14-year-old Lao among THS’s Class of 2011
May 17, 2011Thursday, May 19
May 19, 2011
In today’s tough economic climate, it’s difficult to stay ahead of the curb and run a successful high school athletic department.
The load on South Lafourche High School’s shoulders got a little bit lighter last weekend.
The 7th Annual South Lafourche Alumni Softball Tournament was held this past weekend at Oakridge Park in Golden Meadow.
Proceeds from the event go to help the school’s athletic department, making the event a must-see for virtually the entire lower Lafourche community, who are comprised almost exclusively of die-hards for Tarpon athletics.
“The community’s really come out, as we’ve had great turnouts throughout the weekend,” said Mel Guidroz, a South Lafourche High School booster club member and one of the softball tournament’s hosts. “We’ve always seen tremendous turnout for this event.”
The idea for this tournament is more than three decades in the making for the South Lafourche area.
Guidroz said he remembers hearing about similar events working offshore in the 1980s.
“It was like, ‘Man, why we don’t do this at South Lafourche?'” Guidroz said. “The years went by and softball just sort of died out down here. You had a period of 12 to 15 years where softball just sort of died in our area.”
Like all trends and fads, softball came back to prominence in South Lafourche during the late 1990s and early 2000s and the idea Guidroz had bookmarked in his memory bank resurfaced and he officially pitched the idea to the school’s booster club.
“It took two years for us to get it going, but here we are,” Guidroz said. “It took a few years for us to get organized and to convince everyone that this was a good idea, because people didn’t like the idea because it takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of volunteers, as you can see, but here we are. This is our seventh year, but it probably should be about our 10th year.”
The format of the tournament is simple. Each graduating class in the school’s history can register and make a team, as long as the team collectively donates $300 to the school’s athletic department.
From there, all of the registered teams are entered into a double elimination softball tournament that spans three days.
Females wanting to give back also have the chance, as a women’s bracket is also played annually at the event under the same format.
In this year’s event, 22 teams entered the men’s field with approximately a dozen more playing in the women’s tournament.
That variety carries through five decades of the school’s history, as the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s are all represented in the event.
“It’s something that a lot of the guys look forward to year-round, some of the younger guys, especially,” Guidroz said. “We enjoy it. We enjoy doing it. And so far, we’ve always had good turnout, because a lot of the people see this as almost like a miniature class reunion every year. … And it’s just fun to get back out there and to be competitive. When you get to my age, you don’t usually have too many more opportunities to get out there and compete. And we miss that. Everyone misses that.”
While the respective players make the event competitive, it’s the community that arguably makes the event a huge success. Hundreds of South Lafourche natives pack the park’s bleachers and grassy areas annually throughout the weekend.
“It’s kind of like Mardi Gras, you look at the trash and that’s how you can see the kind of success that you had in your event,” Guidroz joked. “I look around and I see that there’s a lot of trash around here right now, so it looks like we’re doing OK.”
Once the event comes to a close, the money raised is divvied up evenly throughout all of the sports in the school.
“They spread it around,” Guidroz said. “They keep tab of what coaches are here and which students come help work. What they do is they divide it up evenly at the beginning of the school year, so it helps all programs in whatever way the coaches in that respective sport feel that they need it to be used.”
With the event going strong in its seventh year, the South Lafourche athletic department is sure to reap the benefits from this weekend once the new school year rolls around.
That makes everyone in the community feel good. That makes Guidroz feel like this event is here to stay.
“With any fund-raiser, the more people you have, the easier it is to do it and the more that you want to do it,” he said. “Hopefully it’s something we can grow on and more people can get involved, because everyone enjoys this weekend.”
South Lafourche High School’s Class of 2010 member Cameron Esponge prepares to take a hack during this past weekend’s South Lafourche Alumni Softball Tournament. The tournament, which features a men’s and women’s bracket is a fundraiser for Tarpon athletics. CASEY GISCLAIR
