Skains leaving Tarpons for Cecilia
April 5, 2016
Annette Charpentier
April 7, 2016
Basketball never stops.
And one local group is aiming to help tomorrow’s stars polish their skills each offseason so that they can get the exposure needed to go to the next level of play.
The Louisiana Lightning are a Houma-based AAU team – a group preparing for their third summer of play on the statewide circuit.
Operated by Ellender assistant boys’ basketball coach Damond Bateast, the club features travel teams in 13U-16U age divisions. They pool players from Ellender, Terrebonne, Central Lafourche, Thibodaux, St. James and Comeaux high schools, as well as Houma Junior High, Oaklawn, Raceland Middle and Lockport Middle. The team also has a player from North Pike, Mississippi.
Bateast said the goal of the Lightning program is to teach locals the fundamentals necessary to grow their games. The team will compete at various tournaments around the country throughout the summer – something Bateast said is invaluable, because it gives the players a chance to get much-needed floor time that will help them during the next varsity basketball season.
“It’s very important for kids to attend workouts at least two times a week,” Bateast said. “There’s nationally ranked kids that workout two times a day, five days a week with a trainer. That separates them from everyone else. We wanted to give local kids an outlet to have that same success. We get in the gym and work hard. That’s the only way to have a good summer ball team.”
For Bateast, the AAU team is a pet project that he created as a way to benefit local-area basketball.
A longtime sports enthusiast, Bateast has spent a lot of time in recent years training kids and helping them get into shape during their respective offseasons.
But after watching some local varsity games on the hardwood, Bateast said he wanted to do more. He created the Lighting in 2014, and they’ve been playing each summer ever since.
“After spending time going to games and seeing how the game was being played by the kids, I just felt that I could start an organization,” Bateast said. “We wanted to do something that was focused on skills, discipline and work ethic.”
The principles that Bateast listed are heavily prevalent in the way that the Lightning operate.
Start with skill. The team has that in abundance with a lot of the best local underclassmen players on its roster.
The Lightning’s Class of 2018 squad features Thibodaux point guard Corey Johnson, Ellender guard Marquis Mosley and Central Lafourche standouts David Robinson and Kenneth Poindexter – players who all saw big-time varsity minutes this past spring.
The younger clubs are elite, as well, featuring some of the top local freshmen in the area, including 6-foot, 5-inch Ellender standout Frank Robinson and 6-foot, 4-inch E.D. White post player Matthew Rodrigue.
“We are excited about all of our players,” Bateast said. “They all have potential, and they all show up ready to work.”
But while the Lightning do aim to compete at a high level, they do make an effort to stay true to their roots of discipline and hard work.
Bateast said that he heavily stresses academics to his players – a facet that he believes sometimes gets lost in today’s world of immortalizing young players.
To be a member of the Lightning program, a player must carry a 3.0 GPA. Bateast said a couple players in the program currently have a 4.0.
If maintaining high grades are a struggle, there is a support system in place to help.
“Academic achievement is constantly talked about, along with discipline and work ethic,” Bateast said. “We do ACT Prep for our kids. We also have tutoring programs available for our kids, as well.”
The Lightning 15U and 16U teams will get rolling this weekend in ‘The Warm Up’ – a tournament in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The team will play in New Orleans from April 15-17 at the Grassroots Hoopfest.
Bateast said he can’t wait, touting that his team will continue to work hard until then.
“A lot of local kids think that playing 5-on-5 is working on their game, but they’re wrong,” Bateast said. “Conditioning, strength work, skill drills and shooting a high volume of shots with the correct form is the best way to work on your game. We aim to do that.” •
