About a year ago, a coach named Doug took his Pike County Bulldogs to Goshen for a tournament, and brought home the big trophy.

This year the Bulldogs hope to repeat the feat with a new Doug in charge.

Pike County won the 2012 Goshen Holiday Tournament under head coach Doug Branson. New coach Doug Holland said the team has been talking about repeating all week.

“The have been excited to go over there and defend their crown,” Holland said. “They have been talking about how fun it would be to win the tournament back-to-back, but they also know it will be tougher this go around.”

Pike County took home top honors last season, but the 2013 version of the tourney is vastly different than the 2012.

In 2012, only four teams. Goshen, Pike County, Zion Chapel and Highland Home, took part. This year four more teams, New Brockton, G.W. Long, Geneva and Samson, have been added to the tournament field.

Holland feels the field this season will be much stronger.

“All you have to do is look at bracket to see how tough it is,” Holland said. “Geneva is undefeated as of right now, and New Brockton, G.W. Long and Goshen are always tough. We will have our work cut out for us over the next few days, if we want to bring the trophy back home.”

Pike County drew Samson to open the tournament, and will meet the Tigers at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the old gym at Goshen High School.

The Bulldogs beat Samson earlier this year in the season opener, but Holland says Thursday’s match up will be a much different ball game.

“I feel like my boys have grown up a lot since the first game of the year,” Holland said. “They are grasping what we want to do, and see the results of what can happen when we run our sets correctly. I’m sure Samson has improved as well, so it will be a great test for us. We want to take it one game at a time, because if we worry about round two, we will get beat in round one.”

Pike County’s girl’s team is also in action Thursday afternoon.

The Lady Dawgs battle the Samson Lady Tigers at 3:30 p.m. at the old gym.