Trosclair ready to build for Thibodaux High

Williams competes in Triple-A All-Star Game
July 18, 2018
A summertime tradition
July 18, 2018
Williams competes in Triple-A All-Star Game
July 18, 2018
A summertime tradition
July 18, 2018

Thibodaux High School has a new baseball coach.

He’s not pulling any punches, nor steering clear from bold proclamations.

He’s making it clear during the early stages of building the program that deep playoff runs are expected and trips to Sulphur will be the eventual norm once everything is in place.


The Tigers hired longtime coach and school alum Shane Trosclair earlier this summer, a move which sparks the beginning of a new era for a Tigers’ baseball team, which struggled to an 8-24 record last season under 2018 coach Marc Gonzales, who resigned at the end of the season after a four-season ride with the team.

Trosclair is battle-tested and highly successful as a head coach.

He coached E.D. White for 9 seasons, posting a 243-48 record — his last season coming in 2017. The Cardinals won the district championship every season of Trosclair’s tenure and went deep in the state tournament several times, including trips to Sulphur.


Trosclair coached last season as the pitching coach at East Ascension, but said that the opportunity to coach back at his alma mater is a blessing — one which he doesn’t plan to take for granted.

“It’s a dream come true to make my way back to Thibodaux High School,” Trosclair said. “I’m glad to be back at Thibodaux. It’s home. It’s more special to me to be able to wear that purple and gold again and get our baseball program back on its feet again like it was in the late-90s and early-2000s and get that ball rolling again. We’re excited. It’s not just me. It’s our whole community. It’s an all-in effort with our alumni, our families and so-forth. Our players are excited and we’re all just ready to go.”

Trosclair has a clear plan for how to make Thibodaux High into a winner again.


It will look familiar to E.D. White fans.

It’s the same exact blueprint he used while wearing red and white in his old job just down the road.

Trosclair said he will work tirelessly with his pitching staff in hopes of building as much depth with that group as possible.


That’s not a bad place to start, given the problems the team had last season.

The Tigers gave up 10 or more runs 14 times in 32 games last season. In 10 of those games, the team gave up 12 or more runs and in 9 of those games, they were run-ruled.

Those stats mark unchartered waters for Trosclair, who routinely fielded a pitching staff with E.D. White that was 7-8-deep with quality arms — if not more.


Last year at East Ascension, Trosclair’s staff recorded 16 games allowing three runs or fewer — and that’s while competing in one of the most competitive districts in Louisiana.

“That’s the No. 1 plan. You’ve got to be able to pitch and play defense to be able to win on any level, but especially at the 5A level,” Trosclair said. “The good thing is, the kids are hungry. The few games that I was able to make this summer, the kids had a great time. We were able to win one of those games, which helps. But we’re going to build that depth in the offseason.”

But like anything else, Trosclair knows that Rome wasn’t built in a day and that it will take time for the team to get where it hopes to be.


He said the team’s goal for 2019 is simply to win more games than the eight that the Tigers won in 2018 — a goal that he believes should be easily attainable given what’s coming back and the progression that should be made with younger players.

Once that’s done, Trosclair said the goal will be a winning season, then a playoff season and then beyond. He said on the day he met his team, he talked to them about going to Sulphur, adding that he’s not shying away from planting the seed that the team hopes to be there several times in the next several years.

For years, Thibodaux prep baseball was ruled by the guys across the town. Trosclair would know. When that was happening, he was the coach there.


But now, he said he wants folks to know that there’s another high school in Thibodaux and they hope to have success, too.

“We’ve already talked about Sulphur and we’re not going to settle for anything less,” Trosclair said. “Yeah, they won 8 games here last year and a couple district games, but expectations will always be set high. … I want to go out and tell kids right now, ‘Hey look, stop going to that other program across town.’ The baseball coach that was right there is on the other side of town now. So come on home. Come with us. It’s time to start winning.”

Shane Trosclair


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