BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
The championship celebration Friday that Opelousas Catholic baseball coach Justin Boyd had always anticipated was also stitched into a multigenerational school legacy that stretched back across four decades and three generations.
As his top-seeded OCS players lifted a long-awaited state baseball title trophy Friday beyond the baselines Friday at McMurry Field, Boyd couldn’t help but think about the personal uniqueness of the scene he was experiencing.
Not only had the 10-0 victory over Glenbrook School sealed a Division IV-select championship – the first since the school was renamed Opelousas Catholic – but Boyd admitted that there was also more than a bit of family heritage involved.
Witnessing the state tournament finale that lasted only five innings was former AIC all-state pitcher Willie Boyd, the father of Justin Boyd.
Then there was OCS infielder starter Beckett Boyd, the son of Justin Boyd, who was also there on the postgame field, capturing a slice of the elation shared by his teammates.
“It’s crazy to think about it, but it was really great to be in that situation (on Friday) where you had members of my family together that have been part of baseball for so long at this school,” said Justin Boyd, a former OCS catcher.
Willie Boyd was the winning pitcher in the 1969 and 1970 state championship games when the school known then as The Academy of The Immaculate Conception won successive state baseball titles under coach Mickey Mills.
“To have my dad there who has been at almost every one of the games I’ve coached and have Beckett there too as a player on this championship team, is something that you will always remember and how special it was,” Justin Boyd said.
The Championship Run
OCS began the 2024 season with substantial expectations, as three starters, Mark Collins (UL-Lafayette), Deontre Henry (Miles College) and Jordan Luna (LSU-Eunice) announced they were signing college baseball scholarships.
Then just a month before the end of the season, pitcher Taylor Hollier indicated he was signing with Baton Rouge Community College.
Luna, who has started at shortstop, pitched all five shutout innings in the win over Glenbrook, while Hollier and Zack Collins combined for a three-run shutout on Tuesday afternoon against Central Catholic.
The Vikings were seeded No. 1 during the 2024 postseason and then won the four necessary games to capture the title.
In 2023 OCS lost to top-seeded Ouachita Christian in the D-IV select semifinal, while losing in the state final games in 2021 and 2019.
Boyd said the Vikings were more prepared to win the final two games of the season after defeating No. 8 St. Frederick’s of Monroe 9-5 last Saturday.
“We were facing a really good team and we had to face a challenge and then battle back. I think after that we were locked into what we needed to do,” said Boud.
In that quarterfinal game against St. Frederick’s, OCS trailed 4-0 after the first inning and then recalibrated to qualify for the state tournament.
“Every year we start out with the goal of winning a state championship. This was a special group of kid that had played a lot of baseball together as far back as they could remember. They have been involved in baseball for a long time.
“All year we got a lot of support, whether it was from our younger players, the parents, former (OCS) players who had been part of the program and alumni, to those who just came out and supported us. We had a lot of things going for us, including an amazing group of assistant coaches,” Boyd said.
Boyd said it was sometimes difficult to make the 16 end-of-the-year speeches to his teams that had lost a playoff game, but on Friday the tone of his final address to his players was different.
“I sort of didn’t know what to say at first, but this is the kind of talk that you always dream about making with a team that will always be that special group,” Boyd sai
