Louisiana team looking to repeat coaches’ success in American Legion World Series

When Bossier City (La.) Post 202 begins the American Legion World Series on Thursday, it’ll be one of four first-time participants in the longest-running youth baseball championship event in the country.

But while the team may be a newcomer, its head coach and two of his assistants are well-schooled in what it takes to win the title.

Bossier City head coach Dane Peavy and assistant coaches Jonathan Boucher and Jonathan Orr were a part of the 2016 Texarkana (Ark.) Razorbacks’ ALWS title run in which the team had to sweep rival Bryant (Ark.) twice on the final day of the Arkansas state tournament and lost its opener in both the Mid-South regional and ALWS before rallying back to win their state’s first-ever championship.

In the 2016 championship game, a vocal crowd of 8,496 — many of them rooting for nearby Rowan County (N.C.) — saw Rowan roar ahead 4-0 after four innings before Texarkana knotted the score in the top of the fifth before scoring four more runs in the top of the 12th inning and surviving a Rowan County rally for an 8-6 victory.

In a 2021 interview discussing the team, Peavy marveled at his team’s resolve.

“The players had to have the confidence that they belonged there, that they could compete there, and they could win there,” Peavy said. “And you could tell their confidence grew each day. And that we were not going to be denied in certain situations. We ended up being behind in every game that we played. And we ended up making a comeback in every game that we played.

“Our guys are the true epitome of resilience.”

This season, Bossier City Phillies are in only their second year after restarting a program that advanced to the Mid-South Regional in 1997 and 2007 before shutting down.

“They had teams before, but coach Peavy had the idea of starting it up again,” Boucher said. “Things have just kind of turned around. Our first experience was awesome. Making the World Series once in ‘16 was great. But getting to come back to do it with another team is really special.”

Bossier City has done so by overcoming some of the same type of adversity Texarkana overcame in 2016.

In the Louisiana state tournament, a second-day loss meant the Phillies had to knock off perennial power New Orleans Retief Oil twice to win the state title and advance to the Mid-South Regional in Washington, Mo.

And in the Mid-South regional, another second day loss, this time to Bryant, meant Bossier City had to win four straight games to earn a berth in the 2024 ALWS.

Regional MVP Cade Bryant picked up two pitching victories in the regional with Easton Sanders getting the win by a 5-3 score over Tupelo (Miss.) in the final.

“I know when we sat down before the season, we felt like we had a good shot to be good,” Boucher said of the discussions he and the coaching staff had in the preseason. “We looked at this roster and having been here and winning it, we felt like we could stack up well and would have an opportunity to make another run.”

Boucher said the adversity his team has already faced in its state tournament and then the regional should help his team in the ALWS.

“Obviously, we knew in the state of Louisiana that we had our hands full,” Boucher said. “We just took it one day at a time.

“Then the Mid-South was tough. We had to beat Tupelo twice and they were really good. We ran into Bryant and we know how good they are with coach Darren Hart. They play a good brand of baseball.

“Our kids just battled and found a way to win.”

Bossier City’s pool play schedule (all times ET):

Aug. 15: vs. Midland (Mich.) Post 165, 1 p.m.

Aug. 17: vs. Billings Scarlets (Mont.) Post 4, 7:30 p.m.

Aug. 18: vs. Wilmington Delvets (Del.) Post 1, 4 p.m.