Clash of Boerne ISD baseball teams was a memorable one

BOERNE SPORTS

Before Tuesday’s baseball game between Boerne High and Boerne Champion went into the record books with a 1-0 win by the Greyhounds, the teams took a picture together near the pitcher’s mound.

It marked the first of what will probably be many meetings between the two over the years as has been the case with a lot of sports this year since both schools are now in the same classification for the first time in 16 years.

The schools had previously been in the same soccer and swim districts and ran against each other at various track and cross country meets and played at the same golf tournaments, but this year has seen their first competition against each other in volleyball, water polo, basketball, softball and baseball. (The tennis teams played once before this year in a Northside tournament.)

Boerne High baseball coach Geoff Curtin said the picture they took will probably be remembered for a long time.

“We took a picture together pregame, which was pretty cool. I told the kids, ‘this picture is going to be up, probably forever, and you guys are going to be the ones in it,” he said. “When you’re your grandparents age you can say, ‘I played in the first game against Champion.’ That’s kind of when it set in for me, it was cool to be part of it.”

Chargers coach Ben Woodchick said it was an historically significant night.

“This is a big deal,” he said. “It was a special night for both sides.”

It was a big deal not just because it was their first time meeting, but also because of how the game played out. It was 0-0 at the end of seven innings and it ended at 1-0 in extra innings.

Woodchick’s assistant at Champion, John Uecker, is a Greyhound graduate and played and coached on that field. In fact, Uecker was the assistant for the Boerne baseball team when they won state in 2004, and there he was on the visitor’s side dugout on Tuesday, probably for the first time in his life.

There was a paid attendance of 576 at the gate on Tuesday, but part of the crowd went to watch the softball game. Still, counting passes to coaches and others, it’s safe to say there was a crowd of more than 500 to watch that first baseball game between the two BISD schools.

The Chargers and Greyhounds have now played against each other in every sport except football. It may happen if they’re ever put in the same district.

Imagine the crowd for that first football game, what a historic night that would be.