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For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, Beaufort County will have a junior American Legion baseball team this summer.

Post 15 has competed on and off since the early 2000’s with a long break from 2008 to 2015. Rising freshman, sophomores and juniors make up the roster. Rising and graduating seniors are not eligible.

Several of the players who helped the Washington Youth Baseball League 15u all-stars win the state tournament last summer in Boone will move up to compete at the junior Legion level.

“We wanted to keep the core group together and give some other players the opportunity to compete at a high level over the summer,” veteran coach Bobby Boyd said. Boyd was an assistant on last year’s title team and will be the head coach this summer.

26 players showed up for tryouts earlier this month and 16 made the final roster, including five from Washington High School, four from Southside, two each from Bath Elementary and Farmville Central and one each from J.H. Rose, Pungo Christian and Parrott Academy.

“The Pitt County kids can play for us because they only have a senior legion team this summer,” Boyd said. “Evan Woolard (PCA) played on our All-Star team last year and Cade Mixon from Parrott lives here, so we will have a good mix of players.”

Post 15 will play home games at Washington High School and will start practicing after the high school season is over. After about three weeks of practice, the 18 game schedule starts in late May and runs through the end of June.

Bear Grass will host the regional tournament in early July and the top two teams advance to the state tournament in Cherryville.

Opponents so far include Riverside, Bear Grass, Edenton, Goldsboro, Ahoskie and Perquimans with more to be added.

“I think it’s great that junior legion is back,” Pam Pack baseball coach Will Tyson said. “They will play more games against better competition, which certainly helps our program. We’re happy to host the home games and are looking forward to a fun summer.”

Boyd notes that he, along with assistants Glenn Marsh, Michael Craig and Ryan Kolibabek don’t have sons on the team.

“We are doing this because we love baseball and have the opportunity to help our guys become better young men,” Boyd said. “We’ve coached some of them since they were 13 and we loved being around them. We think we’ll field a competitive team and our goal is to win another state championship while having a lot of fun along the way.”