LSU Baseball is Back Baby!

By Garrett Lumpkin

It has been nine long years since the LSU Tigers last won the College World Series, but there is a very good chance that the streak will end later this month. The Tigers are wrapping up their most impressive season since that last national title back in 2000.

LSU won all five of its baseball national championships in a ten year stretch between 1991 and 2000. With that kind of success, LSU Tiger fans grew to expect a run at the national title every year, or at least an annual trip to Omaha, Nebraska, site of the College World Series.
However, that has not been the case for much of the last decade.

Since Skip Bertman stepped down as head coach of the LSU baseball program in 2001, the Tigers have produced some pretty good results. But in Baton Rouge, pretty good is not good enough for the LSU baseball program.

Longtime LSU assistant coach Smoke Laval succeeded Bertman as head coach of the Tigers in 2002, and learned just how hard it is to replace a legend. Laval experienced some highlights at LSU as he led the Tigers to the College World Series in 2003 and 2004. However, LSU went 0-2 on each of those trips to Omaha and looked nothing like the dominant Tiger teams of the 1990’s.

Things started going downhill for Laval and the Tigers after that. In 2005 LSU failed to win a NCAA Regional in Baton Rouge for the first time in 11 years. Then in 2006 the Tigers won just 35 games, their lowest win total since Bertman’s rookie year in 1984, and weren’t even invited to the NCAA Tournament.

It was time for a change, and Smoke Laval was forced to resign after the 2006 season.
In June of 2006 LSU began an extensive nationwide search for its next head coach. Notre Dame Head Coach Paul Mainieri was familiar with LSU baseball having played one season for the Tigers in 1976. He saw the potential in Baton Rouge and decided to leave Notre Dame for LSU.

During his initial press conference Mainieri made it very clear that he understood the tradition of LSU baseball.

“Make no mistake about it,” Mainieri said, “The goal is to return LSU to the pinnacle position in college baseball. I have all the confidence in the world that we can do that here.”

When Mainieri took over in 2007, the LSU baseball program was in rough shape. The Tigers won only 29 games that season and finished tenth in the SEC, their worst conference finish since 1955.

The 2008 season looked like more of the same as the Tigers were hovering around the .500 mark at 23-16-1 with four weeks remaining in the regular season. At that point Mainieri’s record at LSU was 52-42-2 and I’m sure that many LSU baseball fans were questioning the hire.

Then something amazing happened. LSU went on to win its next 23 games, establishing a new SEC record for consecutive wins. Mainieri was named the college baseball coach of the year, and LSU won its first game at the College World Series since the championship game in 2000. The 49 victories were also the most for LSU since 2000 when the Tigers won 52 games.

The 2009 season began with great expectations as LSU entered the year ranked number one in the nation.

That preseason ranking, the strong finish to the 2008 season, and the fact that the Tigers were opening up a new ballpark in 2009, put LSU under the microscope all season long.

With all of that pressure, the Tigers have performed remarkably, never once even dropping out of the top ten in the college baseball polls. LSU started the season with a bang winning its first nine games of the year. The Tigers went on to win the SEC regular season championship, and their second straight SEC Tournament championship. The Tigers swept their NCAA Regional in Baton Rouge 3-0, and also swept Rice in the Super Regional 2-0.

LSU is back in Omaha, and for the first time since 2000, the Tigers are one of the favorites to win it all. They started the College World Series with victories over Virginia and Arkansas. That’s significant because 17 of the last 19 College World Series champions began the tournament 2-0.

If LSU wins the national championship, that would give the Tigers six titles which would tie them with Texas. Only Southern California has more College World Series championships with 12.

Summer Sports

By Garrett Lumpkin 337 Sports


The 2008-2009 school year has officially ended. And for high school and collegiate student athletes, that means it’s time for a break. However, in the sports world, there is no break. There is a common perception that nothing exciting happens in the sports world over the summer. I don’t buy into that notion, and I have five reasons why local sports fans should be excited about the summer:
LSU Baseball
Head coach Paul Mainieri has assembled the best LSU baseball team since 2000 when the Tigers won the last of their five national championships. The Tigers roared through the Southeastern Conference this year winning the SEC regular season title and the SEC tournament championship.

LSU has what it takes to win it all, and that is balance. In the SEC, which is considered the most competitive college baseball conference, the Tigers led the league in pitching and ranked second in both hitting and fielding.

Put it this way… If LSU doesn’t play deep into the College World Series, it will be very disappointing because the expectations are extremely high for this team.
From here on out every LSU baseball game will be nationally televised by ESPN. The College World Series takes place June 13-24 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Louisiana Swashbucklers
The Swashbucklers may be playing in a different league, but they’re producing the same one-sided results that fans have grown accustomed to. After winning two consecutive Intense Football League championships in 2007 and 2008, the team moved over to the Southern Indoor Football League.

It’s been a seamless transition as the Bucs have started the 2009 season 5-1. They are leading the SIFL in scoring offense (55 pts per game), and scoring defense (25 pts per game).
The Swashbucklers will be playing at the Lake Charles Civic Center throughout June and July, and I’m thinking they’ll end the season with a third straight championship.

Golf Tournaments
With the summer comes a plethora of local golf tournaments around Southwest Louisiana.
Graywood is hosting the McNeese Cowboy Club Tournament on June 20.

Mallard Cove has its annual Cameron State Bank Lake Charles Men’s City Golf Championship on June 26-28. Mallard Cove will follow that with the Junior City Championship July 6-7 and the Women’s City Championship July 11-12.

The Sulphur Men’s City Championship will be held at Frasch Park on July 10-12.

Pine Shadows will host the Red, White and Blue Tournament on July 4. Pine Shadows also has its Summer Invitational on August 1-2.

The Lake Charles Country Club will host the US Amateur Qualifier on August 3, the Prien Lake Four Ball on August 7-9, and the Louisiana Golf Association Senior Amateur on August 20-22.
If you are a competitive golfer, then you have plenty of opportunities to strut your stuff this summer.
Youth Baseball
Southwest Louisiana is known for producing top baseball talent, and it all starts in the youth leagues.

On just about any night during June and July you can find a great little league baseball game in the lake area.

Two local Bullet Baseball teams have already qualified for the Elite World Series at Disney World. The Bullet Baseball 9 year olds will be in Orlando, Florida August 2-9, and the Bullet Baseball 10 year olds will be in Orlando July 12-19. The Bullet Baseball 10 year olds finished third at the Elite World Series last year.

There is also the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in August. In 2006 and 2008 the South Lake Charles All-Stars advanced to the Little League World Series. SLC always has a loaded all-star roster, and I’m sure those young guys will make another run at Williamsport later this summer.

Closer to Football Season
My final reason for you to be excited about the summer is this: We are that much closer to football season!

In just two short months, the high school and college kids will be dressed in full pads getting set for another football season.

NFL teams will hit the practice field even earlier as all 32 NFL teams will be in training camp by the final week of July.

It’s highly likely that the McNeese Cowboys and LSU Tigers will each begin their respective seasons ranked in the top 20.

Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys should each be improved in 2009 after each team missed the playoffs one year ago.

Sulphur Coach Wins the Battle of His Life

By Garrett Lumpkin

For Sulphur head football coach Paul Bourgeois, the 2008 season was the most difficult of his life. However, it had nothing to do with the Golden Tors’ 5-5 record.

After each football season Bourgeois visits his family doctor for a routine checkup. But when he went to his doctor in February of 2008, something didn’t feel right.

“I was going through a stage where I felt real tired,” said Bourgeois. “There were some things that we talked to the doctor about, so we did some blood work and everything came back negative.”

After the visit, he was experiencing the same symptoms. Bourgeois didn’t have much energy and lacked the drive to do normal daily activities. He went back to the doctor in April and asked for more blood work.

This time the doctor came back with some disturbing news. MRI results showed that Bourgeois had a quarter size benign tumor in his brain. As soon as he received the news, Bourgeois drove two hours to MD Anderson Hospital in Houston. He was scheduled to undergo surgery to remove the tumor on June 3, 2008.

“The surgery lasted ten hours and went well,” said Bourgeois. “The reason for the length of the surgery was because the tumor was in a bad location, basically in the center of my head.”

The surgeon was able to remove all but six millimeters of the tumor. What was left was destroyed through six weeks of radiation treatment.

Bourgeois began his radiation treatments in late July of 2008. He had to undergo radiation once a day, Monday through Friday. With a new football season beginning in early August, Bourgeois did not want to spend weeks at a time at MD Anderson. He decided to go back and forth between Sulphur and Houston.

“Thank goodness I have the coaching staff that I do because they were basically running the show during August,” said Bourgeois.

Many people told Bourgeois that driving back and forth during his radiation treatments was ridiculous. But the coach didn’t see it that way. Coming back to Sulphur every chance that he could gave Bourgeois a sense of relief.

“Traveling back and forth worked for me,” said Bourgeois. “MD Anderson is a sad place to be. There are some very, very sick people at that place. To be able to come to work and be with youth, coaches, and a lot of healthy people…I felt better when I came home.”

In the six months following his surgery Bourgeois gained 60 pounds. But the weight gain wasn’t due to his diet or work out habits. The tumor basically smothered his pituitary gland. The pituitary gland secretes many important hormones which greatly influence growth and metabolism.

“Basically, I have no use of my pituitary gland anymore,” said Bourgeois. “It doesn’t look like I work out and diet, but I do, and thank goodness I do because obviously I would be a lot bigger.”

The road to recovery for Paul Bourgeois looks outstanding. He went back to MD Anderson in October of 2008 and learned that the lesion was no longer reasonably defined. And the news was even better for Bourgeois when he returned to Houston in April. The lesion was even smaller than it was in the previous examination.

Now having survived this ordeal, he has an even greater appreciation for being able to do what he loves, which is coaching high school football.

“This has been my most enjoyable spring since I have been in coaching,” said Bourgeois. “Last spring I wasn’t sure if I would be able to continue coaching, and with the surgery looming, I wasn’t able to enjoy myself because I didn’t know the outcome. Now I’m just happy to be here.”

Local Sports Roundup

McNeese Eying National Championship
There are thousands of rodeo fans in Southwest Louisiana. Unfortunately, the sport does not receive much attention from the media. Rodeo coverage pales in comparison to that of other sports like football, baseball, and basketball. I believe that rodeo deserves more attention considering what the McNeese State men’s rodeo team is doing this year. “We’re coming into the College National Finals Rodeo and we’re going to try and win a national championship for McNeese and for Lake Charles,” said Winn Ratliff, a sophomore bull rider. The MSU men’s rodeo team will compete in the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming from June 14-20.
It’s been an incredible turnaround for the Cowboys and their second year head coach Justin Browning. In 2008, the men finished dead last in the Southern Region which consists of nine teams. However, this year not only did the Cowboys win the Southern Region, they won nine of ten rodeos during the regular season. “My goal coming into this year was to win the region,” said Browning. “I just didn’t expect us to be so far ahead of the other teams.
“We’re not just winning. We’re beating the competition badly,” said Jeremy Mouton, a junior who is the region’s top ranked bull rider.
It’s common knowledge that people who rodeo are tough. When asked if he had suffered any major injuries while riding bulls or bareback horses, Winn Ratliff said with a straight face, “I haven’t had very many injuries. I’ve only broken my leg. I dislocated my arm, and I just broke my jaw. I’ve been very blessed.”
“In rodeo there is a saying,” said Browning. “It’s not if you get hurt, it’s when.” Luckily for the Cowboys, they have avoided “the devastating injury” and should be at full strength when they compete for a national championship in June.
McNeese State University is the only Louisiana College or University which competes in rodeo. So the Cowboys will not only be representing SWLA in Wyoming, they’ll be representing the entire pelican state.

Local Sports is Big Business, Brings Big Dollars to SWLA
Earlier this month, Sulphur’s Frasch Park hosted the Fast Pitch 56 High School Softball State Tournament. The two day tournament brought an estimated 21,000 people to the lake area and produced a local economic impact of around four million dollars.
The numbers were reported by the Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau. The Fast Pitch 56 is one of several local sporting events that pump millions of dollars into our local economy each year. This money assists in improving the quality of life in our community with better infrastructure, better roads and better schools.
The SWLA CVB also reported that for 2008, local sporting events produced a $28 million dollar economic impact to the local economy. And the number should be even greater in 2009 with a projected $24 million dollar economic impact from May-July alone.

Quick Sports Hits McNeese State Softball
I have to hand it to McNeese for hiring Natalie Poole as the Cowgirls head softball coach last July. In her first year at the helm, Poole led MSU to its first ever win against LSU. Her Cowgirls finished second in the Southland Conference, and won 20 SLC games for just the third time in school history. The other two years that the Cowgirls won 20 SLC games was in 1994 and 1995 when Poole was playing for them.

Sam Houston Baseball
The Broncos have arguably been the area’s most impressive baseball team during the regular season.
They are seeded #1 in the 4A playoffs, and are looking for their first state championship since 2001.

Barbe Baseball
Head coach Glenn Cecchini recently won his 600th game as the Bucs head coach. Cecchini has led Barbe to five state titles (98,00,01,06,08) which is a Louisiana Class 5A record. The Bucs are in search of state title number six as they enter the 5A playoffs seeded 4th.

Local Legend Making Major Impact in Big Leagues

By Garrett Lumpkin

Joe Lawrence may be the most celebrated baseball player ever to come out of Southwest Louisiana.

In 1996 Lawrence was selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft straight out of Barbe High School. He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays who he played for from 1996-2002, and finished his baseball playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003.

It looked like his MLB career was over, but another sport reconnected Lawrence to the big leagues.

In the summer of 2003, Lawrence received a phone call from the LSU Football team. Lawrence, who had not played football since high school, was given an opportunity to play for the Tigers at the age of 27.

“It was something that intrigued me, and it didn’t help that I had some best friends that wanted to see that happen,” Lawrence said, “I got the family support that I needed to make the decision, so I decided to give it a whirl.”

Joe’s LSU Football encounter was short-lived as he suffered a devastating knee injury, but the experience was still extremely productive. That’s where Lawrence was introduced to Jack Marucci who is LSU’s head athletic trainer.

Marucci was a big baseball fan and spent some of his free time hand crafting wooden baseball bats for his son. Knowing Joe’s background, Jack sought the former major leaguer’s opinion on the bats, and Joe told the trainer that the bats needed to be in the hands of major leaguers.

Lawrence, Marucci, and Kurt Ainsworth, who is another former major leaguer, formed The Marucci Bat Company.

“In 2004 we got licensed by the major leagues,” Lawrence said. “We go from eight clients then, to now where we are in the hundreds.”

The Marucci Bat Company, which is located in Baton Rouge, has come a long way since 2004. Marucci is currently the second leading bat manufacturer in Major League Baseball behind the Louisville Slugger.

“If there is one marketing scheme we used, it was letting the right people swing our bats,” said Lawrence. “It has caused a ripple effect through the major leagues. We have clients from every organization in the league. Our clients are typically the better players on the team, meaning character wise. They just happen to be great players as well.”

Marucci’s clients include Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are two of MLB’s top sluggers in the game today.
And while Marucci has well over two hundred major league clients, the company produces thousands of bats each year.

“We did close to 18,000 bats in 2008,” said Lawrence. “This year we projected 20,000 and we’re well ahead of that pace.”

Lawrence is still very actively involved with the Barbe baseball program. Last year Marucci developed a prototype aluminum bat called the Cat 5. Lawrence allowed Barbe to use the bat last year, and maybe it’s just a coincidence, but Barbe won the state championship.

“Our kids love it,” said Barbe head baseball coach Glenn Cecchini. We just have one bat because they are being manufactured right now and all of the kids say it’s the best bat they’ve ever used.”

“It’s the hottest bat on the market as far as technology,” Lawrence said. “If you get any hotter, that’s an aluminum bat term meaning how the ball comes off of the barrel, it’s going to be illegal. So we are right on that threshold. We’ve pushed it as far as we can push it.”

The future certainly looks bright for Joe Lawrence and The Marucci Bat family. With the launch of its new aluminum bat, Marucci expects to become a major player in the aluminum bat industry, just as the company has done with its wooden bat line.

1st picture player at Barbe High School. 2nd picture shows the player during his MLB days. 3rd picture shows the bats that his company manufactures.

How Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is Making Southwest Louisiana a Safer Place

By Garrett Lumpkin
337 Sports



The fastest growing sport in America is not football. It’s not baseball or auto racing. It’s mixed martial arts.
For the past fifteen years mixed martial arts or MMA has steadily gained popularity. However, the sport has never received more attention than it does today.
Interest in MMA has also increased here in Southwest Louisiana. Thousands of lake area men, women, and children train in mixed martial arts.

Some of them fight competitively while others train strictly to stay in shape or to learn self defense tactics.
There are some that train in mixed martial arts because everything that is learned in the classroom can be applied to their careers.

Corey Manuel works as a deputy for the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office. Four years ago, while working the late night patrol, Corey found himself in a fight for his life.

“I got in a foot pursuit with a suspect,” said Manuel. “I chased him for about a mile and he decided he wanted to fight me. Not fight to get away, he actually wanted to fight.” In the process of fighting he tried disarming me, so it was very eye opening. And when I left the scene that night I told myself I was going to do everything I could to protect myself.”

That frightening experience led Corey to Lake Area Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Lake Charles. The mixed martial arts training facility has become a second home for ten local law enforcement officers.

Each of the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s deputies, Louisiana State Troopers, and Lake Charles Police Officers who train at LABJJ went through physical training at the Police Academy. Through Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, they have developed many additional skills and techniques that can help them on the job.

“When you’re in the police academy they just give you basic tools,” said Manuel. “It’s up to the individual police officer to expand what they know.”

Louisiana State Trooper Andrew Leonards said, “I felt that there were a lot of situations where I might not know what to do. I feel more comfortable knowing that if something would happen, that I have a higher skill set than what I had coming out of the police academy.”

Lake Area Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu owner Mike Ellender started seeing an influx of local law enforcement officers at his facility three years ago.

“We do a lot of clinch work, a lot of takedowns, a lot of groundwork, and basically it’s showing someone how to control an opponent without having to hit or strike the opponent,” said Ellender. “We’re teaching these officers how to control whoever they are arresting and to defend themselves at the same time.”

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art that focuses on ground fighting. It promotes the principle that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger opponent using leverage and proper technique.
Once the smaller person has control, they can administer a joint lock or choke hold to end the fight.

“With the things that Mike teaches us in here, I don’t feel there is any way ‘Joe blow’ on the street will have a chance with us,” said Louisiana State Trooper Justin Weeks. “If you don’t know Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and you go to the ground with someone who does, you don’t have a chance.”

“We’re all very professional,” says Manuel. “We don’t like using what we know. But I think the word on the street is that everybody knows who we are and what we do know. To be honest we don’t get tested much now.”
There is still a major misconception concerning mixed martial arts. Critics view mixed martial arts as a blood sport with a barbaric mentality.
These law enforcement officers don’t train because it’s macho, or because they want to hurt someone, or because they are trying to prove something. They train five and six days each week for us.
Although they come from different branches of law enforcement, all of the officers share the same objective—Protect Southwest Louisiana.

“I think we’re depriving ourselves and community if we’re not the best at what we do,” said Manuel. “All of us give up times with our families to train and stay in good shape to go out on the streets and protect the public.”

Lake Charles Police Officer Mitch Sawyer echoes that sentiment. “It’s our job to protect the community,” Sawyer said, “And in order to do that to the best of our ability we need to take our training to the highest level that we can.”