Today: Individual awards
Friday: The RPJ’s All-Parish Team
By BRET H. MCCORMICK
Olivia Henry didn’t get the dream ending to her high school softball career.
After pitching Buckeye to back-to-back state championships, Henry and the Lady Panthers came up one victory shy of a three-peat as they fell to Vandebilt Catholic in the Division II Select state championship game.
It’s one of the few times that Henry didn’t get the storybook ending during her illustrious career.
That loss didn’t diminish a standout senior season or legendary career for Henry, who adds the Outstanding Player award for the Rapides Parish Journal’s 2024 All-Parish Softball Team to a list of accolades that includes all-state honors, state titles, an all-star selection and a softball scholarship to Southeastern Louisiana University.
Henry continued her stellar two-way play in 2024, posting a 19-5 record in the circle with a 0.93 ERA and 182 strikeouts. While she made her mark with a gritty, tough-nosed approach as a pitcher, Henry also brought that same fierce competitiveness into the batter’s box for the Lady Panthers.
Batting in the No. 3 hole as a designated player even when she wasn’t pitching, Henry hit .477 on the season with one home run, 13 doubles, four triples and 30 RBIs.
Henry said she doesn’t play softball to win awards, and she tries to avoid talking about her ERA or her batting average because she doesn’t want her numbers to define her.
“I don’t think about that stuff throughout the season,” she said.
But she admitted the postseason recognition is nice, especially “knowing all the hours I put in behind the scenes.”
Henry concluded her career as one of the all-time greats, if not the greatest, to ever wear a Buckeye Lady Panther softball uniform. She finished with a record of 64-27, 2.03 ERA, seven saves and 724 strikeouts over the past four seasons. At the plate, she batted .396 with five homers, five triples, 54 doubles and 117 RBIs.
There has been a lot of talk about Henry’s legacy recently and where she sits among Buckeye’s all-time greats. She said what matters most is what she did off the field.
“I hope people remember the kind of person I was over the kind of player that I am,” Henry said. “I hope that they remember that I always put God first and put my family second. I just hope they always know that when I was out there I was a good teammate and a good leader.”
While Henry and the Lady Panthers were unable to win another title in 2024, Grace Christian coach Mark Rosier and his Lady Warriors finished the job for the first time in school history.
Rosier, no stranger to softball success during a lengthy coaching career that includes two state titles at Oak Hill as well as stops at Alexandria Senior High, Buckeye and Louisiana Christian (then Louisiana College), finally got Grace into a championship game, and the Lady Warriors lifted the trophy for the first time after knocking on the door for years.
In just his second year at the Class B school located on Jackson Street in Alexandria, Rosier brought a young squad that was missing its best pitcher to Sulphur last year and used the lessons learned in that loss to propel the Lady Warriors into 2024.
Riding the return of junior pitcher Rylee Guillot from injury as well as a productive lineup the featured just one senior in shortstop Ava Guillot and a host of talented underclassmen like junior Sydney Avery and sophomores Bella Acree and Wynnlee Vincent, Grace Christian posted a 21-6 record in the regular season to grab the top seed in the Division V Select playoffs.
The Lady Warriors were battle-tested, having faced bigger perennial parish powers like ASH, Pineville and Buckeye, and defeating Division II Non-Select semifinalist Grant. The tough schedule paid off as they shut out district rival Avoyelles Charter in the quarterfinals, avenged last year’s semifinal loss to St. Joseph’s of Plaucheville and then dominated Family Community in a 12-2 victory to secure the championship.
Rosier said playing tougher competition in the regular season eliminated any questions in the Lady Warriors’ own minds of if they were capable of winning a championship.
“I think Rylee coming back, I mean she was locked in pretty good,” Rosier said of the biggest difference this year. “She was real focused and determined. Of course, she gave everybody else a lot more confidence, just knowing she was gonna be there. On the other hand, all the rest of them with the experience they had from the previous years just gave them a belief that they could accomplish what they thought just a couple of years ago would have been unheard of for them.”
2024 RPJ ALL-PARISH SOFTBALL
Outstanding Player: Olivia Henry, Buckeye
Coach of the Year: Mark Rosier, Grace Christian