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Coach Steve Noble packed up 19 members of the Eagle baseball team and Coach Christi Pavlovics added in her 12 varsity softball players for a four-day trek to Louisville, Kentucky, and to Loogootee, Indiana. This past Saturday morning, two rented 15-passenger vans and one mini van headed south from Deckerville on the 500 mile trip that would include practice sessions, one real game for each team, and plenty of sightseeing.

With all Sanilac County schools off this week for Spring Break, Noble and Pavlovics were trying to find a way keep their entire squads together for mutual purposes.

"Spring break is a tough time to get everybody together. We wanted to take this spring trip and kill two birds with one stone - we get the kids on a trip and we get some games in," said Noble during a telephone interview on Monday.

The fifth-year Eagle baseball coach has been trying to rebuild the program at Deckerville and has found some success at bringing more players in at the lower levels, such as little league and other summer leagues. There is a JV baseball team for the first time in several seasons. Now, he believes he's on the verge of winning games on the varsity level.

"This is what we're looking to do every year. I can't think of anything that can be better," said Noble. He added that all of his kids and the softball team members have all been well-behaved and enjoying the experience. To keep these kind of trips coming, those qualities are what need to happen. Noble added, "We have to make sure we do everything the right way."

Noble said he and Pavlovics started planning the trip in November. Three fund-raisers aided travel, and some of the other costs, and each player paid $65.

After leaving home at 6 a.m., the vans reached the teams' motel just outside of Louisville, at about 3 p.m. The teams were to practice three-to-four hours each morning (Sunday through Tuesday) at Spalding University in Louisville. Both would then play a single game against the Loogootee varsity teams at 5 p.m. on Monday. The trip back would be on Wednesday. The in-between time was spent on tours. They visited Fort Knox on Sunday and ventured to the Louisville slugger factory and museum on Monday. Also scheduled were tours of the Corvette and Muhammad Ali museums, and the stadium in Louisville that is used by the Cincinnati Reds AAA minor league team.

"Securing a practice field was the toughest thing to do," noted Noble. "Once, we secured that we just wanted to go far enough south where we would have good weather." It was 80 degrees in Louisville on Monday, added Noble. "It was eye-shock right away when we got down here - everything was so green."

Noble lined up the games with Loogootee (a town of just over 2,000 people that is very near French Lick, the hometown of NBA great Larry Bird) by calling the president of the Indiana high school baseball coaches association. Teams in Michigan, under the Michigan High School Athletic Association rules, are only allowed to play out-of-state games in either Indiana or Ohio.

The teams traveled the one-and-a-half hours north from Louisville to Loogootee on Monday afternoon. The Eagle baseball team lost to the Loogootee Lions (ranked 9th in the State in their division), 11-1, while the Lady Eagles dropped their contest, 4-0.

Winning or losing a game did not matter.

"We just wanted to get the kids excited about playing baseball. Coming down here is a pretty good start to the season," Noble said. "We're building a little team chemistry, getting everybody on the same page. It's just a nice way to kick off the year."