Roland L. LeBlanc
April 18, 2012
Ray trying to be patient in senior season
April 25, 2012
Just how tight of a grip does the South Lafourche boys’ golf team have on local Class 5A competition?
Perhaps Terrebonne High School golf coach Gary Hill summed it up best prior to Thursday’s district match at Atchafalaya Golf Course in Patterson.
“It’s a beautiful day, the kids are excited and we’re all ready to have some fun,” Hill said before adding the caveat. “And at the end of the day, South Lafourche is probably going to run away with it.”
When the final putt was made, the Tarpons had done just that – their decade of dominance will continue for at least another calendar year.
Thanks to a district championship-winning, even-par round of 72 from senior Josh Fullilove and an equally impressive runner-up, 2-over 74 from senior Brian Williams, the Tarpons stormed past the competition to win another district title.
No one knows exactly how many consecutive championships this is for the team, but everyone agrees it’s becoming close to a decade of dominance around South Lafourche.
“This is my fourth year and we’ve won all three years that I’ve been here, so that’s three,” South Lafourche coach Jason LeBoeuf said prior to Thursday’s district championship match. “And I know they won the year before that, so that’s four. They also won the year before that, so that’s five. I’m pretty sure it goes back even farther than that.
“I don’t know this for a fact and I wish I did, but I don’t think it’d be out of line to estimate that it’s been at least eight years in a row and if we win today, it’d obviously be nine, I guess.”
So why exactly do the Tarpons dominate the Bayou District?
The first reason is probably player development.
Both LeBoeuf and Fullilove tout an upstart program created by the late Murphy Gautreaux at Larose-Cut Off Middle School as a big reason for the school’s success.
The former LCO teacher would create a golf club annually at the middle school and would teach players the fundamentals of the game.
“As kids, we’d practice after school with him and that basically carried over to South Lafourche,” Fullilove said. “He taught us the right way to do things at an early age.”
“Mr. Gautreaux started that program approximately 15 years ago and I’m actually a product of it myself,” LeBoeuf said. “He always made a real strong push to encourage the interest in golf with the local kids. Kids come here with that basic understanding of the game and they want to continue it on.”
Williams didn’t go to LCO, but instead went to neighboring Golden Meadow Middle. He said his formula for success was similar – being taught the game at an early age.
“I grew up around adults who took me under their wings and taught me the basics,” Williams said. “The game of golf and the golf swing – being taught both of those things helped me to get where I’m at.”
Knowing the game is one thing.
But winning also helps, as well.
Both LeBoeuf and Williams said the team’s winning culture helps to breed interest within the sport.
The coach said school administration announces the results of all of the team’s matches on the intercom during morning announcements.
From those weekly reminders of the team’s success, students within the school want to be a part of the team’s success.
“That helps a lot,” Williams said. “We have a lot of interest within our program because of the things we’ve done. Success breeds success and everyone wants to be a part of a winner.”
The Tarpons are also blessed with a home course that is literally at home. Exactly behind the South Lafourche campus is Tidelands Country Club, where the team both practices and plays home matches.
LeBoeuf said the support that the golf course provides the team is a huge factor in the Tarpons’ success.
“They’ve never charged us a penny for anything we’ve done there,” the coach said. “They’ve been terrific to us.”
Then, there’s the talent factor – the Tarpons have plenty of that.
Williams and Fullilove lead the team and are completing illustrious careers within the program.
LeBoeuf said both players have been top-tier players on the Tarpons’ varsity squad all four years of their careers.
He added that he remembers days when the then-freshmen were competing against seniors and were scoring favorably, despite being 50-yards behind the older players off the tee.
“Now, they are bombing it out there,” LeBoeuf said with a laugh. “They are the longest players in the group now. Seeing them grow has been awesome.”
“I hit it about 280 off the tee,” Williams said.
“For me, it’s about the same,” Fullilove added.
The Tarpons’ one-two punch regularly shoots in the mid-to-lower 70s and both are receiving collegiate interest.
Their first-second finish in the district championship mirrors virtually every event the team has played this season.
“They’ve been great,” LeBoeuf said. “They have been sort of the staples of the program.”
With both Williams and Fullilove graduating at years-end, upstart players like Nick Bruce and Seth Cheramie also are showing promise, each being named to the All-District Second Team at the district match.
With the Tarpons’ district title clinched, the team will now move to Regionals, where they finished as runners-up last season.
How things shape up this year remains to be seen.
But rest assured, the Tarpons will be near the top of the leaderboard when it’s all said and done.
That’s just the way things have been the past decade.
South Lafourche’s grip on the top of the leaderboard remains as tight as ever.
South Lafourche golfer Brian WIlliams stares down his tee shot at the Par 3 2nd hole of the Atchafalaya Golf Course in Patterson.
