El Dorado’s Post 81 American Legion baseball team played at McDonald Stadium in El Dorado, Kansas. Photo by Pablo Gonzalez

EL DORADO, Kansas– It’s been a couple of seasons but the American Legion Post 81 saw a legion team suit up and play an entire season at McDonald Stadium this year. While the record wasn’t what players would’ve wanted, they had fun and building blocks were made along the way.

For Post 81 coach Scott Rickard, it was about returning the legacy to the diamond that is the Post 81.

“It’s been a lot of work but It started back in December that me and coach [Kai Fowler] started to get the ball rolling,” Rickard said. “We both played and went to state on the 1997 team. We wanted to bring that back to El Dorado. “

The Post 81 baseball team has been a staple in American Legion baseball for decades. Dating back to 1926 when they won the state tournament advances to the American Legion World Series at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The famous Connie Mack threw out the first pitch at when the Post 81 first sponsored the prep baseball team. There has been a bit of a void in summer baseball in El Dorado.

“I grew up with American Legion baseball,” Legion Commander, Steve Seymour said. “With COVID everything thing kind of fell by the wayside and these coaches came to us and said “Hey, we want to coach your Legion team. We told them, you coach it and we’ll sponsor it.”

This season, it was about development and enjoying the game. There are now $3,000 entry fees to play. Each family paid $100 and the city allowed McDonald to be used for free this season. Players stay late after games to clean up to help with maintenance costs. It’s a team and family effort. Down to the uniforms. While they struggled, and still haven’t received a refund nor have they received their original uniforms, the team has banded together to find a local company to put together their uniforms and to press the Legion patches onto the jerseys was done by the parents.

“I think that speaks volumes to the sense of community for these kids,” Jaimee Rickard-Wilda said of the families in El Dorado and on the team. “So, this group of kids particularly pulls class, they’ve played together every sport since they were little. That sense of community I think our kids feel it like they want to be a team. They want to play together. They want to be successful together and I think that’s what’s huge.”

For Rickard-Wilda, growing up in El Dorado and knowing how big Legion ball was, her giving back to the team since her son (Cole Rickard) is on the team was a no-brainer. She handles the GameChanger updates; the live stream; and handles photos that you see on social media.

“You know, half of this stuff wouldn’t have been going on without her,” Post 81 coach Kai Fowler said. “We’ve had pretty good parents.”

The El Dorado Post 81 American Legion baseball team hosted the 2022 Zone ‘A’ state baseball tournament.

The roster is mainly made up of El Dorado area ball players, with some outside of the school district like Nick Ahles, who starts for Circle High. Then, there are many names you might recognize like Hunter Hamm, Cole Rickard, Zach Jacobs, Chase Lesh, Abe Pena and Easton Perkins just to name a few.

“I’m supposed to play with this group, play varsity with them,” Perkins said. “I want to build a good bond so we can play better together.”

The high school team is coming off their first state appearance in 22 seasons. Perkins and others understand the experience gained through the summer games.

For coach Fowler, who played on a state qualifying team in 1997, he’s come full circle.

“We’re trying to help them be better men and ball players,” Fowler said. “We want them to understand what those guys [the American Legion] sacrificed for us today.”

When asked what it’s like being a player then a coach, almost like Legion ball has come full circle for him, he was surprised how quick it went.

“Happened quick, too,” Fowler said. “I just can’t believe that happening so fast.”

For El Dorado, hosting the Zone tournament is a large accomplishment. After not having a team for a number of years, getting the Post 81 back involved with the team and getting to host bookmarks a moment in the return of Legion ball. Next year, El Dorado and McDonald Stadium hopes to host the Legion state tournament for one of their three classifications.

“It’s a lot of work to host a tournament like that,” Seymour said. “This was my high school stadium. We had the best stadium in the league and everyone wanted to come play here. That’s a pretty prestigious tournament and everyone still wants to come play here at the Mac.”

The 2022 squad won nine games and were a win away from making the state tournament. They beat state qualifier, Clay Center, twice this season. With many of the aforementioned players that were largely role players on the high school team or junior varsity players, the development against the higher caliber competition will go a long way.

“We wanted to play as much baseball as we could this season,” Rickard said. “A lot of places we’d go, we were the only Legion team in the tournament. We’d get questions about what the patch was for and to explain what it stood for made us feel good about it.”

The Post 81 played a brutal stretch of a schedule. including winning the first two games in the Wellington tournament earlier this month. They were the No. 2 seed in bracket play of their own Oral Taylor Classic that saw top three qualify for the state tournament. Then, they went to the Senators tournament in Topeka and then another tough tournament in Missouri. They didn’t shy away from competition.

In the 2022 Zone ‘A’ pool play, El Dorado dropped all three games, with all three teams above El Dorado qualifying for the state tournament. They led Newton on Thursday night until late and battled Great Bend until the end. Their loss to Clay Center was unfortunate but it felt as if Post 81 was put in the pool of champions, with how tough it was. Which, compared to their season this summer, was nothing really new.

El Dorado finishes the season 9-20-1.

“We just got better this summer,” Perkins said. “We just want to build off this momentum and making it to state.”

When asked if he meant back to state.

“Yeah, let’s get back to state and try to win it all next year.”

El Dorado 000 060 0 – 6 8 7 WP – Jay. LP – Rickard.

GAME 2: CLAY CENTER 18, EL DORADO 2

El Dorado 000 110 X – 2 6 4 WP – O. Craig. LP – Perkins.

Game 3: Great Bend 5, El Dorado 2

El Dorado 101 003 0 – 5 8 4 WP – Saffa. LP – Green.