Tears were flowing after
Calvary Baptist Academy (Shreveport, La.) won its fifth-straight state championship over the weekend.
The Cavaliers won 12-0 behind junior Georgia commit
Kynzee Anderson, who threw a five-inning no-hitter. Sophomores
Carlie Guile and
Reese Walker along with eighth grader
Brynn Robinson each had multiple hits.
But stats didn't matter as Greg Franks, the father of
Elana Franks, stood in front of the team. In January, a little more than a month before Elana's senior softball season would begin, his daughter died in a car accident.
"Elana was kind of like our second coach on the field and she was definitely a leader," Guile said.
Elana joined the team in the 2020-21 season as an eighth grader and won four state championships through the 2024 season with 114 career hits and a .321 batting average.
Franks' final game was the 2024 state championship when the Cavaliers trailed 6-1 in the fourth and roared back for a 10-9 win.
"Elana was the first one to tell us don't get down and never lose hope because there is a chance we can win and we are going to win," freshman shortstop
Baylor Bockhaus said.
As the calendar turned to 2025, the Cavaliers were about a month away from playing in their first game when the news of the car accident went through school.
"It was right before lunch and everything was normal," Anderson said. "Then one of the softball girls witnessed our head coach running down the hallway and crying on the phone. We didn't know it at the time, but when we got to our lunch table, one of the girls came up and said Elana got in a car accident. It was very emotional for us."
Elana was in the hospital and tests were being done. A text was sent out that practice would be canceled and to meet in the locker room. Head coach Tiffany Wood told the team what had happened, but not much was known.
The team and school of about 600 students all prayed together the next morning.
"We were all saying our prayers and then they called us to the sanctuary and told us the news that she was gone," Anderson said.
Her heart, a kidney and liver were all donated.
"I think her selflessness was shown when she donated her organs," Guile said. "It kind of gives everybody hope that when something traumatic happens like that and you can still know and find comfort in something as amazing as giving another person life."
Franks played a huge role in all four of those state championship runs. In her final six games in the semifinal and final, Franks went 10-for-21 with seven RBI and a home run.
Defensively, she roamed the outfield and her glove was a magnet for the ball.
In the seventh inning of a scoreless 2022 playoff game, Anderson threw a pitch that was hit to the leftfield line.
"Elana made a diving catch and helped stop a game-winning run," Anderson said. "Her presence on the field was so tremendous."
The Cavaliers walked off the game in the bottom of the frame to move on in the playoffs.
"We all went out to leftfield after we won and we gave her the gameball to her right in the spot where she caught it," said Guile, who still marvels at the over the shoulder catch three years later.
Guile arrived at Calvary Baptist a year after Elana and shared the outfield with her. Everyday they would warm up and throw to each other before practices and games.
"I think that is when it hit me the most was when I came to practice and throw with somebody else," Guile said.
The team immediately dedicated this season to Elana. Her No. 25 jersey hung in the dugout all season and the slogan "5 for 25" was coined as the Cavaliers started their quest to win a fifth-straight title.
Anytime there was a drill, Wood continued to announce Elana's name for her go field ground balls or do drills.
Sophomore
Reese Walker stepped into the lineup and played centerfield, the position Elana had been the year before.
"Reese did really well," Bockhaus said. "Coach Tiff told her not to think of it as replacing Elana. Instead to think of it as Elana being that fourth person in the outfield and just being out there with you."
The Cavaliers cruised through the season. Anderson went 24-1 in the circle with a 1.26 ERA. She also hit 14 home runs. Bockhaus led all freshman nationally with 25 home runs and hit .551 on the season. Guile added 13 bombs to go with a .400 batting average. Walker hit .345 with four home runs out in center for the No. 9-ranked team in the country.
After the state title win, the team gathered around Greg Franks and his wife Lisa, who hadn't been to a game yet this season.
"He was saying how grateful he was that we won it for his little girl and that he was very happy and he's proud of us," Anderson said. "I really miss her. We are just so relieved that we did it for her and that she would be looking down on us."
