As the Silo baseball players celebrated with a dogpile on the mound as the Class 2A baseball state champions following a 5-3 win over Christian Heritage, Rebels head coach Billy Jack Bowen closed the book on his 36th year of coaching high school baseball that now includes a total of 21 state championships for Oklahoma’s all-time winningest baseball coach.
Bowen moved to the top spot on the career win-loss standings on April 19th and his players made sure “their coach” would continue to widen the gap between first and second place. Altogether, Bowen has 2,136 career wins and only 417 losses resulting from his 21 years at Silo High School after moving from Bokchito where he spent 15 years guiding the baseball program to success while shaping the lives of “Bowen’s boys” into young men with successful futures on and off the field.
“I’ve never thought about my record as a goal all I’ve ever wanted to do was coach baseball and try to make a difference in the lives of my players,” said Bowen, “I’ve been blessed with lots of good players and good teams. It’s just proves how hard we’ve worked and go about doing things the right way.”
The 2021 spring baseball championship is the 16th title captured by Silo under Bowen’s leadership including a fourth in a row during the spring season as the Rebels ended the year with a 28-game winning streak to post a 38-2 record.