Tigers looking to continue their resurgence

The Thibodaux High Tigers have had a bulls-eye on their backs and, so far, only two teams in District 8-5A have hit it.

As if being 23-4 overall and 7-2 in district as of Monday wasn’t pressure enough, the Thibodaux High Tigers can add a top 10 state ranking to their season’s feats.

The Tigers climbed to number four in the state before falling eventually to the Terrebonne Tigers.

With such high expectations, head coach Tony Clark is stuck with the task of keeping the pressure off of his group of 15 to 18 year olds.

“We don’t even talk about it,” Clark said. “The acknowledgements are nice and it’s good to be recognized, but if we let it get to us, then the season won’t end the way we want it to.”

For Clark, the recent resurgence of the basketball team is something he has waited to see since the team’s 2006 run at the state runner-up title.

“We knew we had a good team coming into the season. It’s just a matter of staying consistent,” Clark acknowledged. “We need to maintain our level of intensity. We can’t play well one night, and then have an off night. We have to be consistent. That has been and will continue to be the key.”

Consistency proved to be the Tigers’ downfall in their district losses to Terrebonne and South Lafourche.

In those games, Thibodaux failed to convert in key opportunities.

Despite the two setbacks, the Tigers’ success this season is attributed to experience and learning from last season. They avenged their loss to South Lafourche with a 57-51 win on Feb. 3.

The team returned its entire roster, with the exception of senior center Carlos Coler, who enrolled in junior college early.

Because four of Thibodaux’s five starting basketball players were also on the school’s football team, Clark is pleasantly surprised his team found success early. The Tigers did not field an entire team at home until their 71-53 win over Morgan City on Dec. 16.

But now that the Tigers have been together for over a month, Clark believes they are gelling at the right time.

“The guys are excited with the way things are going,” the coach said. “We’re rooting one another on. They know what it takes to win and they want to win. If we can continue to stay together and play our style of game, we’ll be fine.”

With three district games still remaining, including a rematch with Terrebonne Feb. 20, the Tigers are looking to standout Shavon Coleman to lead the team to a possible district title run. Coleman has been the leading scorer in the majority of the Tigers’ games this season and has kept the team’s fast-paced offense running in full force.

Clark said sticking to team’s style of play is as important as not looking ahead. Finishing the district slate strong is essential to realize Thibodaux’s ultimate goal, he added.

“We have to take it game by game,” Clark said. “The first half of the district season is over. Now we just have to continue to do what we have been doing in the back half.”