Producer/Former Gamecock Jake Williams Previews "In Spirit" Film

Winning championships is great, but finding inspiration beyond what happens on the field makes those accomplishments more meaningful. That’s part of what inspired former South Carolina national champion outfielder Jake Williams to produce the film SEC Storied: In Spirt, which is directed by Marc Kinderman and debuts on Wednesday, May 14 at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network. The film not only celebrates the 15th anniversary of South Carolina Baseball’s back-to-back College World Series championships in 2010 and 2011, but it also focuses on the inspiration provided by two youngsters, Charlie Peters and Bayler Teal, who were battling cancer during two different eras of postseason runs by the Gamecocks.

“This film is a proper tribute to our championships. It has all the baseball and all those crazy plays from both years in what were truly remarkable runs. What’s even sweeter within that run were the side stories and how we were being inspired,” said Williams, who played on the 2011 team and was redshirted in 2010 after transferring from Wofford and earned a degree in visual communications in 2012. “(Former coach) Ray Tanner was always good about having the guys active in the community and finding families we could help that were going through hardships. (Former assistant) Coach (Chad) Holbrook’s son had actually gone through cancer as well. They got ahold of Bayler Teal’s story somewhere around 2009, and that’s when the team started forming this bond. 2010 is when he was getting sicker and sicker. The team kept dedicating games to Bayler, writing ‘Bayler Teal’ on their hats, and his name was being spoken everywhere.

“The Charlie Peters story goes all the way back to 2003 and 2004 when the Gamecocks were in Omaha and met this boy in the hospital who was dying of cancer and probably should have died five different times. Miraculously, he kept beating it. That was a big part of the team’s inspiration. That lasted about a decade and Charlie was able to come back and be our bat boy after he had beaten cancer. He was able to go on and play college baseball himself!”

In Spirit is the story about never giving up. Williams noted that the connections with the kids and the families weren’t a publicity stunt but were a genuine effort by the staff and the players to do good for their community. There was also an appreciation by the families of the boys over the years.

“That’s just two stories!” Williams said. “There are so many other Gamecock families that have these kinds of stories. There were so many people that were waiting decade after decade for this kind of thing.”