacles to overcome were players who were literally afraid of being hit by the ball.

“I just show them and help them learn the game,” Jones says. “Their development has been the best part to me.”

Earlier this year, BTW traveled to Northwood for a district game. The Falcons are one of the top-ranked teams in the state, so the results that night were predictable. But the scene that played out after the game has been common whenever BTW plays against a strong opponent.

“We stayed probably 10 or 15 minutes after the game with their starting pitcher and working on some things,” Northwood coach Austin Alexander says. “We were going over different things like the windup and stretch and pickoff moves. It was impressive because the kid was like a sponge. He just wanted to learn everything.”

“The coaches in the district have been great in helping us,” says Jones, who came to BTW from Northwood.  “Everybody is happy for us to get this going. We don’t have everything like the other schools have. Like a batting cage. Or a pitcher’s mound. But I commend the kids; on the days we can’t practice, they are sad because they want to be out there.”

Earlier this year, a scheduling conflict canceled a game for the Lions. “When they got on the bus, they asked me, can we at least have a scrimmage?” Jones says. “That’s when I knew they were starting to love it. They are just happy for the opportunity to play another sport and learn the game. They don’t necessarily care about the score. They are just excited to be playing. It’s been a good experience for all of us.”

* * *

When you look at BTW’s schedule this year, one thing become very obvious very quickly – there are no home games. Some might think that would be a problem. But never getting the opportunity to bat last is a non-factor when you consider the other side of that equation.

When Jones brings the 20-25 players to a game on the road, it is often to a place – even inside the boundaries of Shreveport-Bossier – that many of his kids have never seen. They get to see facilities such as the ones at Northwood and North DeSoto and Minden and Evangel and they realize what else is out there.

“Just taking them to other parks and seeing their reaction has been amazing,” Jones says. “Some of them have never gone anywhere other than home and school.”

To them, they might as well be at Yankee Stadium.

It’s hard to ask a coach about the highlight of his season when the team hasn’t won a game. But Jones knew that was likely going in. He says there has been definite progress and he’s looking forward to seeing how the team can build on this foundation next season.

On Feb. 28, the second game of the season, the Lions were (of course) on the road at Southwood when that defining moment of the season came. It wasn’t a tape-measure home run or turning a triple play. It wasn’t throwing out the winning run at the plate or striking out the side.

On that night, the Lions were down 16-0 and came to bat for the final time. One thing led to another and before you knew it, the Booker T. Washington Lions scored a run.

“They weren’t even mad about the loss,” Jones says. “Just to see them celebrate and cheer on each other and hearing the fans clapping, that was great.”

That’s when Jones knew it was all worth it.

“Our players feel so great with all the love they have received with people understanding that they are out there trying for the first time,” he says. “The support has been great all around. It’s taken off and I can’t even believe it. It’s been amazing.”

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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There was one big problem Samantha Guile faced when she took over the Caddo Magnet softball program three seasons ago.

You might think it was because the Mustangs’ softball facilities were in poor shape, which certainly didn’t help.

Or having no real tradition to fall back on, which wasn’t exactly great news either.

But before any of that – or any other issue – could be fixed, one thing had to happen.

Guile had to get her team to believe it was possible to be a success.

Fun is always a part of any softball team. But it seemed like the balance was tilted more towards fun than it was competition. The key was to find the right combination that fit would best serve the Caddo Magnet program.

Guile, who played at Parkway and finished her career as a pitcher at Northwestern State, knew that nationally ranked programs such as Calvary Baptist and North DeSoto are on another level. But that didn’t mean Caddo Magnet couldn’t find its own level.

And that’s what the Mustangs have done.

Caddo Magnet has no real history of softball success. In the decade before Guile arrived, Magnet never had a single season with a winning record. In two of those years, the team was a combined 2-44.

“Caddo Magnet has always been a challenging place academically,” she said. “The school always pushes students to achieve whatever their interests are. However, I didn’t feel like there was that same level of dedication to be a competitive softball program and parallel the success we have academically.”

The year before Guile took over, the Mustangs were 6-18, but five of those wins were against schools that were barely even able to field a team.

Samantha Guile had a long way to go.

But she knew how to get there.

“We just needed to teach them how to win and to hate losing,” she said. “That’s something I really didn’t know how to do because I had always played and coached at a competitive level. It’s great to have a team that’s happy to be out there, but you have to reinforce that winning atmosphere. That was a major thing.”

A year ago, Caddo Magnet played host to a playoff game for the first time in school history. This year, they are on the way to doing it again with a goal this time of winning the first playoff game in school history.

Three years ago, that wasn’t on anybody’s radar.

Guile says the Mustangs pride themselves on the “small milestones” and being able to hit daily and weekly goals, but the main focus has always been to be in position to win a playoff game, preferably at home. There is no record of Caddo Magnet ever winning a softball playoff game.

A year ago, Caddo Magnet was a No. 16 seed in the Select Division I playoffs, but lost 7-6 at home to No. 17 seed Ben Franklin.

This year, the Mustangs are 10-9 with two games remaining against 20-win teams in the hopes of moving up in the power rankings and keeping those home playoff goals alive.

Even with this year’s success, there have been challenges. The main one is the lineup. No, not the batting order. This lineup:

Broken foot.

Broken hand. (“She just got back last week!” Guile says.)

Broken thumb.

Potential broken elbow. (“We are still not sure. They still can’t get a clear X-ray.”)

Broken finger.

“I doubt anybody has a team with five broken bones,” Guile says. “You expect injuries like pulled muscles, but these have all been freak accidents. It’s just crazy. Things just keep happening.”

With only 13 varsity eligible players, “We only have three girls who are playing in the positions we practiced in during the off-season,” she said. “We’ve had to build our program with more utility players than a team with a small roster would expect to. Even with all of those challenges, the girls aren’t happy if they are not playing at a level they expect to.”

There has been a lot for Guile and the Caddo Magnet softball program to overcome. But they’d rather not think of it in those terms.

“It’s not what we are fighting against.” Guile says. “It’s what we are fighting for.” 

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

While you weren’t looking, things changed pretty dramatically in the world of high school golf. The days of the three- or four-team match are gone. These days, it’s mostly just the members of a single team playing nine holes after school, known as a “qualifier.”

Which seems to work out all right, since the players are competing against their teammates for placement when the time comes for the upcoming district, regional and state tournaments.

But Byrd coach Meredith Duncan and Loyola’s Don Cassano got together and came up with something different. Not only are the Yellow Jackets and the Flyers having a match against each other, it’s spread over two weeks and two courses.

The two schools – located 1.5 miles away from each other – are competing in the “Drivin’ Down Line” tournament, which will culminate in an 18-hole event today at Southern Trace. (Byrd is located on Line Avenue and Loyola’s address is two blocks off Line.)

“All of the kids are buddies and they play together anyway, so we thought it would be something different and fun,” Duncan said. “But we had to figure out what to call it. There’s a heck of a lot of good golfers down Line Avenue, so we just decided call it that.”

The tournament opened with a nine-hole match on March 18 at Querbes Park. Combined with the 18 holes today, the team with the lowest four-player scores over 27 holes will be the winner.

And the bragging rights will begin shortly afterward.

Loyola has a three-stroke lead going into today’s final round. In the opening nine holes the Flyers were led by Charlie Bell’s two-under 33, followed by an even-par 35 by Connor Cassano and Jack Gilmer’s 36.

Keep in mind that this isn’t just a bunch of buddies getting together and hacking it around. Talent wise, this is about as good as it gets.

Bell has signed with Middle Tennessee State; Cassano is headed to LSU next year.

The Yellow Jackets are led by senior Grant Reagan and juniors James Holtzclaw and Shep Smith. Last week Holtzclaw won the AJGA event in Lake Charles; Reagan became the youngest to ever win the City Match Play Golf Championship in the summer after his sophomore year.

And it’s not a stretch to say that these are two of the best teams in the state. In the last four years in which the LHSAA has held a state tournament, Byrd has won the Division I title three times.

Loyola might have been able to top that, except for the fact that the Flyers have been in Division III with Ascension Episcopal, so the Flyers have had to settle for being the state runner-up in all four years.

In February, Loyola won the prestigious Kelly Gibson Foundation Invitational at Beaver Creek in Baton Rouge. Care to guess who came in second? The team from just down Line Avenue. (Flyer fans will note that Ascension Episcopal finished third.)

Holtzclaw was the medalist in that event; Bell was the runner-up.

“There’s a lot of friendly banter and some trash talk too, which is great,” Duncan said. “They like to compete and actually play for something against your buddies.”

The two coaches got together to come up with the format, and having Daylight Saving Time has allowed for 18 holes to be played in the final round.

“We really use this to put ourselves in the competitive edge,” Duncan said. “We want to be in position where you have to make the pressure putts and you have to hit it down the middle (of the fairway). You can’t replicate that in practice.”

“It’s good to play against players from another team so that we can stay sharp and see what we need to clean up on,” Connor Cassano said. “We’ve got a lot to play for with bragging rights between the schools.”

Both teams hope this is just a step along the way to the state tournament later this month in the Lafayette area.

“We’d like to keep doing it for a few more years,” Duncan said. “Maybe add an event in the fall. Just something fun and something different.”

“It’s great to be competitive and to change up the format,” Connor Cassano said. “It’s cool to play another team in Shreveport with some really good players. They are our friends on the road. But this week, I guess they are our enemies.”

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

Here’s some advice if you are trying to figure out the District 1-5A baseball race.

Don’t.

It’s not like things get turned upside down every week. It’s more like they get turned upside down every other day.

Byrd started off the season with a 1-9 record. But after the first two weeks of the district season, the Yellow Jackets were at the top of the standings at 4-0.

But that was last week.

Now, it’s Natchitoches Central at the top. And Parkway. And Captain Shreve. Oh, and look – there’s Byrd, too, even though the Jackets have lost their last two games.

How about this: Haughton (13-7, 2-4) is currently in seventh place in the district and could be in first place by the time the Easter Bunny shows up Sunday morning. The Bucs have lost three straight games by a total of four runs, but things can change a lot in 48 hours.

“We can all beat each other on any given day,” Captain Shreve coach Todd Sharp said. “There really hasn’t been many surprises because we are all competitive. On any given day, we can all win and we can all lose.”

“It’s a combination of a lot of good baseball teams that are pretty equally matched,” Airline coach Toby Todd said. “One or two pitches can be the difference in sweeping, splitting or getting swept.”

Parkway (14-6, 4-2) got 10-runned by Shreve and then two days later shut the Gators out 5-0. Benton 10-runned Natchitoches Central and then lost to the Chiefs 1-0 two days later. Haughton lost three straight district games by one run and then stranded the tying run at first base Tuesday night in a 5-2 loss.

Airline (9-10, 3-3) scored only four runs in its first four district games – and then scored 41 in the next two.

“If there is anything that has surprised me it’s that I thought that the district would be more offensive,” said Haughton coach Glenn Maynor. “To me, it seems like all the teams have pitched pretty well.”

“Any time you have good pitching, it keeps you in games,” Sharp said. “We lost some offense from last year, but we maintained most of our pitching and that’s what has kept us in games.”

“I was really impressed with Byrd’s pitching,” Todd said. “Not awed, but impressed because they could pitch. They don’t just throw. I’m not slighting them by any means, but I don’t think they had a guy who threw more than 82 (miles an hour). But they threw a lot of strikes and made good pitches when they needed to.”

Most felt that Natchitoches Central (15-3, 4-2) and Benton (16-6, 3-3) were the favorites coming into the season. The Chiefs because of their returning talent and the Tigers because of the depth of their pitching staff. At the end of play on Tuesday, Natchitoches Central is No. 1 in the non-select power rankings in the state and Benton is No. 10. So no surprise there.

However, Todd pointed to Shreve (14-7, 4-2) as being a bit of a surprise.

“I thought they had some holes to fill because of who they lost last year,” Todd said. “I knew their pitching would be good but I didn’t know about their offense. They’ve won some big games so far.”

The basic format of the District 1-5A schedule is set up for games on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Teams played a district opponent in back-to-back games (in effect, a series) and then move on to the next opponent.

Therefore, coaches can’t really stagger their pitching rotation for a particular opponent.  “It’s not a pitcher per team,” Sharp said. “It’s a pitcher per day of the week.”

“We are about to go play Captain Shreve (today and Saturday) and we really don’t have our top two pitchers available,” Byrd coach Greg Williams said. “We were in both games with Benton (8-4 and 5-2 losses in the last week), which is a good thing and a bad thing. You don’t want to chase after a win you may not get, but at the same time, you don’t want to give up on a game to save somebody.”

“There are a lot of years when you go into a series and you feel like you are going to win those games or you feel like there’s a really good chance you are going to lose those games,” Maynor said. “But not this year. Every game we’ve played so far has gone down to the wire.”

Today brings about another Thursday/Saturday series and another potential shift in the standings. It’s also rivalry time; in addition to Byrd-Shreve, Haughton plays Parkway, Airline meets Benton in battles of schools that share district boundaries. Natchitoches Central meets Southwood in the other 1-5A series.

“I don’t think our kids were too concerned when we started off like we did or got too excited when we started off the district like we did,” Williams said. “Our goal is just to try to get a little bit better every day.”

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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When it comes to the “split” in athletics in the Louisiana high school sports, I’m about as anti-split as you can be. I was against it when it first happened and I’ve only become more against it as time has gone by.

The reasons are endless and I won’t get into them here (borderline segregation, stupid, unnecessary, discriminatory, orange-slices-for-everyone mentality … oops, did I say those out loud?) but there’s something else out there that nobody is talking about and could create far more of an “unfair advantage” than anything else the Splitheads ever imagined.

It can be summed up in your favorite three letters:

N.

I.

L.

You probably didn’t notice when the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, in an effort to stay one step ahead of the posse, adopted an NIL policy for high school athletes in 2022. (Yes, you too can give the Pleasant Hill JV point guard $5,000 to come to your sign autographs at your car dealership!)

The posse the LHSAA attempted to stay in front of is both the state legislative bodies as well as other athletic governing bodies in other states. So the LHSAA partnered with something called  Eccker Sports “to provide educational services and resources to help high school leadership and students navigate the challenges that NIL contracts are bringing to high school sports.”

Educate the player. Educate the schools. Educate the parents. OK, fine. Good luck with that. That’s a nice, tidy bow to put around it.

And to be honest, this really hasn’t seemed like much of an issue in the two years since it was adopted. Not sure if anybody has been educated, but OK, we will play along.

What’s going to happen when it starts becoming a real issue?

If the Splitheads thought it was an unfair advantage for “select” schools to have students from outside their attendance zones – which is laughable in the first place because any school, public or private, can get around that in a myriad of ways – then how are they going to react when some proud alum who still has his letter jacket starts financing an entire football team?

It will make the Select/Non-Select division set-up look like a playground version of Red Rover.

Where is the self-righteous indignation over this? What happens when School A flat-out buys a four-star linebacker, School B finances a 6-foot-9 center and School C purchases a left-hander who throws 98? Even worse, what if School D buys all three?

Yes, you are correct; technically the “school” won’t be buying them. Just like the universities aren’t doing that at the collegiate level right now, right? (Wink, wink.)

Get ready for a Select/Didn’t Buy A Wide Receiver state championship game to be played right before the Non-Select/Has Been Known to Give A Truck to A Quarterback game.

Thirty state athletic organizations allow NIL – many because political legislation was imminent – and it’s about to be 31. Mike Bianchi, the fine columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, recently blew a gasket in a column over the fact Florida’s state athletic governing body has drawn up an NIL proposal.

“Sadly, NIL is about to ruin high school football in Florida” was the headline of his March 2 column.

“Is nothing sacred anymore? Is nothing immune from the corruption of money? Can we not have one safe haven from the greedy, cut-throat, win-at-all-cost mentality that has already polluted college and professional sports?”

Appreciate you bringing up those questions, Mike, but we already know those answers.

And if it starts happening in Florida, one of the most high-school-football-mad states in the country, don’t be naïve to think it won’t start spreading to other parts of the country.

Kids have been leaving their original high schools to go somewhere else in the name of a better opportunity for quite a while now. But places such as IMG Academy (coincidentally, located in Florida) have prospered on the concept that they were preparing kids for the next level.

Not anymore.

Combine open enrollment and NIL at the high school level and you’ve got the perfect recipe for an athletic free-for-all that would create a disparity that would make the current split setup look like child’s play.

We are two years into NIL being legitimized by the LHSAA and that explosion hasn’t happened.

Yet.

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

If you had asked Southwood basketball coach Brandon Gultery back in October what he thought the odds would be of his team making it to the Top 28 semifinals, he says his answer would have been rather definitive.

“I would have said to bet the house,” he says now.

Belief then, belief now. Belief on Friday night even when the Cowboys were losing in the final seconds. But all Jeremiah Evans needed was the ball and a chance. His 3-point buzzer beater is why the sixth-seeded Cowboys are in Lake Charles to take on No. 2 seed Liberty in today’s Division I Select semifinal at 2:45 p.m.

They’ve got a star player in Evans, as well as plenty of others who can step up when needed. But what they have most of all, Gultery says, is that one word – belief.

“We have this motto of ‘I believe’,“ he says. “The kids have done a great job since last year of believing we are capable of getting to the Top 28 and winning the state championship. They believe in the coaches, they believe in each other. I think it all starts with the man up above leading us down this path.”

The stunning game-winner Friday night came after the Cowboys had already lost twice to Shreve – their only two losses in the last 12 games – and had to go on the road to avoid having it happen for a third time and ending their season.

Now that is belief.

Down by two points, the 6-foot-8 Evans made a 3-pointer that went through the net with 0.7 seconds to play.

“The kids make plays when it matters, both offensively and defensively,” he says. “There have been times when Jeremiah has been the leading player for us and times when he hasn’t played up to par and the other kids have had to step up,” Gultery says. “It’s been more of a win by committee.”

If so, then one of the committee chairmen would be Kamauri Fleming. “There was a lot of pressure on him in that Captain Shreve (quarterfinal) game,” Gultery says. “They had somewhat  exposed us in the previous games with pressure and he came into that game with a motor. Although Jeremiah gets the praise for hitting the game-winning shot, Kamauri Fleming is the MVP of Friday night’s game.”

This will be Southwood’s first semifinal appearance since 2002 – none of the Cowboys were even born when that happened – but Gultery knows all about it.

“This is my first rodeo of experiencing it as a head coach,” he says. “But I’ve been there as an assistant (at Carroll) and a couple of times as a player at McCall. This is a great thing for our kids and our program. I’m going to be honest; this is the vision we have always had.”

This may seem a little crazy, but is there a chance that the Cowboys might have to guard against a letdown, even though they have achieved something that hasn’t been done at the school in 22 years?

Think about it – it was the ultimate game-winning shot, on the road, against a district rival they had already lost to twice before. How easy is that to put in the rear view mirror?

“In these moments in the playoffs, the focus is on moving on rather than how the results were,” Gultery says. “Regardless of if you win by 30 or by one, a win is a win. And at the end of the night, we were able to prevail and that’s the most important part.”

The 3-point game-winner by Evans, the tallest player on the court, was no surprise to Gultery. “His favorite player is Kevin Durant and he plays like him,” Gultery says. “I told him during the timeout that I trusted him and he trusted himself in that moment.”

There was about 48 hours to enjoy the stunning win, but there’s more business to attend to for the Cowboys.

“We’ve had our eyes set on getting there (to the Top 28),” Gultery says, “but now that we have gotten there, we are looking to finish the deal.”

Believe it.

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

For Byrd girls soccer coach Lisa Levermann, this is just like Game 1 against St. Michael.

Just like Game 11 against St. Louis. Or Game 21 against South Grand Prairie, Texas.

At least, that’s the plan.

And as much as she will try to make it that way, she knows as well as anybody that it really isn’t just like those games.

This is for the state championship. This is why her team played Game 1 and Game 11 and Game 21. And all of the rest of them.

All of that for this: Byrd vs. St. Scholastica for the Division I state championship on Saturday at Strawberry Stadium in Hammond.

“I want them to enjoy the ride,” Leverman said. “There’s a fine line there because you want them to go into it like we have every match. They are very superstitious so we are trying to do everything like we have done from the beginning.

“But I told them,” she added, “things are about to get a little crazy.”

St. Scholastica won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019. Though Byrd was in the finals in 2016, it was 20 years before that since the Lady Jackets brought home the biggest trophy.

That’s a lot to think about, so they’d rather not.

“I’ll try to just focus on the exact moment,” said Natalie Dvorakova of what she’ll be thinking when the opening whistle blows. “At the end of the day, it’s still just a game we have to win. I’m just going to play my game and focus on having fun and enjoying my time on the field.”

Fun is kind of the operative word around the Byrd girls soccer program these days.

“I want them to focus,” Levermann said, “but I want them to enjoy it, too. I want them to know there’s no pressure. They (St. Scholastica) are the No. 4 seed. We have nothing to lose, so I want them to have fun and to play their hardest, no matter what.”

“It is just another game when you are playing it. But in the bigger picture, you know it’s not,” Dvorakova said. “But you have to think that way or the stress will get to you.”

The defense for 11^th-seeded Byrd figures to be a big key in the game. The two teams have already played this year with St. Scholastica winning 3-0 on Dec. 28 at a tournament in Mandeville.

“I’m going to be super excited, but I know I need to keep my composure so we can have fun,” said defender Lauryn Fleming. “I’m proud of our team for getting here.”

“Honestly, I’m going to treat it like a regular game,” said freshman defender Sarah Katherine Murrell. “I don’t want to get my nerves too spiked, so I just need to keep my composure too. It means a lot to be starting on the back line as a freshman. It’s been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Just to get a chance to play for my school and this team at a state championship is a great experience.”

Levermann has been down this road plenty of times – she was the coach in 1996 when Byrd won the title – and she understands that her role as coach means more than just strategy and substitutions.

“I’m just trying to keep calm with them,” she said. “That approach has been working pretty well. so, we are going to have fun, be focused and just enjoy the moment.”

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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Apparently, there was a problem going on in high school baseball that nobody knew was a problem.

Monday night – opening night of the 2024 season – something happened at Cicero Field in the Northwood-Loyola game that caught more than a few people off guard.

In the middle of a plate appearance by a Loyola player, the first base umpire stopped play just before a pitch was thrown.

“Clock violation” was the call.

“That caught me off-guard for sure,” said Northwood coach Austin Alexander.

He wasn’t the only one.

Major League Baseball has a time limit between pitches and innings. So does college baseball.

And now, so does high school baseball.

But in pro and college stadiums, there are countdown clocks strategically placed throughout the facility, so everyone knows when it’s about be an issue. It might be awhile before those start popping up at local baseball facilities.

So how do the umpires keep track? The old-fashioned way – with a stopwatch. Welcome to the modern world of time-limit baseball … with a relic from the past.

We are almost a week into the season and mostly coaches have not found it to be an issue. Even in the case of the Northwood-Loyola game, it was only a warning. (On the next violation, a ball would have been called).

“I don’t think it’s much of a factor,” Alexander said. “We try to get out guys to play fast and set the tone that way. But it’s really going to be to each umpire’s discretion. Some are going to enforce it and some aren’t.

The biggest issue is how it will all be implemented. “I’ve had three games this week,” said Captain Shreve coach Todd Sharp, “and I have to ask the umpires before the game how are these rules going to be implemented. And I get different answers every day. Rules have always been around; I don’t have any problem with rules. It’s more about how they are implemented.”

Most coaches agree that the pitch clock (20 seconds between pitches, even with a runner on base) is not as big of a potential issue as the between-innings clock, which is a 1:20.

“Say I’ve got a catcher trying to leg out a ground ball in the hole and he runs halfway down the line on the third out and we are in the third base dugout,” said Airline’s Toby Todd. “That’s going to be tough to get back and get the equipment on in time.”

Pitchers only get five warmup pitches when they come back to the mound during a game. That’s also a change from before. But what if the catcher hasn’t finished putting his equipment on? Does the pitcher just stand there? Can he lob a few to the third baseman?

There’s another little-known clock rule. When a pitching change is made, the new pitcher only gets eight warmup pitches or 1:20. “I’ve had an umpire tell me by the letter of the law, if he’s only thrown four pitchers in 1:20, that’s it,” Sharp said. “So my question is, if my pitcher goes really fast, can he throw 10 (warmup) pitches? They told me no.”

“This was a non-factor that they tried to make into a factor,” Todd said. “They only thing I see it’s good for is that now it makes the lazy umpires hurry up and get his mask back on.”

Though most coaches say it doesn’t change their approach, there has been an occasional problem in the past with an over-abundance of sign giving. Either coaches are trying to disguise their signs as if a bevy of Russian spies are in the stands or the players stare back and have no idea what belt-hat-belt is supposed to mean.

“A lot of these kids play travel ball during the summer,” Todd said, “so they aren’t used to seeing a take sign anyway.”

“For this area, I don’t think it was necessary, but I’m sure it was in other areas so we are all going to have to deal with it,” Sharp said. “Mostly, the umpires tell me they aren’t looking to do this (calling violations). They are just making you aware of it.” 

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

There are a lot of things that stand out about Byrd’s MyJoi Anderson, but you have probably guessed what is at the top of the list.

“I get asked about my name a lot,” Anderson said. “I’m my mother’s only child, so I guess it really meant a lot to her.”

She also means a lot to the Byrd girls soccer team as Anderson leads the Jackets into the Division I semifinals.

The 11^th-seeded Jackets will get a shot at their first trip to the state finals since 2016 when they play host to 18^th-seeded Barbe Saturday at 2:30 at the Byrd soccer field.

Anderson is one of the team’s top scorers, but it hasn’t been an easy road. She was ineligible as a freshman and then broke her ankle during her sophomore year in a game against Loyola.

She and Loyola defender Mary Helen Burford tangled near the net and as both made a play on the ball, the two crashed into each other. “A really common play you see near the goal,” Loyola coach Mark Matlock said. “Just an unfortunate thing.”

Surgery was required for Anderson and she spent three months in a cast, but her recovery did not come as a surprise to Byrd head coach Lisa Leverman.

“She’s that worker you can’t get off the field,” the coach said. “When you see someone get an injury like that, sometimes their head is not in a good space and they can really crumble. She never did. She just went straight to work. Everything she had to do to make herself stronger, she did and always had a positive attitude.”

But the road to soccer success started for Anderson back when she wasn’t even able to play on the varsity.

“I feel like only being able to play JV my freshman year showed me I was good enough to play on varsity as if I was eligible,” Anderson said. “It was a hard time but I still pushed through.”

Playing JV may have been an enlightening experience for Anderson, but it was a miserable one for Byrd’s opponents.

“I had JV coaches so mad at me for playing her,” Leverman said. “They’d say ‘why do you have her on this team?’ But I said ‘Give her a break. She has nowhere else to play.’ If she had been on varsity, I never would have had her play JV. But why should I penalize her?  Then she would have nowhere to play at all.”

These days, opposing coaches are still finding out what a force she can be.

“She’s a really strong and runs really well and that makes her tough to knock off the ball,” Matlock said. “She attacks with the ball and is a really good finisher.”

“Once she powers through, there’s no catching her,” said Leverman, who coached Anderson as an academy player at the youth level. “She just has that explosive speed. And she works hard on her craft to try to be the best she can be.”

But if you ask Anderson, she’ll tell you the strength of her game is less obvious. “Just being confident and knowing when to do certain things and being confident in my teammates as well,” she said.

“She’s just as sweet as she can be,” Leverman said. “She has that sweet, soft voice and there is not a mean bone in her body. But when she gets out there to play, she gets this mindset and goes to another level.”

It’s been a rare under-the-radar season for the Jackets. Anderson was still in pre-kindergarten the last time Byrd was seeded this low (2011).

Getting the win over Captain Shreve earlier this week in the quarterfinals was especially sweet for Anderson and the Jackets since it came against a district rival and also overcame something of a playoff roadblock. Byrd had lost its last four quarterfinal appearances (all as single-digit seeds.)

“It was sweet because earlier in the season we kind of got destroyed (5-1) by them,” Anderson said. “It was nice to get revenge and show who we really are. We were more confident than before and trusted each other.”

This will be the second meeting of the season between Byrd and Barbe. The Jackets took the first one 3-1 in December in Lake Charles.

“I know that we are a different team than when we played them, so J know Barbe has got to be different by now too,” Leverman said. “They’ve got to be doing something right, because they are here too.” 

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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If you were watching last week’s Super Bowl as the somewhat chaotic nature of the overtime period was unfolding and thought to yourself that even high school players and coaches know better, you were right.

“When I was watching the overtime and they (the San Francisco 49ers) took the ball to start, I told my wife ‘What are they doing?’ “ said Calvary head coach Rodney Guin. “I couldn’t believe it.”

It is common practice in all levels of overtime football to play defense at the start for two reasons. First is know what your offense needs to do once it gets on the field and second is the advantage of having a fourth down to do whatever it takes to either try to score to tie the game or win it. Going first can force a special teams play instead … or a gutsy call that can be easily second guessed.

That San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan fell on the sword of analytics as his reason to go on offense raised more than a few eyebrows.

That wasn’t the only point of the Super Bowl discussion that seemed to be rather high school-ish. The other came afterward, when some of the 49ers said they didn’t know the overtime rules had changed.

“I didn’t know the rule had changed,” said Huntington’s Stephen Dennis.

“Now, I’ll admit, I didn’t know that,” Guin said. “But I don’t coach in that league either.”

“Don’t they have about 1,000 coaches on their staff?” said Haughton’s Jason Brotherton. “I was telling our guys the other day that if there was ever a rule I wasn’t sure about, there’s enough guys on our headsets (in a game) that I  could say ‘Look this up really quick.’”

Which is exactly the point. These guys don’t get paid to know NFL rules. On Sundays, they are just like you and I.

But they do know the high school rules of overtime – more about that in a moment – and they make sure their players know them too.

“Oh yeah,” Guin said. “One of the first things we talk about every year. And numerous times during the year.”

“I think most coaches have a day or a week sometimes when you just work on situational things (like overtime),” Brotherton said. “Maybe not the 49ers.”

“In high school, they put out a new rule book every year, so you have to keep up because things change,” Dennis said. “In overtime, there is still time before it begins to go over it with them. But the kids are smarter than we give them credit for.”

Overtime is not typically on a high school football coach’s radar. Brotherton just finished his eighth year with the Buccaneers and the first time he ever had an overtime game was this year. And he got his money’s worth, since it was double overtime against Many.

In the seven years Guin has been at Calvary, he’s only had one overtime game and that was a semifinal playoff against Ouachita Christian.

Not helping the confusion to the casual fan is that there are three different styles of overtime for three different levels of football. The NFL has tinkered with its model for years but now ensures that both teams get a chance with the ball.

In college, each team gets the ball at the opposing 25-yard line, but in Louisiana high school football, the ball is placed on the opposing 10-yard line. That rule was adopted in the late 1970s and hasn’t changed.

“I haven’t even heard any discussion about (changing) it,” said Guin, who just completed his 23^rd year overall as a head coach.

Which is a bit of a problem for modern prep football. Putting the ball 10 yards from the end zone sounded like a good idea in the ground-and-pound ‘70s, but football is a lot different now.

“The game is much more wide open now and most high schools are running a spread offense,” Brotherton said. “Putting the ball on the 25 in overtime would make it more open on offense and you’d have to defend more of the field.”

“At the end of the day, you are going to have to stop them and you are going to have to score,” Dennis said. “No matter what the analytics say.”

Somebody pass that along to San Francisco.

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

You might think that shadows would be a problem for Parkway’s Chloe Larry.

There is the shadow of being in a family filled with high-level athletes: A father who played baseball at UL-Lafayette and was drafted in the 19^th round by the New York Yankees. A brother who plays baseball at Mississippi State. Another brother who was a three-sport star at Parkway and once scored six touchdowns in a game.

That’s a pretty big shadow to follow.

“They have had a lot of influence on me,” Larry said. “They are always pushing me in the gym, or working on the track, or wherever it is, they are pushing me.

Then there is the shadow of being a former teammate of Mikayla Williams, who was All-World last year on the Parkway girls basketball team and now doing the same at LSU this season.

Another shadow.

“She was so competitive and was able to help me grow on the court,” Larry said. “I don’t feel like I was in her shadow. I’ve been playing basketball with her all my life, so it felt like it was just me and her out there.”

No, it doesn’t seemed as if Chloe Larry isn’t all that worried about being in anyone’s shadow.

It’s her own shadow that’s the story these days. And she casts a lot of them.

As the starting point guard for the Parkway girls basketball team that is ranked among the best in the state, Larry is the one every opponent tries to stop. Few can; she’s averaging about a 20 per game. She was on the Shreveport Bossier Journal’s All Metro team as a junior, and made the All-State second team.

She’s also an All-State softball player. She hit .643 as a sophomore with seven home runs. There’s another shadow.

Hang on, there’s more.

Legend has it that Parkway was looking for a student to throw the javelin on the track team, so someone stopped by the softball field to see if anyone wanted to give it a shot. Someone did — Chloe Larry. She’s now the school record holder at 131 feet.

“She’s just a natural athlete, no matter what she does,” said Parkway assistant football and track coach Dillon Jackson. “She’s great at everything. She’s probably one of the best female athletes I’ve ever been around.”

But you would never know it.

The words you hear that describe Larry are “quiet,” “shy” and “reserved.” Perhaps a better array would be polite, thoughtful and pleasant.

The Panthers are 25-6 and haven’t lost since 2023 turned into 2024. They are 14-0 in the district and a potential Top 5 seed, but will have a crucial matchup tonight to end the regular season when they play at second-place Haughton (27-5).

Coming off a state championship last year, Larry has not been surprised at the Panthers’ success, but knew she would have to take on a new role.

“It’s really been about sticking to the plan and executing it,” she said. “I knew it would be a little bit harder in moving into a leadership role and getting the team to come together and play as a whole. When things go wrong, I just try to lead by example.”

Larry still has a couple sports season to go after basketball, but she is looking forward to continuing her athletic career at Tennessee Tech.

And her No. 1 goal of her senior year?

“Finish with a 4.0,” she said.

And beyond that?

“Win state, of course, have a good season in softball and beat my record in javelin,” she said. 

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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It was a very subtle move that occurred at the annual meeting of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association last week, but it does make you wonder if it is a harbinger of things to come.

After years of annual meetings that were often contentious – and that’s being kind – the 2024 version was about as bland as it could have been.

But there was this little nugget: Class B and Class C both voted to “come back together” for playoff competition in the sports in which had previously been split (basketball, baseball and softball).

No more Select or non-Select brackets. No more playing one group of teams during the regular season and another in the post-season.

What a novel concept!

The move by Class B and C to “un-split” hardly registered because those are two classifications that don’t play football.

But it does make you wonder if the iceberg is thawing in other classes.

Depends on who you talk to.

First of all – and most importantly — nothing is going to happen overnight, although there was some selective outrage when the playoff format was tweaked shortly after the start of the season.

Despite that, everyone seemed to survive, amazingly enough, and just for good measure, the LHSAA went ahead and passed legislation that ensured that all amendments and/or rule changes can only take effect on July 1.

It is interesting to discover a move away the split, no matter who it involves. Remember, a vote by Ebarb High School counts the same as a vote by Barbe High School when it comes to LHSAA legislation.

The split that occurred in 2012 might have seemed like a great idea to the majority of principals who voted for it at that time. And every time a proposal would come up to change it, the voices against would get louder.

Except nobody is shouting anymore. These days, the split is viewed more as the status quo than something that is an absolute must for sake of “fair” competition.

No matter how ludicrous that might seem to those who are not voting members of the LHSAA.

No matter how many teams qualify for the playoffs. Even those who didn’t win a game in the regular season.

No matter how silly it has seemed to play in one district with similar enrollments and then play a school more than twice as large in the playoffs.

No matter how many everybody-gets-a-trophy-and-an-orange-slice state champions are crowned.

Sorry … got a little wound up there for a second.

There are also sidebar issues at play here, especially one that would place teams in district based on their division (as soccer currently does). But there were some procedural matters that prevented those from even being discussed at the annual meeting.

No organization can table an issue for later like the LHSAA, but the move Class B and C does make you wonder where it goes from here.

The split in 2012 may have happened with a bang, so it seems perfectly logical to think that if it were to go away, it would happen in far less dramatic fashion.

And who would have guessed that it if it does somewhere down the line, it would be the smallest schools in the state who got the momentum started.

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

Loyola’s Hudson Moore is both a goalkeeper in soccer and a pitcher for the Flyer baseball team. On the list of pressure-filled positions in sports, those two are certainly very near the top.

In neither sport would negative thoughts be a good idea to have, but what the heck, let’s do a little bad mojo comparison.

Which is worse for a keeper/pitcher: To turn around and see the ball in the net or to see the ball flying over the fence?

“Going over the fence,” the Flyer junior said. “I feel like you can snap back from a goal, but a home run would be tough.”

But he is quick to add, “I’ve never given up a home run, so I don’t really know.”

He can worry about that in due time. For now, he’s got some net-minding duties on his mind as the Flyers open play in the Division IV soccer playoffs today at 5 p.m. when they take on Westminster Christian (Opelousas) at Messmer Stadium.

The Flyers are the No. 6 seed after winning the district title and they followed that with one of the biggest wins of the year when they defeated Bossier 1-0 to close the regular season.

Moore put on a one-man show in that contest, stopping 18 shots on goal to post a shutout over the No. 4 seed in Division III.

“The Bossier game was one of the games of my career,” Moore said. “I really wanted to beat Bossier because we lost to them the last two years.”

“He’s an exceptional talent,” said Loyola soccer coach Wes Kyle. “He’s athletically gifted and a great teammate. He’s just a special player, but one who is still learning to play soccer. His athletic ability has allowed him to do things that a lot of kids who have been playing that position for years still can’t do.”

In 18 of Loyola’s 21 matches, Moore either has a shutout or given up only one goal.

“I put a lot of training in this summer and worked on fundamentals,” he said. “I think about the game more analytically. I feel like I predict what’s going to happen more than other people do.”

As a sophomore in baseball, Moore was buried at the end of the bench in the first half of the season, but when he got his chance, he didn’t allow an earned run for his first 11 innings of varsity competition (against four playoff teams). Opposing players batted .094 against him in the ’23 season.

He’s expected to be a mainstay for the Flyers once baseball season comes around and he’s already preparing for that when soccer season is over.

“I stick to the one (sport) that the season is in, but I keep up with both,” Moore said. “Right now, I’m doing some throwing (for baseball) and during baseball season I’ll do some kicking every now and then to keep my legs in shape. I like them both equally. I like the game of baseball more but I like the relationships of soccer more.”

His performance against Bossier is not Moore’s first brush with notoriety. On June 30, he was attending a game between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets at Citi Field when, seated down the left field line, he reached for a ball that he thought was foul.

It wasn’t.

Fan interference was called – costing the Mets a run — and suddenly Moore was feeling the wrath of the Mets and about 30,000 fans. It didn’t help that Moore was wearing a Giants jersey at the time. (Not surprising:  Moore’s grandfather Loy and great uncle Taylor were part of the ownership group of the Giants’ AA affiliate in Shreveport during the 1980s and ‘90s.)

In a scene that you don’t see every day, San Francisco rookie leftfielder Blake Sabol went over to the stands and consoled Moore as the Mets’ faithful voiced their displeasure. After the game, Moore got to meet Sabol and the two got together for a video that went nuts on social media. 

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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You can trust the numbers or you can trust your eyes, but either way there is one undeniable fact – the talent level of local girls basketball isn’t what it has been in the past.

Mikayla Williams, notwithstanding.

She was an extraordinary talent during her career at Parkway and has continued that at LSU as a freshman. And to be sure, the Panthers, the defending state champs in Division I, continue to be one of best teams again this year.

But they beat Captain Shreve last week by 48 points. And Shreve has won two of the last five state championships as a Division I school.

A local Class 5A team has lost 54-5 and 62-7 already this season. There was a District 1-4A game last week in which the final score was 85-6.

Everywhere you look, there are mismatches.

And even in places where there aren’t mismatches, you still aren’t seeing the quality of basketball you were once did.

In District 1-2A, where there are four Caddo Parish schools, some team is more than likely going to win the district with a losing overall record. One team in that district hasn’t won a game all year. None of six teams are currently anywhere close to .500 right now with a week to go in the regular season before the district tournament begins.

Three years ago, three of the quarterfinalists in Class 5A were from Caddo/Bossier Parishes and two more made the Class 4A quarters.

“The quality isn’t what it was,” said a former state championship coach. “There’s no doubt about it.”

This is more than a things-were-better-in-my day statement. Take a look at the scores in general. Without going all in-depth analytical data on you, points at are a premium these days in girls basketball.

There have always been haves and have-nots, but the margins of victory keep getting greater and greater. Non-competitive games are far more common than they once were.

Depth, or lack thereof, is a huge problem. Coaches are having trouble simply filling out rosters. The available talent pool just keeps shrinking.

OK, enough of the sordid details. How did this happen?

Ask around and you’ll hear a couple of reasons why (and, get prepared to discover that one of them is something no one will be happy to find out).

First is the presence of volleyball. The sport, which barely existed in northwest Louisiana two decades ago, has undergone such a growth that you’d swear that it’s pickleball’s cousin.

Some local high schools have varsity, JV and freshman volleyball teams and that season (which is played in the fall) does overlap into basketball season. It’s not impossible to play both, but it is fairly uncommon.

Meanwhile, there are girls basketball programs that don’t even have freshmen or JV teams or if they do, it’s likely to be almost the same roster for both.

The other reason that’s been tossed around is – wait for it – social media. There is the thought that it’s much more fun to make a TikTok than to run line drills once basketball practice is over. Draining a 3-pointer might be nice, but receiving a juicy Snapchat? Now that’s a day-maker!

Is this a problem as well for boys basketball, which does not have volleyball to compete for prospective players? “Not as much right now,” said one athletic director. “But you never know.” 

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

One group is trying to get to the end of the season. The other is just trying to get started.

But when it comes to high school athletics these days, both groups are facing the same problem – weather.

Not that you need to be reminded, but a week of dealing with ice and snow has been followed a week of rain that only Noah would be proud of. But building an ark is nothing compared to what soccer, baseball and softball coaches are having to deal with.

High school soccer players and coaches are among the bravest athletes on the planets because there is never good weather; they are just happy to have not-as-bad-as-usual weather.

But this latest bit of meteorological mess has upped that a few notches.

“We are used to this,” said Loyola veteran girls coach Mark Matlock. “But the toughest part is getting these district games in that you have to play to qualify for the playoffs.”

The soccer regular season ends Monday and the playoffs begin later in the week. Nothing changes like a high school soccer schedule, but the timing in this case couldn’t be worse.

“Everybody has been scrambling,” Matlock said. “The weather has been so bad that even the turf fields can be unplayable.”

Even when games do get played, you never quite know what’s going to happen.

“Even with turf fields and especially new ones like ours, it still impacts the game when you have a deluge like this,” said Adam Hester, who coaches both the boys and girls at Calvary. “The ball is harder to control, it’s harder to move downfield and harder to play like you’d like to play.”

Bad weather and/or field conditions can also balance out any competitive advantage a team may have. “Teams that are more skilled aren’t able to do what they do best,” said Hester.

Meanwhile, baseball and softball coaches aren’t worried about doing what they do best. At this point, they just want to do anything.

And there is no better example of that than at Northwood. If you want to count the number of times Falcons’ baseball coach Austin Alexander has had his team work out on the field since January 11, you can stop at zero.

As if that weren’t tough enough, Alexander is faced with the problem of Northwood High School being closed due to water pressure issues in north Shreveport. He’s happy just to see his players, much less practice with them.

“You just have to creative with what you have with your facilities,” Alexander said. “You just try to do something productive so that you can try to get better.”

There are a few schools – Airline, Loyola, Byrd and Captain Shreve, for example – that have indoor batting cages or those that are basically enclosed from the weather. Northwood’s cages are covered, but not enclosed.

“We throw bullpens in the cage, but it’s still wet in there,” Alexander said. “We got to the gym and try to do some defensive stuff. But it’s challenging for sure.”

“What have we had, 72 hours of rain with no end in sight?” said Airline baseball coach Toby Todd. “But we are fortunate because we have an indoor facility that we get to take batting practice and we get to throw (bull)pens. We don’t have to go into the gym like some schools and hit whiffle balls.”

Todd looked back at last year’s practice schedule to compare to this year. He saw that his team last year did base running, bunt coverage, individual fielding drills and had a scrimmage on this date. “This year, the freshmen hit (in the cage), the sophomores hit and the juniors and seniors hit,” he said. “That was it.”

Matlock said the weather has forced his preparation pendulum to swing in the opposite direction. Before, his team might do the majority of its work between games on the field and a little in film study, but it’s now the other way around.

“We’ve really just been in the locker room studying teams that we might have a chance to see in the playoffs,” he said. “They (the players) know we are going to be there, it’s just a matter of whether it’s inside or outside.”

In order to get in practice time, Hester and the Cavaliers rented an indoor soccer facility, but even that can be a logistical nightmare.

“Some of the kids can drive, some can’t so I’ll have to transport them,” he said. “There are boys who also can’t drive, so they have to ride along but they don’t practice until an hour later when all the boys who can drive will show up. You’d like to practice two hours with each, but you only get an hour with each. Plus you have to pay for it.”

“The kids have to learn how to practice,” Alexander said. “If you can get them to buy into that and focus on what they are doing, that helps.”

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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