World Champions

ALTO – Endless hours of practice put in by players since the beginning of spring has paid off for two Alto Youth Baseball/Softball Association teams, which recently captured the 12U and 15U 2025 world series softball titles during playoffs in Louisiana.

“They’re very excited. We’re all excited. We’ve spent countless hours practicing – there has been a lot of sweat, a lot of tears to get to this point,” said 15U Coach Aaron Low, who noted that opening day for the season is in early April, with practice generally starting in March. 

The two teams began the play-off season on July 17, with the 15U team going up against teams from Tioga, Louisiana; Hephzibah, Georgia; Grand Mamou, Louisiana; and Eufala, Alabama, before claiming the championship during a July 21 game against Tioga. 

Meanwhile, the 12U team competed in games against Saluda, South Carolina; Fairview, Tennessee; Tioga, Louisiana; and Minden, Louisiana, ultimately defeating Tioga for the title on Monday.  

“I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t been said,” said 12U Coach Charlie Reid about his team claiming its division title. “My wife (Lauren) and I have been coaching them since they were in 6U and they’ve always done pretty well, and it’s just a really good group of girls.”

The men said support – both in person and online – from Alto was phenomenal.

“There in Louisiana, our Alto crowd, believe it or not, was even larger than the Louisiana crowd,” Low said. 

“We had three times the amount of people from Texas, at that championship games,” Reid added. “The whole 12U series was broadcast (online) by a group in Louisiana. You could go through and look to see how many views they had … when you got to Texas, any time Texas played, you had three to four times the amount of views from Texas fans watching than any other state.”