NATCHEZ — It took Randy Smith eight years to find the perfect 50 and over basketball team to compete in the British Masters Championship, but the right combination was formed in 2012 and Team Louisiana hasn’t lost since.

Smith, also Cathedral High School’s girls basketball coach, has been recruiting players from across the country to play for the American team in Europe, but it took a couple of local players to come up with the best team possible.

Smith recruited Cathedral girls assistant coach Ralph Loe, and Vidalia High School boys basketball coach Robert Sanders as the finishing touches.

Sanders said it was 15 years since he played competitive basketball, and he wasn’t sure if we has ready to play.

“It took three attempts before I finally agreed to play,” Sanders said. “I didn’t play the first two years because I just had head surgery, and I didn’t want to take the chance and hurt my head again.”

Sanders said once he felt his health was good enough to compete, other factors held him back from being the player he wanted to be.

“The first year, I was badly out of shape,” he said. “I couldn’t make it for 2-3 minutes without a substitute.”

Those sporadic two or three minutes made a big difference for Team Louisiana as they took home first place in 2012 and 2013.

Smith, who also sponsors the British Masters trophy appropriately named after him, said the competition this year was tougher.

“Most of the players are former professional athletes from the (United Kingdom), we’re just much older now,” Smith said.

The first three games went smoothly, Smith said, as they beat Webba in game one 67-48, Wandle in game two 60-34, and met back up with Webba in a rematch to win 60-46.

But the championship game posed to be the biggest challenge. Team Louisiana took on the Manchester Panthers.

“We were down at halftime and it was the first time we’ve ever been down,” Smith said.

Sanders said he liked the competitiveness the Panthers showed.

“It was the closest of all of our games,” Sanders said. “It presented a lot of defensive challenges for us, which is what I liked anyway. We just had to go out and play as a team and play man-to-man instead of zone.

“(Manchester) had a lot of shooters, if we left them open they will shoot on you.”

Team Louisiana pulled out the win 61-55, and took home the Randy Smith trophy.

Smith said they also got a chance to tour London and see the Tower of London and the London Eye.

Sanders said he plays with Team Louisiana mostly for the camaraderie, and he hopes to be back on the team next year.

“If my health allows it, I should be back next year,” he said.

Smith said Natchez would have the honor of hosting the tournament featuring more than 500 players in 2016 during the Tricentennial celebration.

“Of course we’re going to name it after Natchez and we’re hoping to use several gyms around town,” Smith said. “I talked to (Mayor) Butch Brown), and we hope to be successful with it.”