By T. Scott Boatright
Experience matters when a high school team plays in a state softball tournament.
The Choudrant Lady Aggies have one B title championship under their belts – the 2010 Class B state title they won by defeating Avoyelles Charter 5-4.
But second-year Lady Aggies head coach Wayne Antley will be guiding a team into the state tournament for the 10th time in his career today as the ninth-seeded Lady Aggies take on fourth-seeded Converse at noon today at the North Frasch Softball Complex in Sulphur.
And Antley hopes his past experiences as a longtime head coach at the old Downsville High School can help his Lady Aggies march to the Division V Nonselect School championship game on Saturday.
“We won state in 1991 and ‘95,” Antley said of his years coaching at Downsville. “And we went to state when my daughter was a junior, which would have been in 2008. That’s the last time I went (to the state tournament).”
Antley said the game of girls high school softball has changed since those days.
“Back in 1991 and ‘95, pitching was it,” Antley said. “If you had a good pitcher, you could go to state. Those teams at Downsville had good pitchers and could hit. And that was the game in those days – hitting and pitching.
Katie Batterton, whose sons are students at Choudrant High School, played softball for Antley when she attended Downsville High School in the early to mid 1990s.
“Wayne Antley was my coach throughout high school and in 1995 our team won the state championship,” Batterton said. “I knew from the moment I heard he was the new head coach at Choudrant along with Stacey Tassin that they would be in the finals one day.”
Batterton said it’s Antley’s people skills that has helped make him such a successful coach.
“I think his success comes from knowing the game well and most importantly knowing the players well,” Batterton said. “He knows what his players are capable of, and he places them in positions and gives them plays to accomplish it. He was very laid back and always dealt with the girl drama well. He had a quiet strength that we were able to draw from.
“He always believed in me even when I may not have believed in myself. He was a great coach to play for because he never made me feel inadequate or not good enough. He put value in working as a team and brought the best out in all of us. I loved playing for him. He will forever be one of my favorite people and a person who had a big impact on my life.”
CHS senior Mattie Johnson played for the Lady Aggies in eighth grade under head coach Joy Thomas. Then William Bandy took over the team for three years before Antley took over the Choudrant softball program.
“It’s the confidence he has in our ability to play, we feed on that,” Johnson said of what Antley taking over the program has meant to the Lady Aggies. “He can be hard on us, but he also lets us have fun with it. He knows we know what we’re doing, and that confidence helps us show off our abilities.”
“It’s exciting because we haven’t gone to state in so long. Hopefully Coach Antley can guide us to the state championship game on Saturday,
Fellow Lady Aggies senior Elyssa Guillotte said the winning difference for the Lady Aggies has come with Antley’s coaching demeanor.
“He’s made a big difference,” Guillotte said. “He knows how to have fun with us, but he also knows how to be hard on us in a way that’s not demeaning to our character. It’s constructive criticism instead of just tearing us down.”
Antley, who got his coaching start at Montgomery High School coaching boys basketball and baseball before moving to Marion and starting the softball program there, says his coaching demeanor has changed over time.
“Everybody tells me I have mellowed,” Antley admitted. “My daughter tells me that all the time. She’ll see a play and will tell me later, ‘Dad, if one of us had done that you would have gone off. I guess I’m old enough that I don’t want to hurt their feelings anymore.
“I coached boys for four years after my daughter graduated in ‘08. I was tough on them still. But then when I went back to girls I just kind of slacked off – not as mean as I used to be.”
Antley hopes his past state tournament experiences at Pelican Park in Carencro, in Alexandria and in Sulphur will pay off for his Lady Aggies.
“At least I know what to expect,” Antley said. “I hope that last game we played against Holden and the environment and atmosphere we had during that one will help us in Sulphur. The players know what it’s like to win a big game now, but they’re not really going to know what it’s going to be like down there until they walk out onto that field in Sulphur (today).”
Antley also served a short coaching stint at Simsboro before realizing that a short try at retirement just wasn’t the right thing for him at this point, leading him to take over the Lady Aggies program two years ago.
“After sitting out I realized that I missed the girls, and the competition,” said Antley, the older brother of newly retired Aggies baseball coach Tony Antley and cousin of current CHS baseball coach Joel Antley. “I love the competition. It was like I was lost for a while without the competition. I compete at anything and everything. If we go fishing, I compete.
“And this bunch of girls we have on this team this year, they’re very competitive. Very competitive. They get after it.”
He also admitted that competition is the force behind the Antley coaching bloodline.
“My daughter has coached at Downsville, and at Beekman (Charter) some,” Antley said. “It’s a family thing I guess. We all enjoy it. Being around these teenagers and athletics keeps you young. You see so many people retire but don’t really enjoy it much.”
Antley had his Lady Aggies practicing on artificial turf this week to prepare for today’s semifinals game.
“We practiced at Ruston’s field at the Sports Complex the past couple of days,” He said. “Then we practiced at Louisiana Tech on Wednesday just to get a touch of some different turf.”
Antley said he’s confident his team will play well at the state tournament.
His players feel the same.
“We’re feeling really confident,” Gullotte said. “We really want this win. We want it for us. We want it for our fans and supporters, and we want it for Coach Antley, too.”
