FORT SILL, Okla. -- Eighteen Soldiers, a veteran and a civilian walked off the field at Cannoneer Complex Sept. 18 taking home the gold medal for the All-Army Men's team.
The team etched its place in history by winning the Armed Forces Softball Tournament making it the third year in a row for the Army.
"It's hard to put this into words ... It's 12 years waiting for this moment," said Victor Rivera Collazo, an emotional coach.
"When I got the phone call to coach this team one of the things was to revamp the program; to come in and change the culture, to change the atmosphere, and to develop a winning program. I think we exceeded that by what we did today."
The Soldiers fought hard to come back after allowing the All-Marine Men's team to take the lead going into the last inning.
"The Army team has always had a lot of fire. We were down last year by 14 runs and came back and won," said Staff Sgt. Kenneth Turlington, from Camp Humphreys, Korea.
Eleven runners crossed home plate in the seventh inning and a catch by Sgt. John Keene, from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, sealed the victory.
Spc. Marshall Woods, from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, said they went into the tournament with their sites set on winning.
"One of the big things we talked about was getting a three-peat under Vic. Nobody in the men's history has done that for the Army so we wanted to do that not only for Vic, but for all the other All-Army alumni."
Staff Sgt. Dane Miller, 2nd Battalion, 18th Field Artillery, said he was proud to represent Fort Sill for the second year in a row in the tournament.
"It makes everything that we went through worth it. It's very emotionally draining believe it or not. It sounds crazy because men's slow pitch softball, how simple is it? But we go through the trial camp and then the tournaments that we play in and the selection process and then all these games: nine games back-to-back. It's very exciting to win the gold."
Returning players, Turlington and Woods had been a part of the previous two winning tournaments. They said they were able to take over by staying loose.
"A lot of us have played pretty big ball, been in a lot of big tournaments, but this is by far the most emotional and physical tournament that you can play in because every play matters, every at bat matters so you've got to calm yourself down sometimes," said Turlington.
Rivera Collazo said their hard work paid off and he could not have picked a better place to display it than on Fort Sill.
"I was in artillery so to do it on my home turf was icing on the cake," said Rivera Collazo.
He said it will be a challenge to continue the winning legacy with new Soldiers, but he looks forward to it.
"Most of the guys I coached in the previous 11 years they're gone. That generation is gone. This is a brand new generation. Only two of the guys have been with me all three years. Some came last year and we have seven guys this is their first year. So it's very special. I have four guys who never won a gold medal and they came back for that purpose."
He said bringing together Soldiers from all over the United States as well as from overseas to work together on the diamond is one of the best experiences he asks future commanders to allow their Soldiers to have. He said it instills pride they take home with them in their respective ranks.
"You have more plus allowing Soldiers to come here and participate in something as special as this. When they go back to their unit they become better Soldiers and work harder because they want to continue to come back to this program," said Rivera Collazo.
Turlington agreed.
"It's been one of the best experiences. The All-Army Softball Program has kept me in the Army."
Four Soldiers will continue on to compete in the All-Armed Forces Men's Team coached by Rivera Collazo.
"Coach has been one of the best coaches I've ever had playing college ball all the way through little league. Being under (retired) Command Sgt. Maj. Vic Rivera has been an honor."
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