Reader: Firing the wrong choice

Southdown Marketplace a shopper’s delight
November 22, 2011
Samuel Hunter DesLatte’
November 25, 2011
Southdown Marketplace a shopper’s delight
November 22, 2011
Samuel Hunter DesLatte’
November 25, 2011

Dear Editor,


In 2009, after the South Lafourche Tarpons lost their second-round playoff game to Westgate High School, a large group of parents, students and fans waited until after the team completed their post-game prayer to begin chanting “Thank you, Tarpons.” The players were being thanked for the season they had given us, for the district championship they had won and, perhaps more tellingly, for the intangible feeling of magic that touched all of us on so many Friday nights that autumn. You either experienced that magic that year or didn’t. It was really that simple.


For me, the minutes after that defeat at the hands of Westgate was the most emotional and rewarding moment of my 20 years following football. It was our equivalent of Hartley’s kick through the uprights in overtime against the Vikings or Flynn’s go ahead touchdown pass against Ohio State. That moment was our generation’s Hebert-to-Bouzigaurd. With one of the greatest defenses ever assembled in the history of the school, and perhaps it’s greatest running back leading a stellar offense, that season was a demonstration of just how dominant and magical South Lafourche High School could be.

It was that senior class’ first taste of real victory, having gone a combined two wins over the previous two seasons. And the culmination at Westgate, the fans trying to give back some of the emotion to the players that they had given us the previous few months was one of the most beautiful moments that high school sports can produce.


And it was followed very quickly by one of its ugliest.


A grandparent of a player who felt as though his grandson should have gotten more playing time ruined the entire moment, not to mention embarrassed himself and his family, by threatening to fight with first-year head coach Terry Farmer. Of course, he didn’t. Regardless, it still ruined what should have been a moment to cherish for those kids and this community.

Why did he want to fight with Terry Farmer? Was it really because his grandson didn’t play? Perhaps partially, but I’d venture to say that it was even more so a sign of rejection of Coach Farmer as an idea.


Farmer was an outsider who came to our little school on the bayou and resurrected a program that was left for dead under the previous administration. Basketball was the new focus of South Lafourche, it seemed. And while I can’t stand basketball at all, it does have its place in the hearts of folks down here.


But nowhere near the level of occupancy that football enjoys, especially high school football, and it was Coach Terry Farmer that brought football back to South Lafourche. It was Farmer who brought together a team, dressed 22 players the final game the previous season and went undefeated in district, reigniting the South Lafourche football flame, a beautiful inferno in the middle of the bayou that all of us warmed ourselves to every Friday night in the fall.

It was Farmer who produced a 14-4 record in district over three seasons, two first team All-State players, a district MVP, not to mention a Louisiana High School Football Head Coach of the Year award. But all of what he has given to us is gone today.

Why? Because we need a new direction. What direction could that be? I know for myself and a lot of people, Coach Farmer brought a passion to us for our alma mater that was either dormant or non-existent previously.

I won’t speculate as to the real reasons as to why Farmer was dismissed. I don’t have to. He upset wealthy parents who wanted their kids to play more, he didn’t play for Coach Pere 175 years ago, and he wasn’t born on the bayou. Those are all sins without penance in this town.

Well, congratulations, South Lafourche. I’ve already spoken to several parents whose kids have told them that their children won’t be playing and we are talking about parents whose kids can be all-district type athletes. Maybe that matters to you, if it doesn’t, try this: You are relieving these kids from a passion they have, and from an experience you as educators are responsible to afford them, that being an agreeable position for athletic achievement. You are stealing memories from these kids. Sweet dreams.

As for Coach Farmer, I have no doubt he will find another program, probably one more deserving, who wants him.

I hope he finds one where the mindset of the townsfolk is slightly more progressive than the one he found down here, where winning and experience triumphs over favoritism and bank accounts.

God bless you, Coach Farmer, and thank you for all you have done for our community.

Grant Boughamer

Golden Meadow, La.