March 17
March 17, 2009
Loyce "Lois" H. Matherne
March 19, 2009
The South Terrebonne Gators were already on a roll entering their first home baseball game of the season last Tuesday.
All but one member of the defending District 8-5A champions – winners of six straight after a 2-5 start – didn’t know that a teammate would be there to give an even bigger emotional boost.
“We wanted it to be a surprise,” said Carl LeBlanc, 18, referring to his younger brother Kurt, 16, attending the game against the St. Michael Warriors. “This is the first time he’s been to a game in six months. The whole team really wanted to win this game for Kurt.”
Last September, Kurt LeBlanc suffered two strokes in as many weeks. The second triggered a seizure, which has left him unable to walk on his own power and the limited use of his right arm.
Since then, he had been in rehabilitation centers in New Orleans and Houston before recovering enough to return to his Bourg home on Feb. 20.
Still unable to speak, Kurt communicates either by typing messages on a cell phone or writing left-handed on dry erase board. So, did he enjoy his return to “The Swamp?”
“I like it, but I wish I was out there playing,” he typed on a Blackberry.
“I think a couple of guys saw him before the game. I don’t know if most of them noticed because they were busy getting ready,” said Gators head coach Nathan Cotten. “I went over to him and said something just because I noticed him while we were warming up. But I think they were aware he was here as the game went on.”
The Gators’ students and fans in attendance continuously greeted Kurt throughout the game. And while he enjoyed seeing old friends and well-wishers, it was clear being the center of attention is not in his nature.
“I don’t like being in the spotlight,” Kurt typed.
As he wore his Gators cap and No. 17 baseball jersey, a warm smile and laugh came easily for him. Almost too easily as he needed to bite down on a towel to keep from choking.
But nothing brought more joy to him than watching big brother demonstrate why he was named first-team All-District catcher last year.
Carl LeBlanc went 2-for-3 from the plate with two runs batted in and threw three runners out in the Gators’ 6-5 victory over St. Michael.
The future U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman got nothing but high praise from his coach.
“He has an excellent arm and he’s intelligent,” Cotten said. “He brings that intelligence to the plate and the field. He’s an extremely hard worker and the results demonstrate that. I was proud of Carl for his performance, and I know he was glad he could do that while his brother was here.”
It has been a turbulent six months for the LeBlanc brothers, two of Lisa and Charles LeBlanc’s 11 children, but it has also included victories, both great and small, to get to where they are now.
Before the strokes, Kurt was a 4.0 student, a forward on the basketball team and a utility player on the baseball team last year.
“We used him a couple of time sin varsity last year,” Cotten recalled. “I remember him getting a game-winning hit over a shortstop when we played at Southland Field last year.”
But Kurt’s favorite sport was football, where he played fullback and linebacker.
“I love hitting,” he typed.
During Kurt’s first two months after the strokes, he was unable to eat solid food. His weight dropped from 187 to 140 pounds.
While at Oschner Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, he progressed enough with daily rehabilitation to gain slight movements in his extremities.
In December, Kurt was transferred to TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.
At its nationally-renowned Institute of Rehabilitation and Research, he began to better control the movements in his hands and feet, motion in his neck, hold his head up, balance in the standing frame, eat pureed foods and work out with weights.
“I’m a lot heavier now,” Kurt typed.
During his time away in rehab, usually one parent stayed with Kurt while one was in Bourg with the rest of the family.
“My mom stayed there most of the time. My dad went when he could,” Carl LeBlanc said. “A lot of the older family members really took care of us. We had a lot of help from the community. People were always dropping by and checking on us. They helped out a lot.”
Last month, Kurt was released from TIRR. The Bourg community welcomed him home with open arms.
“It was great. They had it set up where there was a ton of people outside the school,” Carl said. “There were two state police motorcycles escorting him back. They were in front of my dad’s car as he drove Kurt back. Everybody was waving and holding signs, so it was a great homecoming.”
Kurt continues his physical and speech therapies at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center three days a week. On days he does not have therapy, Charles, Carl and younger brother James walk him around the house and work out with him in shifts.
“It’s a lot easier now that he’s home. We’re a whole family again,” Carl said. “It works out well because mom is able to stay home and take care of him, and we can go to school like normal. I miss him at school and during practice, but that’s the way it is.”
As Kurt recuperates, Carl is garnering recognition for his work in the classroom as well as on the diamond.
Sporting a 4.0 grade point average, Carl was nominated for the American Legion’s Terrebonne Parish Teenager of the Year Award in January.
Although he did not win, his decision to join the Naval Academy earned praise from award co-winner Charles Gyer of Vandebilt Catholic.
“I know I could not get up the courage to do that,” Gyer said at the time. “I don’t have an ounce of courage in my body as compared to him. I told him he’s a hero of mine now because of what he is going through with his brother. He made that speech very easy because I meant every word of it.”
“I don’t think I deserved the attention, but it meant a lot to me that he appreciated me serving my country,” Carl said. “That’s the reason I’m joining.”
Carl has known he wanted to join the Navy since he was in the sixth grade. He got interested from stories told by an uncle and grandfather who were in the Navy. Last summer, he attended the Naval Academy Summer Seminar and saw what plebe (a first-year student at the U.S. Military Academy or the U.S. Naval Academy) life would be like.
“I was lucky enough to get chosen and spent six days up there,” he said. “We did everything. We went to different classes, did a lot of working out and stuff like that. It was a lot of fun.”
While a nomination from one congressional member from an applicant’s state is required before being accepted, LeBlanc received nomination letters from both U.S. sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter.
He plans to major in mechanical engineering and hopes to be selected into the elite Navy Seals program after graduation.
While in the Navy, Carl will play for the Midshipmen baseball team. Coach Cotten projects LeBlanc will transition well into collegiate baseball.
“I can’t say enough about the kid as far as his character, as a student and a player,” Cotten said. “I don’t know the competition the Navy has, but he’s definitely going to excel. Its’ a dream come true for him, so I’m very proud.”
Before he reports to the academy on July 1, LeBlanc will continue to play with the Southland Hogs travel team, which placed third in the Babe Ruth World Series last summer.
There is no telling when or if Kurt will ever fully recover from his injuries. However, he already has next season as a target date to return to the gridiron and the diamond.
Nobody doubts he will put in the effort necessary to do it. That is why his No. 17 is adorned on Gator jerseys and caps this season. It is also why Kurt LeBlanc is still listed on the Gators’ varsity roster.
“He won’t come off the roster until his eligibility runs out,” Cotten said. “All of us believe in Kurt. The progress that he has made to this point just to be here is another example of his hard work. I’m never going to doubt him coming back until the last out.”
Soon, Carl and Kurt will have to continue on life’s journey on different paths separated by 1,200 miles.
But brotherhoods, whether in families or the dugouts, don’t tend to break easily.
“I’ll definitely miss Kurt, but this is what I always wanted to do and I was lucky enough to be accepted,” Carl said. “Once the Plebe Summer is over, I’ll probably be calling home or texting everyday.”
The younger LeBlanc had some words of advice for older brother, hard learned from five months away in rehab.
“You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone,” Kurt typed. “You’ll see.”
Brothers Kurt and Carl LeBlanc have achieved victories both big and small since Kurt suffered a pair of strokes last September. * Photo by KYLE CARRIER
