Yvette Michelle Crabtree Davis
April 7, 2008
Cecile D. St. Amant
April 9, 2008
When Terrebonne High School principle Graham Douglas needed to filled the position that had been in flux for some time, he knew exactly who to turn to.
“I knew I wanted to become a coach,” said 23-year-old Chelsey Lucas, who has been the Tigers head track coach since January. “I always had the passion, but didn’t know when I was going to start.”
The Houma native had the coaching gene passed down through her DNA. Her grandfather is former H.L. Bourgeois football and track coach John Lucas, and her father, Jerome Anderson, ran recreational football and basketball programs in Mechanicville on the east side.
Despite the bloodlines, hiring a female to coach males is extremely rare, even at the high school level.
So, how did the boys react to their new coach?
“At the beginning, there was a testing thing,” Lucas admitted. “But when they saw I was very consistent with my discipline in saying, ‘You don’t come to practice, you don’t run,’ they fell in line.”
For a squad that only fielded enough athletes to compete in relays last season, the turnaround has been significant.
This year, the boys’ team’s best finish was a second-place showing in the Tiger/Brave Relays April 1, and the team placed fourth in Friday’s Tiger Relays in Thibodaux.
The girls’ team won back-to-back meets this season: The Nollie Arcement Relays in Central Lafourche March 20, and the Tiger/Brave Relays. They also placed fourth at the Tiger Relays.
Lucas has been startled by how quickly the athletes bought into her concepts. “I’m surprised I’ve gained their trust so quickly, because if a kid doesn’t trust you, they’re not going to give you their all,” she said.
While getting teenagers’ trust has come easily, earning the respect of her older male peers has been tougher.
“In the beginning it was like, unbelievable,” Lucas explained. “It was like ‘Go over there. The girls teams are over there.'”
She continued, “I already know they have their little issues with a woman being a boys and girls coach, but I handle the whole situation by starting conversations. ‘How are you doing?’ It’s not bad, but the whole demeanor of their attitude towards me, it could be better. I guess they think because I’m a woman, they think they can get over on me.”
Lucas has spent most of her life playing, not getting played, in athletic competition.
At Houma Junior High and Terrebonne High, she was on the basketball, volleyball and track and field teams. She received all-state honors in the shot put, javelin and discus. In addition, she was elected class president three years.
After graduating in 2003, Lucas attended Grambling State University on a volleyball scholarship and was a walk on to the track team. During her senior year, she was named to the 2006 SWAC Volleyball All-Conference First Team and the conference’s Libero of the Year (A libero is a defensive specialist).
Lucas graduated in 2007 with a degree in biology and planned to go into medicine.
“I always had the passion for helping kids and the way I wanted to go into the medical field by being a physical therapist,” she said. “But one day I was just like, I think I can really be a teacher.”
After initially moving to Dallas to attend graduate school, Lucas got engaged to her fiancé, Craig Nicholas, and decided to return to Houma.
Her first jobs began last year at Houma Junior High. She teaches 7th and 8th grade reading and coaches 8th grade girls basketball and girls volleyball, which is mostly filled with 7th graders. The volleyball squad won all their regular season games and placed third in the Evergreen Parish Tournament
It was around that time when Terrebonne principal Graham Douglas contacted Lucas about adding head coach of the Tigers boys and girls track teams to her résumé.
“She’s a luminary at Terrebonne,” he said. “So we always want to get those people back who have a vested interest to our high school.
Lucas never doubted her abilities for the job. “I know my dedication, my leadership,” she declared. “My discipline on kids is so strong, I know I can handle it.”
Lucas was hired as the Tigers head track coach in January and has build a nucleus of young assistants and one sage to help her rebuild the program.
She brought grandfather John out of a long retirement to work with the sprinters. Alison Benoit came aboard from Houma Junior High to work with the distance runners. Chris Harris, who has been on for about a month, works with the jumpers; he is also the wide receivers coach for the Tigers football team.
Lucas primarily works with field athletes – shot put, javelin and discus – but is mobile and eventually gets to everybody in practices and meets.
The school held two callouts with over 90 kids trying out. That was the best turnout since 2003. From this crop, she has harvested some of the best young talent in the district, if not the state:
Sophomore Mark Lawson (100-meter dash and long jump).
Sophomore Alaina Verdin (high jump, long jump, and relays).
Sophomore Sierra Lyons (discus, shot put and javelin).
Junior Cierra Bonvillain (800-meter run and relays).
Junior Skyla Jackson (1,600- and 3,200-meter runs).
Despite her age, Lucas takes an old-school approach.
“They receive me as someone 40 years old,” she said. “When I met them I said, ‘We can have the best team in the state; but if you don’t what I say do, you don’t do the workouts, you don’t come to practice, I will not run you. I will lose this track meet.’ They don’t want to do that.”
The teams are on a season-long “No fast food, No carbs, No soda” diet. So Lucas even brings water and high-energy fruits and snacks to meets so the team won’t wander off to the concession stands.
The squads spend 20 minutes prior to practice watching videos of proper techniques, taking notes and setting new goals.
With teams this young, there are still lots of improvements to be made. For example, Lucas described her sprinters as “short running. My team is really fast, but a team that has good technique could beat my team any day. ‘Yeah you’re winning the track meets right, but what about when you go to regionals?'”
Beyond the tough love, Lucas knows there are some off-the-track issues she can not simply rein in. That requires a different set of qualities she possesses in spades.
Whether it is lending an ear so her kids can vent daily frustrations, or allowing a member to quit the team to fulfill other family responsibilities, or putting self-esteem into a star athlete, she does not mind the various roles she needs to play.
“I’m full-time coach; I’m full-time parent to some who don’t have parents; I’m full-time psychologist; I’m full-time friend,” Lucas said. “I love what I do because I know everyday I go to practice, I know somebody is going to have an issue they need to get past to do their best.”
That kind of dedication and emotional investment takes a toll, but it also has bountiful rewards.
“The guys, honestly, anything I tell them to do right now, they run and do it,” Lucas said. “I have guys that run back-to-back events and they are dying. But they come to me and say, ‘Coach Lucas, I’m hurting; I can’t breathe.’ I tell them what to do and they’re ready to go. I really think I instilled in them dedication and heart.
She does not benefit alone from the teams’ commitment to success.
“I get e-mails from Terrebonne teachers saying, ‘Good job. Thank you, for coming this year. We needed somebody to push our kids,'” she said. “My fiancé, every night he tells me, ‘Chelsey, you can do it.’ And it helps because I am exhausted.”
At every meet, team members and coaches wear a crimson shirt that reads on the back:
“To RUN with us… you gotta be good. To STAY with us… you gotta be tough. To BEAT us… You gotta be kidding!”
They have not quite lived up to that motto yet. But if the trajectory Chelsey Lucas has set for them stays on course, that creed may be an understatement in the future.
Terrebonne head track coach Chelsey Lucas gives instructions to a member of the Tigers’ girls’ 800-meter relay team. * Photo by KEYON JEFF
