It all changed when DoBee came

When I first started covering Nicholls athletics in 2009, the university’s sports programs were in a bit of limbo.

And that’s just about the nicest way that I can put it, because the reality is that things were pretty much a mess.

The football program was uncompetitive on the field. Off of it, the team was losing big, too. When I first accepted my position here, Colonels football was in Academic Progress Rate (APR) hell – threatened with scholarship cuts, practice time reductions, possible postseason bans and everything that comes with a poor APR score.

Football, of course, is any university’s big fish, but there was no moxie around any of Nicholls’ sports back in 2009. Everything just sort of felt lifeless.

Men’s basketball was decent, but nothing to phone home about. Women’s basketball was a complete dumpster fire – a program that would be beaten by 20, 30 or even 40 points literally every time it took the floor.

Baseball wasn’t much better, and would win just a handful of games each season.

The minor sports were either buried in mediocrity or were deeply involved in flirtations with the bottom-half of the Southland standings.

But flash forward into the present, and those struggles are completely turned around.

The Colonels are competitive again in football, and the team’s APR issues are all-but gone.

In women’s basketball, Nicholls is winning at a high clip, and are one of the Southland’s leading programs.

The same can be said about baseball, which has also bloomed in recent years.

And the minor sports? They’ve thrived in a big way, as well.

Nicholls soccer continues to be trending upward. The school’s softball program is the current toast of the town, already owning 30 wins in what has been a marvelous season.

And a lot of the school’s other sports are competitive and thriving, as well.

So, as I told this story to a friend of mine this week, he asked, ‘What’s different?’

To me, the answer is pretty clear.

Things changed when Rob Bernardi hired women’s basketball coach DoBee Plaisance.

The Colonels hired Plaisance in May 2008 – a time when the program’s athletic struggles were right around their peak.

But instead of succumbing to the prevailing theory that Nicholls sports were doomed to fail, Plaisance changed the rhetoric around – attacking it with full force.

Plaisance didn’t concede that Nicholls was destined for inferiority. Instead, she recruited – tirelessly – in an effort to get prospects to commit to her program.

Of course, she did so at a time when Nicholls’ facilities weren’t on par with anyone else in the conference, but it didn’t matter.

If a person has the ability to inspire others through both their words and their actions, the material things in life do not matter.

Plaisance didn’t sell a locker room or a 10,000-seat gym to future players. She sold a vision – an ideal that history can (and will) be made at Nicholls State University.

She challenged players to be leaders, instead of followers. She often told players that instead of writing another chapter in an already-published book, they could go to Thibodaux and begin crafting a novel of their own.

And it worked.

The Colonels took some early lumps in Plaisance’s inaugural seasons with the team, but she slowly got recruits to buy into her system and commit to the program.

With players like Alisha Allen, Jasmine Hoskins and Portia Washington, the foundation was laid.

From there, she got KK Babin, then Ricshanda Bickham and Sumar Leslie to commit to the team. Up next was sharpshooter LiAnn McCarthy – a top-notch player who was a huge part of the program’s turnaround.

Piece by piece, Plaisance got ‘em all, and the program evolved.

And as that evolution took place, the team started to win.

As the team started to win, Bernardi saw the blue print of the tools a coach needs to succeed at Nicholls.

As he did, he hired other young, energetic coaches like Plaisance to lead the program’s other sporting teams.

That’s when Seth Thibodeaux was put in place to lead Nicholls baseball – another passionate recruiter who does an excellent job with the Colonels on the diamond.

That’s why Bernardi appointed Dylan Harrison to coach Nicholls soccer and why Angel Santiago is now running the school’s softball team.

That same recruiting-first philosophy is also evident now in the football program, where Tim Rebowe is signing high-end talent up and down the state of Louisiana.

It’s a recipe that works.

It’s pretty much the only way that someone can succeed at Nicholls with all of the financial challenges that are present.

You have to have passion, and you have to love to mingle with recruits.

Plaisance was the original.

Now, the blueprint has been laid.

The challenge is onto you, Richie Riley, to follow the example that’s been set and to carry it into the future.

You’re new to the area, but have to learn quickly, or things will quickly pass you by.

It’s no secret that the Nicholls athletic department has turned around since that day in 2008.

DoBee showed them exactly how to get the job done.