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St. James Parish Hospital CEO Mary Ellen Pratt was recently named one of the nation’s “Top 50 Rural Hospital CEOs to Know” by the Becker Hospital Review The Becker Hospital Review rates CEOs based on a number of factors including awards, local and national leadership positions and performance of the organization. Mary Ellen is currently the chair-elect of the American Hospital Association’s Section for Small/Rural Hospitals and serves as President of the Louisiana Rural Health Association. In 2012, she was named the River Region Chamber Leader of the Year and last year, under her leadership, the hospital was named a Studer Group Excellence in Patient Care Award Winner.

Mary Ellen, the only CEO to make the list in Louisiana, was recognized along with other leaders across the country for being “dedicated to advancing healthcare in communities and tackling the challenges of providing healthcare in rural or small towns with vigor.”

To learn more about the Becker Hospital Review and to view the entire list of CEOs recognized, visit www.beckershospitalreview.com/lists/50-ruralhospitals-ceos-to-know-2015.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

2 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

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Table of Contents Gerald Keller has written three books on local history and is working on a fourth --------------- 6 Bertha New Life started for women who find themselves in abusive relationships -------------- 10 Timmy Byrd has captured 11 state championships at Reserve Christian, Riverside --------------- 15 Crazy ’Bout History founded in 2007 to give every generation a voice --------------------------- 20 Courtney Andersen Boe makes name for herself as dancer, singer, actress, model ------------- 28 Lowell Narcisse Jr. leads football resurgence at St. James High School -------------------------- 35 Slain deputies Brandon Nielsen, Jeremy Triche forever remembered ----------------------------- 39

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Commununity General Manager/Managing Editor ~ Stephen Hemelt Advertising ~ Monique Narcisse • Christine Browning • Regina Burrell • Jennifer Glidden • Richard Fry Contributing Writers ~ Ryan Arena • Monique Roth • Stephen Hemelt Graphic Designer ~ Christine Browning 116 Newspaper Dr., LaPlace, LA 70068 • 985-652-9545

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Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 5

Lifetime educator making sure ...

Our stories

... are saved for future generations

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S

itting in his parked golf cart on West 10th Street in Reserve, Gerald Keller surveys the area and talks about how it was growing up in Reserve and the surrounding St. John community.

“We were poor and didn’t even know we were poor,” Keller said laughing.

“There were no TV, no computers, no telephones and no IPads. We made our own guns and slingshots. We chewed sugarcane. We always had something to do.”

As his brown eyes take in the scene, which is now industrialized and barren of many of the haunts he enjoyed as a child, he continues.

“We would leave the house at 8:30 in the morning, come in at noon for lunch and then come in at 4 for dinner,” Keller said, adding the rest of the day was spent “roaming” around Reserve, often playing football, baseball and basketball.

“We rode our bikes everywhere,” he said. “All of Reserve is home.”

Talk about the town with Keller and you’ll more than likely get the feeling there’s no where he’d rather be than sitting there with you and talking about his lifelong love affair with Reserve — a love that led him to serve the community in various roles, as well as document its history in books.

“We had a lot of fun here in Reserve,” Keller said smiling sheepishly, which may have been because he knew he was about to recount how he and others would often pass afternoon hours by climbing the trees in St. Peter Cemetery to smoke cigarettes.

Keller was born Nov. 20, 1940, to Sidney and Odette. He grew up with his six siblings in a house on West 8th Street and later one on West 4th Street.

Time spent at Maurin Theatre (now St. John Theatre), as an altar boy at St. Peter Catholic Church and attending dances bring back fond memories, Keller said, as were the hours spent playing (and winning) ping-pong with Michael Maurin at Club Café.

“Michael was really good,” Keller said. “But every now and then I’d contribute with a good shot.”

Little league baseball and pool time on Station Lane, now known as West 10th Street, rounded out busy days of running around.

Keller said growing up was a “different time in a different world, where people didn’t lock their houses … we didn’t even have a key to our doors.”

Gerald Keller, first grade Keller has lived in a house on North West 4th Street since 1972, and said the only times he didn’t reside in Reserve were during college and a couple of years when he lived in LaPlace with his wife Cheryl Michel.

“Then I came back to my little town,” Keller said.

He raised his four children in Reserve, and now at 74 years old, the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board member is content passing time with his six grandchildren and one great-grandchild at his favorite place — his own backyard.

Keller graduated from Leon Godchaux High School in 1958 after attending first through eighth grades at St. Peter School, and later earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies and science education from Southeastern Louisiana University in 1962.

Keller said it wasn’t until January of his senior year in high school that he decided to go to college. He parents didn’t push it, but were supportive of his decision. He was one of 12 from his graduating class at Leon Godchaux that went to SLU. “Most of us finished too,” he said.

“College wasn’t a top priority (back then), but it was fine if you went.”

Keller was offered a scholarship to Tulane University, but turned it down because New Orleans was “too big,” adding now that notion seems strange since he travels that way several times a week for errands or with his wife.

He earned a master’s degree plus 30

graduate hours in school administration and supervision and a doctorate of philosophy in school administration in 1997.

Keller’s profession of choice — education — became a passion that fueled him in every professional endeavor of his life.

He taught at John L. Ory and Leon Godchaux, was an assistant principal of Reserve Jr. High (now Fifth Ward) and principal of Edgard High School before working in the district’s central office as a federal program director, assistant superintendent and superintendent.

“I’m really proud of when I was superintendent,” Keller said, adding there were 78 uncertified teachers when he assumed the position and only one when he left. “I had a $2.8 million deficit when I got in and a $1.8 million surplus when I left.”

After pausing momentarily, he smiled broadly and said, “I was pretty happy.”

Keller was named superintendent in 1988 and served until 1993. In 1995 he joined the School Board, where he won the spot by election and has since faced no contenders in his subsequent four terms. He was also a faculty member at SLU from 1997-2003, where he taught graduate education courses.

“People of the community know I love Reserve,” Keller said of perhaps why no one has run against him.

Keller’s current School Board term — which he said would be his last — will end in January 2019.

“I thought I had enough experience that I could work with the superintendent,” Keller said of initially deciding to run for the Board, adding he tells current administration personnel “here’s some advice — take it if you want it.”

Keller shrugged and said, “sometimes they listen and sometimes they don’t.”

His top priority during his last term is to “make sure we provide our schools with top teachers,” adding he tells students and teachers “we’ll find the money” for band, music or sports endeavors that will leave students more well-rounded.

He said the biggest difference he’s seen in the educational landscape of the River Parishes, and even the nation, is the lack of respect for teachers.

During his teaching days, when he

St. John the Baptist Parish School Board Member Gerald Keller, left, sits on a golf cart near his Reserve home. The lifetime educator and retired school district superintendent has written three books on local history and is working on a fourth.

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 7

The Reserve house Gerald Keller grew up in is shown in an original photo.

went out into the community students would come up to him, talk, shake his hand and even hug. That respect is lacking now, Keller said.

Keller’s daughter, Lisa Keller Watson, said she had a great role model in her dad growing up, and she even decided to become an educator herself.

“People tell me stories all the time,” Lisa said of her dad and his impact on people’s lives and education. “I don’t even know if he remembers the stories, but they do.”

Stories, as it turns out, play an important role in Keller’s life.

It was at Leon Godchaux in ninth grade study hall where Keller said he would pour over Donald Millet’s book “The History of St. John Parish,” and think to himself, “I’m going to write a book on St. John Parish.”

Keller didn’t write one book, but instead has penned three that chronicle the parish’s history, people and places.

The first, 2001’s “Big Joe,” chronicles River Parishes football from 1924-1999.

The book is named for Joseph Lucien “Big Joe” Keller, who is described in the book’s introduction as “Leon Godchaux’s first football icon.”

Lisa said she can “remember as a little girl my dad sitting at his typewriter writing ‘Big Joe,’” adding as her dad grows older she thinks he realizes how important it is he recorded the football stories and legends of St. John Parish.

Keller’s second book, “Precious Gems from faded Memories,” was authored with Lisa and her husband, Darroch Watson. The book, published

in 2007, features nearly 200 pages full of stories and pictures from St. John Parish’s past.

In 2011, Keller and Darroch collaborated on “Reserve,” which focuses on photos and stories from Keller’s hometown. Keller said he’s working on a fourth book with a “heavy emphasis on LaPlace,” which will document neverbefore published photos and stories of Reserve’s neighboring town.

“I just have another 3,000 pictures to go through,” Keller said laughing as he talked about his latest labor of love.

“I don’t live in the past, but I enjoy the past.”

Keller said it pains him to think so much history would be lost without written accounts.

“A lot of history is being lost,” he said. “A lot is being ignored.”

He said he is afraid some St. John Parish history would go by the wayside if only told orally, with older generations dying with their stories still inside them.

Keller hopes his hometown can get to a place where it is filled with more communities, adding a long-discussed Interstate 10 access point would help because it would be more feasible for people living in Reserve to commute to other places for jobs.

“I’d love to see the rebirth of Reserve,” Keller said.

Reflective, Keller — still where a Reserve native is most comfortable, his golf cart — said he hopes his work in the school system and with his books is something the community appreciates, even after he is gone.

“I hope they say, ‘he did something

8 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

for the community,’” Keller said. “I think I did. I tried to give a lot.”

Longtime friend and now colleague Keith Jones, also a School Board member, said he grew up visiting the Keller household because he was friends with one of Keller’s sons.

“They are an extraordinary family,” Jones said, adding he leaned heavily on Keller 12 years ago when he joined to School Board. “He’s been wonderful … he is a leader to the end.”

Jones said Keller’s books stand to benefit countless generations to come, and emphasized especially how important Keller’s chronicling of AfricanAmerican history in the River Region is.

Keller said he’s checked many things off of his bucket list, including visiting 47 out of 50 states (he still needs to see Alaska, Hawaii and Vermont) and achieving his professional goal of being superintendent.

Joining the military is “one of the few things in my life I wish I had done,” Keller said, “But that time is passed.”

Still left to conquer besides those three states?

“I want to learn how to paint pictures … learn how to paint faces,” Keller said, adding he would use the skill to depict sports figures. “There’s this place in Ponchatoula … an art school...”

The quest for education lives on for Keller, and thanks to him, so will St. John Parish’s stories.

— By Monique Roth

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SAFE HAVEN Bertha Bell devoted life to helping women in abusive relationships

P

eople who walk into Bertha New Life Thrift Store looking for furniture, clothes and odds and ends may have no idea who founder Bertha Bell was, but traces of her life and dedication are everywhere.

From the signs mounted outside the store, the photos of Bertha posed with family and friends on bulletin boards inside and the gospel music she loved filling the air, the store matriarch’s legacy of love and compassion is living on through her family and friends, all of whom are determined not to let Bertha’s vision for the store end after her unexpected death in the summer of 2010.

Bertha, who was born in Mississippi, spent most of her life in New Orleans before settling in LaPlace with her three children for a slower pace of life.

“I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone like my mom,” Keeshler Pittman, Bertha’s only daughter, said of her Edward Bell works in Bertha New Life Thrift Store, a venture started by his wife, Bertha, as a place to find help for women who are in abusive relationships.

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Keeshler Pittman, center, stands in Bertha New Life Thrift Store, which was opened by her mother. The store, located at 650 W. Fifth St. in LaPlace, is filled with pictures of Bertha and her friends and family, left, as well as quotes, right, Keeshler said reminds her of her mother and the legacy she left.

one-of-a-kind mother.

Keeshler said her mother’s heart for the lonely and less fortunate often meant their home was filled with people Bertha took in to provide a safe haven for.

“We had people living with us as long as I can remember,” Keeshler said, adding sometimes her mom would come across people in the community who needed help, while other times people in need just seemed to gravitate toward her bighearted mother.

“She basically started doing a shelter in our house,” Keeshler said, adding her mother’s heart for the hurting came from being a victim of abuse herself and seeing family members also suffer through abusive situations.

“I don’t know where she got all those people from,” Edward Bell, Bertha’s husband and Keeshler’s stepfather, said laughing.

Edward, who met Bertha in 1996 and married her in 2002, also experienced various people living in and out of his and Bertha’s home, and Keeshler said Bertha cared for people up until her death at the age of 53.

“We had people living with us as long as I can remember.

She basically started doing a shelter in our house.”

KEESHLER PITTMAN Bertha Bell’s daughter

“She was a Good Samaritan,” Edward said of his late wife. “She loved people, she loved helping and she loved Jesus.”

Bertha established New Life Women’s Center of the River Parishes in 1990 to assist abused women and their children.

In 2003, she opened New Life Thrift Store to provide funds for transportation, housing and other supportive services to domestic abuse victims for up to 12 months.

Bertha spent her life in service to others, Keeshler said, adding her mother operated shelters in several states and ran the LaPlace thrift store up until the time of her death.

At one point, Bertha ran the only available shelter

in LaPlace out of a house behind the New Life Thrift Store, located at 650 W. Fifth St. in LaPlace.

Edward said his wife’s good-hearted nature didn’t stop with shelters and the store, as she also spearheaded food distribution efforts to the needy in St. John the Baptist Parish.

Bertha once even adopted a small child — a little girl named Olivia — for a brief time until the child’s family could get back on their feet, Edward said.

Keeshler took the reigns at New Life Women’s Center and the accompanying New Life Thrift Store, which was renamed the Bertha New Life Thrift Store in her mother’s memory, after her mother’s loss and spearheaded the efforts until last year, when because of various circumstances, she felt it best to she move with her teenage daughter to New Orleans.

Keeshler said she was forced to downscale some aspects of her mother’s operation when she took over, adding the shelters were closed a few weeks after her mother’s death because of the financial burdens. She

said she is now is in the process of trying to buy a building in LaPlace to open a new shelter.

Imani Hill, who has worked at the thrift store since 2011, first met Bertha through her mom, who received help from her.

Imani said she saw firsthand Bertha’s kind-hearted nature, and she is happy to help continue her legacy through working at the store.

A lot of people come into the store looking for advice, food, help with medicine costs and money for bills, Imani said, adding anything store volunteers can do to help, they will.

Imani said Edward pours immense time and energy into Bertha’s vision for the shop.

“I try to tell him to take a break,” Imani said. “He works really hard at the store.”

Keeshler said she is happy Edward has taken over the operation and continues to pour time and energy into the project her mother so dearly loved.

“That shows me he genuinely loved her and what she was doing,” Keeshler

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 11

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12 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

A picture of Bertha Bell hangs on the wall at Bertha New Life Thrift Store — a tribute to a woman who inspired a community to support the store and the women who receive help there.

said. “Basically she wanted to demonstrate being the hands and feet of Jesus. I hope she is remembered mainly as someone who demonstrated her love for people. It was really genuine. She had no ulterior motives.”

Everyone associated with the store agrees it wouldn’t be able to continue operating without the community’s support. Everything sold in the store is donated, Edward said, and many people volunteer their time to help keep it running.

Someone who wishes to remain anonymous donates the store’s building to the family at no cost, and Keeshler said she knows her mom would be proud the store is still open for business and continuing to help people.

Not just a place to shop, Bertha New Life Thrift Store employs many people who wouldn’t be able to find work otherwise, Edward said, adding all proceeds

after operating costs are donated to the New Orleans Women’s Shelter.

Keeshler said her mom ministered to anyone who went to the store, while modeling to many people, especially abuse victims, how to get out of a bad situation.

“She always said, ‘if a closed hand can’t give, then it can’t receive,’” Keeshler said, adding the store reminds her of the scripture found in Matthew 6:33 — “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Bertha New Life Thrift Store is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and donations can be dropped off at any time.

Edward said the store also accepts toiletry and gift card donations to be distributed to people seeking assistance through the store.

— By Monique Roth

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 13

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THE CHAMPS ARE HERE Timmy Byrd establishes basketball powerhouses in St. John the Baptist Parish

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 15

Former East St. John quarterback makes hoops

“W

hen I played at Lutcher, we won state in football and baseball,” recalled Loga Louque. “I know what state championship athletics look like. And when we enrolled my son at Reserve Christian, I thought I’d long seen the last of those days.”

Timmy Byrd had other ideas.

Eleven state basketball championships later between stays at Reserve Christian and Riverside Academy, Byrd has ascended to become a lock Hall of Famer in the coaching profession, building what was a tiny, struggling program at RCS playing in the Christian Athletic Association to an LHSAA powerhouse. Now, at Riverside, Byrd has led his team to three championships and a state runner-up finish in his four-year tenure; the Rebels had won just one postseason game in their entire history prior to his arrival.

Louque, who has been the PA announcer for Byrd’s teams since those early RCS days, witnessed it all.

It exceeded his wildest expectations.

“Timmy Byrd,” Louque said, “is unstoppable.”

FIRST LOVE Byrd wasn’t the likeliest choice for a future basketball coach. A multisport star at East St. John High School, he made his biggest impact on the football field, where he quarterbacked the Wildcats to an undefeated season and state championship in 1980, the last state football title ESJ has won.

Byrd went on to play quarterback at LSU before transferring to Southern Mississippi. But after sitting out a season, Byrd suffered a serious knee injury in his second eligible game with the Eagles, and played the remainder of his collegiate career at less than 100 percent.

While he enjoyed great success on the gridiron, Byrd felt a different calling.

“Basketball was always my first love,” he said. “It was the first sport I played, since I was 3 years old. My dad coached, so we already had that commonality. ” Byrd got his coaching start through his family, but in this case not his

Timmy Byrd, right, enjoys a moment after a state championship victory with assistant coach Mike Sutton.

16 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

history at Reserve Christian, Riverside Academy father — he coached his sons in Biddy Basketball and All-Stars basketball, and found success.

Others took notice …

FROM THE BOTTOM Reserve Christian had a basketball program on the verge of folding. School officials contacted Byrd and asked if he’d be interested in taking over the Eagles program.

“Our agreement was I’d do it if we left the Christian Association and jumped into the LHSAA,” Byrd said.

“And obviously it took on a life of its own from there.”

Reserve Christian went 4-16 in the Christian Association in 1994, the year before Byrd took over. There was work to be done.

“My best player was an athletic kid,” Byrd said. “(But) he could only dribble with his left hand, and he had to watch the ball while doing it. We didn’t really have any outside shooters. We had to win on heart, guts and playing hard.”

He said coming from coaching the Biddy ranks had advantages when it came to a total rebuilding job.

“We treated it as if it were elementary school,” Byrd said. “We built up fundamentals. It was really the foundation of our program. I think when we began to win some games in the Christian League, that built the kids’ confidence for when we moved up.”

Strategically, because Reserve Christian entered many games overmatched from an experience and talent standpoint, Byrd searched for an edge.

He found one in the 3-point shot.

“We shot 3s in transition before many teams really utilized it as a weapon,” Byrd said. “We made the decision to emphasize that and worked really hard to hone our shooting ability. We were the second school in the state to get ‘The Gun’ (a ball-return device installed on the basket) and that made an impact. Our whole team started to become really good shooters.”

Byrd’s father, Ronnie, was skeptical.

“In transition, you push for the layup,” Byrd said. “My dad believed that. He was an old-school basketball coach. You never sacrifice a layup to take a 3-pointer. We went over the percentages, and eventually he became a believer. If a kid shoots 70 or 80 percent unguarded in practice drills, and you can get him a similar shot in tran-

Timmy Byrd’s mother Virginia gives a thumbs up during one of Riverside’s state championship wins.

sition for 3, even at a lower clip, it’s the smarter play. It allowed us to beat a number of teams we maybe weren’t as good as.”

Even if the Eagles didn’t shoot well on a given night, the volume of 3s and unfamiliar attack gave teams fits. In Byrd’s first season, the Eagles improved to 13-11. In each of the next two seasons, the team went 18-11.

The time for the jump to LHSAA competition had come in 1998. Though RCS was a Class C-sized school, Byrd opted to “play up” in Class B, a move that raised eyebrows.

“I thought, ‘Timmy, why? Let’s get our feet wet first,” Louque recalled.

Byrd said, “People thought I was crazy for that, but I felt that was the move we needed to make to become a better program.”

THE FIRST OF MANY RCS began 1-5 in LHSAA play, but quickly improved.

“Our district had a lot of traditional powers, Mt. Hermon and French Settlement, teams that won year in and out … when I walked into Mt. Hermon for our district game, you see the banners, the setup, and I just felt the tradition. And then we go undefeated in district play.”

The Eagles’ roll didn’t slow down.

Reserve Christian made a run to the Top 28 tournament — where the state semifinals and finals are contested — finishing 30-16 as a state semifinalist.

The next two years, RCS reached the Top 28 again.

In 2002, RCS won 43 games and broke through to win the Class B state championship. A state power was born.

So was a superstar — the first of many Byrd would coach.

TWEETY UNCAGED Demond “Tweety” Carter was just a seventh grader when RCS won its first title. He was also a starter.

“We were down by 10 or 12 against Assumption at a tournament,” Louque said, “and Timmy puts in Tweety. He’d been raving for weeks about him, but, you know, he’s just a seventh grader.

He just drills three 3-pointers in a row.

He goes into the game and he never came out again for the next six years.”

In many ways, it was the perfect storm: an ultra-talented guard with the confidence to shoot from anywhere, anytime; a coach willing to give him the green light to do so; and defenses ill-prepared to deal with an unconventional attack.

Carter took advantage. He became a four-time state tournament MVP, a five-time state champion and was named Louisiana’s “Mr. Basketball” in 2006. He signed with Baylor after being named a McDonald’s All-American.

He also scored 7,457 career points — Tweety Carter was the highest scoring prep player in U.S. history.

“He brought us to a whole different level,” Byrd said. “He wasn’t just a

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 17

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great scorer, but a tremendous leader. He made everyone else better.”

Carter was the first of many local athletes who found interest in attending RCS. “Basketball here in the River Parishes didn’t have much flare to it,” Louque said. “It’s a football region, a baseball region, but there was nothing like this until Timmy hit the scene.”

The flare extended beyond the on-court play. Louque introduced RCS players with a light-show as the backdrop, with “Sirius” playing over the loudspeaker akin to the Chicago Bulls’ pregame tradition. Byrd’s teams played against the best of the best in Louisiana, and often outside of it, going on the road to compete in national tournaments against teams like Oak Hill Academy, a powerhouse based in Virginia.

In 2009, Byrd led the Eagles to their seventh straight championship win, captaining a dynasty with no end in sight.

RUNNIN’ REBELS But Reserve Christian was in trouble financially. Word spread internally the school could be closing its doors at the end of the school year just before the Eagles’ championship game victory, and Byrd was left to contemplate his future. Indeed, Byrd — and a team full of returning state champions — was put in limbo.

Byrd had heard overtures from Riverside Academy before, and as he was with Reserve Christian, he made his expectations clear: this time, show a commitment to the sport.

“I give Thomas Hymel a lot of credit,” Byrd said.

“Before, our gym had itty bitty bleachers that sat maybe 50 people. The gym had tile floors, and it was more a place for them to hold the Carnival ball. Boys basketball was the weak-

18 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

est sport at Riverside. It was really the stepchild. I asked him to show me they were serious. He upgraded the facilities big-time. They made the commitment.”

Byrd accepted the position as RA head coach and athletic director. All of his players followed in a nearly unprecedented move; a ready-to-repeat state championship team simply moved down the street and changed uniforms.

Basketball at Riverside changed forever. This time, Byrd stepped into a school already known for its athletics, only in other sports.

It didn’t take long for the school’s supporters to buy in. The gym was packed and the fans loud, and they soon had a playoff-run to cheer.

Byrd asked Louque to make the move with him as PA announcer. Louque wasn’t sure at first, but in the end he just couldn’t stay away.

“Timmy had never had a big man before,” Louque said, alluding to 6’8” future Baylor star Rico Gathers, who had just led RCS to a state championship as a freshman. “I had to see what he’d become. I couldn’t miss this.”

Riverside won titles in each of Byrd’s first two years as coach before finishing as state runner-up in year three; John Curtis upset the Rebels in what was Byrd’s first career championship game loss, and in what was the senior season for Gathers, Byrd’s second Baylor-bound Mr. Basketball winner.

RELOADING “THE GUN” A year later, the Rebels reloaded around a team full of freshmen, sophomores and one, lone senior. It was thought to be a rare rebuilding year, but the Rebels hardly went off the radar: at center was 6’8” freshman Khalea Turner, the heir apparent to Gathers and a player ranked as the

nation’s top prospect by Rivals.com.

But Turner transferred to Curtis a few games into the season. In response, Byrd went back to his roots — the Rebels went small, starting five wing players, all with the ability to drive and shoot with range. Byrd’s team began bombing 3’s like never … well, actually, exactly like before, but with a little more efficiency.

“When we had Khalea, we were forcing the ball into him,” Byrd said. “We weren’t efficient, and it kept us from playing the way we should have been playing.

Once we lost him, all of the kids stepped up and knew it was on them now. They had to play defense and they had to rebound.

“The days of the big, backto-the-basket post player … it’s a dying breed. We’ve developed a team of complete players, not just scorers. This team really highlights that.”

Riverside’s Achilles’ heel was supposed to be bigger and stronger teams, but the Rebels kept on winning, even outrebounding some of the bigger teams on their slate.

Those Rebels won two straight state crowns, one of the youngest teams to ever win a state title. Entering the 2014 season, the Rebels had a matchup against the No. 1 ranked team in the country, Monteverde Academy, led by top prospect and LSU commitment Ben Simmons. He believed this could be his best team since Carter’s best squad.

HUNGRY FOR MORE There isn’t anything easy about winning one state championship, let alone a long string of them.

Brent St. Germain has covered sports for more than 20 years and now serves as the president of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

To win even one championship, he says, much must

Timmy Byrd addresses the media at the LHSAA Top 28 boys basketball state tournament, where the semifinals and finals of each classification are played.

fall correctly.

“So much needs to click,” St. Germain said. “One bad bounce, one bad injury … there’s a lot of luck involved in winning one, let alone several. And your players have to buy into what you’re teaching, completely. It’s so hard to get that first one.”

But Byrd isn’t satisfied with hardwood dominance.

Since taking over as athletic

director at Riverside, Byrd has seen over one of the state’s most well-rounded programs. The football team went undefeated in the regular season and finished as a state semifinalist in 2014.

The baseball squad went to the state semifinals in 2014, and the softball team finished as a state finalist in 2013. Byrd has hired coaches with Hall of Fame resumes,

like football coach Bill Stubbs and girls basketball coach Kathy Luke, each of whom have multiple titles on their resume.

“My philosophy is it all starts with the coaches you bring in,” he said. “And if I can bring in people better than me, we’re doing pretty well.”

— By Ryan Arena

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 19

History worth repeating

Hailey Detillier speaks in character as a member of the non-profit group ‘Crazy ’Bout History,’ which was founded in 2007.

20 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

Connie Donadieu: Crazy ’Bout History founded because each generation has story to tell

I

n March of 2007, Connie Donadieu had a vision of the future — strangely enough, that had much to do with the past.

“Our history is disappearing,” Donadieu mused.

“Every generation that passes has a story to tell. That’s where we come in.”

As she said those words, the ‘we’ she spoke of surrounded her at B&C Seafood Market and Cajun Restaurant in Vacherie — the members of the nonprofit group “Crazy ’Bout History,” which Donadieu founded in 2007.

Together, the group’s members don costumes and adopt the personas of some of the most influential — and often, under appreciated — figures of yesteryear, in stage shows, Christmas celebrations, school and library performances and cemetery tours.

What inspired such a group?

For Donadieu, 20 years of work in the tourism industry made her realize, she says, how much of our history is lost on many people.

“So many people don’t understand our history, so I decided to start something,” she said.

She bought a van, made some brochures and prepared to hit the ground running — but then Hurricane Katrina hit, and she momentarily had to close her doors.

“But the story still had to be told,” she recalled.

The toughest part about the formation of the group, Donadieu said, was finding “board members.”

Essentially, she had to find people who loved history just as much as she did — and were willing to put the

John Gray performs with Crazy ’Bout History in Convent.

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 21

Crazy ‘Bout History founder Connie Donadieu sits at the head of the table at a lunch with her board members — left side of table, front to back, Dale Williams, Shelley Donadieu, Theron Oubre, right side of table, front to back, Jim Rooker, Betty Rodrigue and Mary Walker — who join her to speak about the group’s mission and their individual motivations.

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same kind of time and energy into spreading that love to others.

The table at B&C told the tale: she’d succeeded at that quest, and then some.

“I have a great board now,” she said.

“So, which of you guys really get into your character,” a reporter recently asked. “Who’s got the most performance flare?”

Smiles abounded as everyone pointed to Dale Williams.

“I really have fun with it,” she said.

“I get chills just thinking about (performing).”

Williams, the secretary of the CBH board, describes herself as the “nerdiest of nerds,” a fully registered “bookaholic.”

That, and her natural instincts for stage performance, made her a perfect fit for the ‘Crazies.’

“You have to be wired a certain way to really love history,” Williams said.

“To a lot of people. It’s boring.”

Added Donadieu, “Many people live for the present only.”

Williams got her start with the group on a cemetery tour of St. Michael’s Church in Convent, where she played Mimi Zilia, a free woman

of color.

“I couldn’t be the spirit of anyone else in the cemetery,” the AfricanAmerican Williams said with a smile, “so that was the part for me. I enjoyed every minute of it.”

Williams said she prepares for roles by rehearsing in front of a mirror.

However, she only truly knows when something’s clicking when she gets in front of the crowd.

“When you see some of those expressions on their face, that’s when you know you’ve got ’em,” she said.

“I feel like if you reach even one person in the crowd, you were good.”

Her love of history was not an itch she could scratch through her first career ambition, to become a teacher.

“I had the worst history teacher growing up,” she said, before mimicking his monotone delivery. “Everyone just sat there waiting for that class to end.

“This is so much better. We bring history to life.”

For Jim Rooker, a curiosity about his ancestry spawned his entry into the group.

“I learned I had an ancestry (from the Civil War era) that surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse with Robert

E. Lee,” Rooker said. “I traced my ancestry back to Ireland and Wales.”

He said that he had misconceptions about things in his family lineage, and the research opened his eyes.

“I learned so much about my family history and I began to think that everyone should know,” Rooker said.

“There are so many interesting things about our past, and we should know the truth about our past.”

All admit there comes a great bit of pressure to do their roles justice, as they’re playing real people and not fictitious characters. Putting even greater importance upon it is often group members will be playing roles in front of the departed’s living family members. Donadieu said the organization’s members scour through newspapers and libraries to collect information about past residents.

She said information is also gathered from family members when possible.

One of those family members is board member Betty Rodrigue, whose mother, father and two of her sisters are portrayed by the CBH cast on cemetery tours. Though she isn’t a performer, it moved her so much that she became part of the team as a behind-the-scenes aide, taking tickets

For Jim Rooker, shown performing with Crazy ‘Bout History, a curiosity about his ancestry spawned his entry into the group.

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 23

at events and planning with the group.

“I get teary-eyed when I think about it,” she said. “They told a story that nobody else would have thought to.

When you see that story through other people’s eyes, it gives you goosebumps.”

It was a family affair of a different kind that hooked second-year performer Theron Oubre, who got involved with the group through his daughters, who needed to accrue some community service hours for a school class.

“I’m still here,” he said.

Like Williams, he described himself as a “book addict,” who will rifle through four or five at a given time.

“When I’m performing, I try to allow that person’s spirit to come to life through me,” Oubre said.

All described the group’s venture as extremely rewarding, with Donadieu describing a recent school stop that encapsulated that emotion.

“At Lutcher, I was a bit nervous,” she said.

“We were discussing black history, and obviously, with me being white, there’s that feeling the students might be thinking, ‘who are you to tell us about our history?’ But when it was over, they came up to me and asked, ‘why don’t you come back every

Theron Oubre, pictured, got involved with Crazy ‘Bout History when his daughters needed to accrue community service hours, eventually staying long after. ‘I’m still here,’ he recently joked when talking about his stay.

Friday?’”

Added Williams, “they’ll stop us at the library and tell us, ‘that was so, so good!’”

Donadieu said the group wants to expand to include even more people and hold more events — she answered, “not enough” when asked how often the group performs.

“There are so many more stories for us to tell,” she said. “I think a lot of

people think we’re just seasonal, but we’re available anytime.”

For this group, it’s the definition of a natural calling.

“It’s just whatever’s inside of you that makes you love what you love,” Williams said. “And history just gets me excited.”

— By Ryan Arena

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26 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

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Contact:

Beverly D. Harris, President, 504-628-1138 or Melanie R. Basile, Community Service Chair, Fundraising Chair, 15/16 President Elect, 504-559-3976 www.laplacerotary.org “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.� Helen Keller

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 27

Courtney Andersen Boe has certainly made a name for herself in the River Parishes and far beyond as a dancer, singer, actress and model. Boe has danced with the New Orleans Ballet Association and the New Orleans Recreation Department and performed on the stages of the Jefferson Performing Arts Society, St. John Theatre and Rivertown Repertory Theatre. A native of Lakeview, she as performed as a character in Disney World, as well as with a vocal trio, modeled off the Andrews Sisters, at New Orleans’ The National WWII Museum. Dubbed ‘The Victory Belles,’ the USO troupe salutes veterans through song and patriotic tunes. ‘There’s a beauty in connecting,’ Boe said of the Belles’ more personal performances. ‘It’s my little way of giving back (to the veterans) and telling them, ‘thank you for your service.’’

28 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

Courtney Andersen Boe has found a home on many stages, becoming the River Region’s quintessential ...

D

Performer

ancer. Singer. Actress.

Model.

Courtney Andersen Boe, the resident theater staple and avid entertainer of St. John the Baptist Parish, has blazed a trail as a performing arts phenom in the New Orleans region and beyond, and a lot of it got started on a soccer field.

The youngest of five children born to Aubrey Andersen and Jeanine Burgard, Boe grew up in Lakeview.

With two older brothers heavily involved in soccer, Boe wanted to give the sport a try.

“I told her, ‘well, I want to do that,’” Boe remembers emphatically telling her mom about her soccer aspirations.

After she was signed up to play, every time she hit the field was a performance, but not of the athletic variety.

“I’d be floating around like a fairy on the field,” she said laughing, adding the next season, when she was 8 years old, she started dance classes.

“After the soccer thing didn’t work out, I set out to be a performer,” Boe said.

And perform she has.

Boe went on to dance with the

New Orleans Ballet Association and the New Orleans Recreation Department, focusing her feet on the

art of ballet, pointe and modern dance.

With aspirations set on becoming a famous ballerina, Boe had the opportunity to perform with the Russian Ballet and Ohio’s BalletMet at a young age.

Her love of dance and talent in the art was something she felt immediately.

green and red stickers respectively, so she could start the movies by herself.

Boe said dance was her original art form of choice, and it wasn’t until a karaoke performance that she seriously considered giving other performance arts a try.

After Boe sang a LeAnn Rimes song during a karaoke performance in 2000, she said a lady approached her and told her she should give theater a try at Rivertown Repertory Theatre.

That same year, “The Wizard of Oz” ended up being Boe’s first show, and she was hooked on stage performance.

Her dancing aspirations didn’t end, however, and in 2001 she attended the

New Orleans Center for Creative Arts for dance, and danced at the

Boe, left, poses with a veteran and other performers at The National WWII Musuem in New Orleans.

Aside from her budding dance career, as a child Boe enjoyed putting on mini productions with her two best friends.

“During that time I was so interested (in performing,) and they weren’t,” she said.

Her passion led to her watching her two favorite musicals, “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Sound of Music” countless times. Julie Andrews was an early performing inspiration.

She watched the movies so many times, in fact, her parents color coded the VCR’s play and stop buttons, with

Metropolitan Dance Company under Karen Hebert and Blake Cohely.

In 2002, as a 15-year-old sophomore student at Cabrini High School, she auditioned for the Jesuit High School production of “Footloose,” which was one of three shows she danced in there.

“I was the dancer, not the actress, but progressively I was given a line here and there,” Boe said. “I started really getting into theater in high school.”

Those Jesuit productions also served as something other than a dance venture — that’s where she met Jesuit 16-year-old junior Buddy Boe, her future husband.

Boe had her first adventure with St. John Theatre in 2003 with AOL CYO’s “The Sound of Music,” her first singing part in a play.

“I watched a lot of people and tried to pull the good and bad from their performances,” Boe said. “So when I

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 29

30 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

was asked to sing, I wasn’t nervous and I didn’t freak out as much.

“I don’t read music, but I have a good ear,” she said, adding dance is the only performing art in which she has any formal training.

Boe graduated from high school in 2004, and by 2005 was engaged to Buddy.

After her parent’s home was flooded in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina, Boe’s parents moved to Lafayette and eventually settled in Covington. Boe moved in with Buddy’s family in LaPlace so she could continue with her interior design studies at Delgado Community College.

The move served as a catalyst for her to get further acquainted with the River Region, and she worked at Garyville’s Buddy B’s Restaurant during that time.

The move to LaPlace also introduced Boe to the parish’s entertainment possibilities, as she started to perform at local pageants and Krewe du Monde and Krewe of Allovus Carnival Balls, something she still participates in now.

A surgery on her feet in 2006 forced Boe to forgo serious dancing ventures and led to a further concentration in theater.

During that year she also married Buddy. She was 20 and he was 21.

“People tell me, ‘you were a baby when you got married,’” she recalls, smiling broadly. “But Buddy and I always made a pact with each other that we wouldn’t segment our lives. We both knew who we were, even way back then.”

Boe has performed in stage productions up and down the river, gracing the stages of the Jefferson Performing Arts Society, St. John Theatre and Rivertown Repertory Theatre.

She performed in several St. John Theatre productions, including “Peter Pan” in 2005, “Guys and Dolls” in

Courtney Andersen Boe said she grew a lot at St. John Theatre, crediting Director Darryl Clement as a supportive figure who let her explore her talent.

2006 and “Jekyll and Hyde” in 2007.

“For a couple of years, I was in almost everything,” Boe said of the Reserve productions, adding her role as Lucy Harris in the theater’s production of “Jekyll and Hyde” was something she “could do everyday.”

“I really grew a lot at St. John Theatre,” Boe said, adding Director Darryl Clement was “very supportive of letting me explore.

It was a special time and place, and I contribute a lot of my present success to that time.”

Clement, the director at St. John Theatre during the years of Boe’s numerous performances, said Boe’s talent is rare.

“Her range is really incredible,” Clement said.

“Courtney has such a phenomenal personality, which really comes through on the stage.”

In “Peter Pan,” Boe was never timid, but doubted herself some, Clement said, adding to see Boe perform in “Guys and Dolls” in three years time was incredible because “every eye went to her.”

Clement said he thinks Boe’s time at St. John Theatre helped her “learn what the theater was like … how to react with people … how to make her personality shine.”

He said it “fills the bill for a director to have that talent on stage,” because the whole cast rises to meet it and it makes for a spectacular show.

Taylor Duhe, who first met Boe in 2004 when her family moved back to LaPlace, said she and Boe became close performing alongside each other at St. John Theatre.

“When Courtney performs, she is so invested in the role and exudes so much passion that you cannot keep your eyes off her,” Duhe said.

“Not to mention to glow she has when those spotlights hit the platinum blonde singing her heart out.”

After her success at St. John Theatre, Boe set her sites on taking her career to the next level and “wanted to pursue something that was always on my bucket list – Disney.”

During an audition in Orlando, Fla., she landed a spot as a face character in Walt Disney World’s Florida location.

Saying she “prefers to keep the magic,” Boe only said the roles she played meant she “used to fly around with pixie dust” and “would have tea with men with crazy hats.”

Boe spent six months in Disney World, and after spent another six months going back and forth from Louisiana to Florida for performances.

The schedule meant Boe took time off from college, of which she said she has no regrets.

During the time of commuting to Disney World, Boe was a part of JPA’s “Beauty and the Beast,” where a conversation changed her life.

A “Beauty and the Beast” choreographer talked to Boe about trying out for a vocal

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 31

trio, modeled off the Andrews Sisters, at New Orleans’ The National WWII Museum.

It was The Victory Belles, a USO troupe that salutes veterans through song and patriotic tunes, and Boe said she thought “let me do it to get my foot in the door.”

First a backup performer at the museum, Boe landed a permanent spot as a Victory Belle in 2010. Her stint with the trio, with whom she still does special performances with, led to numerous travel opportunities, including treks to Guam and Hawaii.

The wonderful thing about performing in the museum and with the Victory Belles, Boe said, is the interaction.

“There’s a beauty in connecting,” Boe said of the more personal performances. “It’s my little way of giving back (to the veterans) and telling them, ‘thank you for your service.”

“To watch her is enchanting,” Duhe said, adding Boe “can easily enter your heart and you’re transported to the world of the show” during any Victory Belles performance at the museum.

“To top it all off, Boe is the type of person who appreciates her audience,” Duhe said. “You will often catch her staying late to greet audience members and thank them for attending the performance, and when they express how impressive and talented she is, she responds with grace and sincerity.”

Boe said she was so inspired that she “was talking and performing to real-life history” when performing to veterans visiting the museum, that she decided to go back to college, completing her degree in history, with a focus in WWII history, from the University of New Orleans in 2013.

Performing as a Victory Belle led to clothing company Trashy Diva offering Boe her first big modeling contact, which started in early 2014 and continues to this day.

Boe’s future plans include performing in more theater productions, starting a family and forging ahead with career options, adding whatever the future may hold, she plans on continuing to explore different creative outlets and hopes to always be

performing in some capacity.

She said her performance career has been very fluid, with a lot of things bleeding into the next.

“I view life as a journey,” Boe said.

“It’s not about setting out to be something, but about creating yourself.”

Living in LaPlace seems a perfect fit for Boe, she said, because “there’s a beauty in a small town with everyone being so supportive. I feel like LaPlace is home in a lot of ways, and people here treat everyone like family.”

Additional performances in her parish of residence are also on Boe’s radar.

“I would love to do another show at St. John Theatre,” she said. “I’d love to go back to my roots.”

Some people just have “it,” Darryl Clement said, describing “that unusual thing” that makes a performer shine on stage.

“She’s got it,” Clement said laughing. “I adore Courtney. She’s a great talent.”

— By Monique Roth

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Lowell Narcisse Sr. and Lowell Narcisse Jr. take some time to toss the football at St. James High School.

If you build it, he’ll come Coach Dwain Jenkins convinces star player’s father that football rebirth could be built on ‘Junior’

L St. James High football coach Dwain Jenkins, left, had to convince Lowell Narcisse Sr., right, his son Junior could handle the quarterback position as a freshman.

owell Narcisse Jr. was thrust into the spotlight, and his father, Lowell Sr., wasn’t sure he was ready.

“Junior,” the name the younger Narcisse often goes by to set him apart from his father, was just a freshman in 2013 when then newly hired St. James High School football coach Dwain Jenkins installed him as the Wildcats’ starting quarterback, well before the Wildcats took the field for their first action of the season.

While almost every parent wants to see his or her child in the limelight, Lowell Sr. had his concerns. St. James had just completed the darkest stretch of play in school history, going winless in two consecutive seasons during what became a 25-game losing streak.

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 35

Jenkins, meanwhile, was hired off a wave of success as Lutcher’s offensive coordinator, helping the Bulldogs capture two state championships and establishing himself as the architect of an offensive juggernaut under LHS head coach Tim Detillier. But, at the age of 33, Jenkins was one of the youngest head coaches and athletic directors in the state. “(Lowell Jr.’s) uncle and I went to speak with (Jenkins),” Lowell Sr. said.

“We didn’t think Junior was ready to start. But he told us he saw something in Lowell.

He said if Junior was willing to put the work in, to just give him time to work with him and he will be a great player. He saw something in my boy that, at the time, I didn’t even see myself.

“I’m glad we listened to him.”

“HE’S INCREDIBLE” Riverside Academy coach Bill Stubbs had just led his Rebels to a shootout victory at St. James in the 2014 district opener for both teams.

It was Riverside’s fourth straight victory in a season of high expectations, and the Rebels were riding high.

Stubbs was happy with his team’s performance, but following the game, one player in particular seemed to make the greatest impression upon him.

“That was a team that concerned us in a number of different ways,” Stubbs said. “Primarily Narcisse … he’s incredible. He was on a different level, and I don’t know if we’ll see a better (quarterback) going forward.”

Against a Riverside defense that went on to allow just 26 points over the final six games of the regular season, Junior passed for 326 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 106 yards on 26 carries.

Incredibly, it was the type of game that’s become par

“I saw him playing defensive back in a middle school game against Lutcher. And I remember thinking, ‘That guy is going to be a major player.’”

DWAIN JENKINS St. James High School football coach

for the course for the 6’3,” 200-pound dual threat. Over two seasons, including 26 starts, Junior has accounted for 7,199 total yards and 88 touchdowns (5,134 yards and 58 scores through the air, with 2,039 and 30 touchdowns coming via the run).

Following two winless

36 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

seasons, the Wildcats have reestablished their program with Narcisse as its catalyst.

The Wildcats followed up an 0-10 2012 campaign with a surprise run to the Class 2A quarterfinals in 2013. In 2014, SJH officially posted a winning season, finishing 8-5 en route to a second

consecutive quarterfinalist finish.

St. James lost the first four games of the Junior era; it’s gone 14-8 since.

“It didn’t take very long for us to realize we could have success,” Junior said.

“After our second game against E.D. White (a 28-14 loss), we knew we weren’t far away. We took a tough loss to Riverside a couple weeks later.

“But in our fifth game, everything came together.”

That fifth game was a 54-0 home victory over Fisher, where Junior passed for five touchdowns to four different receivers. It was when he and his offense truly took off: St. James hadn’t scored more than 18 points in any of its first four games; it scored 35 or more in six of its final eight games.

Narcisse, who lists Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel as players he emulates, began the first part of the season battling nagging injuries, including a recurring back issue. Jenkins said it forced Junior to rely more on his arm than on his gifts as a runner.

“I honestly thought, that first year, we were going to get by with him primarily as a running threat,” Jenkins said. “But he had to adapt to the situation. Once he got healthy, he just started putting it all together.”

Junior added, “It made me a smarter football player. I knew I wasn’t able to play at my 100 percent best. I learned how to keep myself healthy, when to go down and slide and avoid something unnecessary.”

DUDE QUALITIES Jenkins was familiar with his future passer before accepting the St. James job.

“I saw him playing defensive back in a middle school game against Lutcher,” Jenkins recalled. “And I remember thinking, ‘That guy is going to be a major player.’”

Lowell Narcisse Jr. looks for running room during a game in 2014 against rival West St. John High School.

The coach is no stranger to working with great players.

At Lutcher, current Miami Dolphins standout wide receiver Jarvis Landry was one of his protégés. Future Louisiana-Lafayette quarterback Blaine Gauthier and 2009 Louisiana Mr. Football honoree Gavin Webster accounted for 6,400 and 7,314 total yards respectively in two-year stints quarterbacking Jenkins’ shotgun spread offense.

The one thing those two quarterbacks lacked was the size to make them attractive prospects to major college programs. Not so with Junior: major programs like LSU and Auburn are among those who have already made offers to the sophomore.

“He has the arm talent of Blaine and the running ability of Gavin,” Jenkins said.

“You put those two things together and into a 6’3”

“They’ve set me straight on what to do and what to stay away from, in the classroom and on the streets.

They’ve taught me about being a football player, but also about how to stay on the right path in life.”

LOWELL NARCISSE JR. St. James High School quarterback

frame, and you’ve got a guy who’s a national recruit.”

While St. James was winless in the two years prior to Jenkins’ arrival, there was still a great deal of pressure.

St. James is a proud community, and the Wildcats football team was a traditional state power prior to the 2011-

2012 downturn.

Lowell Sr. wasn’t the only person with doubts as to whether a freshman was the right fit to lead the team at quarterback: many in the community questioned the move as well, and through the team’s initial 0-4 start, Jenkins remained firm in his decision.

What did he see in Junior?

“You know, there’s a phrase … I’m reading a book written by (former NFL quarterback) Trent Dilfer where he talks about ‘dude qualities,’” Jenkins said. “Basically, the things truly great athletes have that people gravitate to, that make people say, ‘that dude can do things the average guy can’t.’

“And when you’re around those guys … you just sense it. You can’t really put your finger on it, but once you’ve seen it, you know what it looks like.

“When you’re taking over a program, I guess you have to have a vision of some kind and you’ve got to stand by it. If I’d been wrong, we’re probably not having this conversation. I’d probably have been out, and another job now.”

The gaudy numbers have come a result of the perfect marriage between player and offense, the coach says.

“Fit. He just fits,” Jenkins said. “It’s two paths crossing at the exact right time.”

A GUIDING LIGHT Junior’s father was a standout wide receiver at St. James who graduated in 1987. His brother, Juarelle, starred at linebacker for the Wildcats team that defeated John Curtis for a district championship and finished as Class 2A state runner up in 2007, and went on to play at Nicholls State.

“I’ve watched their every

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move,” Junior said. “They’ve set me straight on what to do and what to stay away from, in the classroom and on the streets. They’ve taught me about being a football player, but also about how to stay on the right path in life.”

Lowell Sr. said his own life experiences and mistakes have influenced his mentorship to his sons.

“I had a few offers, but I didn’t have the mindframe I do today,” Lowell Sr. said. “I tell him to think about how your choices are going to affect you down the line.

Think before you make a dumb decision. You’re not in this world by yourself. If you have to think about it, don’t be afraid to call a family member and ask for advice.”

After St. James defeated Sterlington in the second round of the 2013 playoffs, he had a conversation with his son on the car ride back home.

“I told him, ‘Coach Jenkins put this in your hands.

These other kids look up to you,’” Lowell Sr. said. “‘It’s your time now to be a man, step up and lead.’”

That leadership manifests itself in many ways.

Posted in the St. James locker room is a list of Twitter posts by the quarterback printed out by Jenkins, each offering a motivational expression.

One of those reads, “Can’t depend on God-given talent my whole life.”

With the support group he has, it’s not likely he’ll ever have to.

— By Ryan Arena

www.gemdrugs.com 38 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

A crowd gathers in 2014 for the first Makin’ It Do What It Do Motorcycle Ride and Car Show in LaPlace, started in honor of Brandon Nielsen, inset top left, who was killed, along with Jeremy Triche, inset top right, in August 2012 while on duty as a deputy with the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Fallen deputies forever honored

A

Jeremy Triche K-9 Narcotics Competition that draws teams from across the South, a hugely successful Makin’ It Do What It Do Motorcycle Ride and Car Show that is readying its second go this September and numerous non-profit foundations and community fundraisers.

That’s just a snapshot of the total River Region response since the murders of St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies Brandon Nielsen, 34, and Jeremy Triche, 28.

Both young men were shot

and killed, ambush style, in August 2012 while investigating an earlier shooting that wounded a Sheriff’s Office deputy. A domestic terrorist group known as the Sovereign Citizens has been implicated in the killings, officials said.

It’s a story many people in the River Parishes know, but it is far from the whole tale and certainly not the end of the story.

Both men left behind wives, children, extended family and hundreds of friends. In the two plus years since their deaths, dozens of confidants have worked tirelessly to keep the names of Brandon and Jeremy Motorcycle officers prepare for a ride as part of 2014’s in the forefront, as vehicles for Makin’ It Do What It Do Motorcycle Ride and Car Show.

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 39

awareness and positive change.

At the center of that movement are two strong women who aren’t letting the cowardly acts of a moment in time derail the continued, positive impact Brandon Nielsen and Jeremy Triche were providing their families and this community.

BRANDON NIELSEN Daniell and Brandon Nielsen had a mutual friend who suggested they all hang out together one night in New Orleans.

The connection was instantaneous, with Daniell and Brandon enjoying the same sense of humor, which she describes as “sarcastic, even smart ass.”

They married Sept. 19, 2005, blending their families together to form something truly special.

Daniell’s three boys — Tyler, Cody and Jared — from a previous relationship joined Brandon’s daughter, Gabrielle, from a previous relationship in a new, loving family, which eventually welcomed baby girl Lily.

Daniell said she marveled at how Brandon got along with her boys’ father, adding their marriage and family life was ideal during stops in Destrehan and New Sarpy. “(Brandon was) kind, funny and silly, and loved to take the girls to the zoo,” Daniell said. “Brandon knew how to talk to people, even bad people, even people he was arresting. He was genuine.”

After almost seven years of marriage, Daniell said her relationship with Brandon was in a “really, really good place” when the fateful day in 2012 arrived, the last hours they spent together still vividly remembered.

“That’s what made it such a tragedy, but it is also something I cherish,” she said.

Although tired from working an overnight shift, Brandon met Daniell at her job and took her to lunch. Later, when she got home and he was preparing for another night shift, she brought him a Coca-Cola Zero thirst buster, a simple gesture married couples do for each other. However, Daniell said Brandon was grateful for the gesture.

It was one of their final exchanges.

Brandon’s kind nature and genuine concern for others, as well as his fascination with the police force, started early, according to family members.

Mother Wendy Nielsen said her son loved the TV show CHiPS, which featured motorcycle officers Frank Poncherello and Jon Baker.

Brandon and Daniell Nielsen had a mutual friend who suggested they all hang out together one night in New Orleans, and their connection was instantaneous.

Wendy, from left, J.J. and Steve Nielsen are leading The Brandon J. Nielsen Memorial Foundation to keep the memory of their son and brother alive.

It’s a passion that eventually led Brandon to become a Harley-Davidson enthusiast and bike deputy.

“He participated in these police rodeos, skills competition,” father Steve Nielsen said of his son Brandon.

“It’s basically an obstacle course. He would say, ‘I’m just makin’ it do what it do.’ That was just his Cajun saying he picked up.”

That phrase and Brandon’s obvious skill on a motorcycle led to the inaugural “Makin’ It Do What It Do” Motorcycle Ride and Car Show, which was held Sept. 27, 2014. A function of

40 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

The Brandon J. Nielsen Memorial Foundation, set up by his parents, the LaPlace event drew an amazing 90 motorcycles from several law enforcement agencies in its first year.

Approximately 30 cars also participated and $2,500 was raised for Louisiana COPS (Concerns of Police Survivors), which provides resources to assist in the rebuilding of the lives of surviving families and co-workers of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

“Losing Brandon was and will continue to be devastating,” Wendy said.

Jeremy Triche worked with K-9s with the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“We wanted to give back to the community, and Brandon was always community conscious.

“You always remember where you were when something like this happens, when you get the call or notification. If it is not handled properly, it can certainly add to the grief you are already experiencing. Brandon’s death didn’t just end on Aug. 16.”

More than 10 years younger than Brandon, his sister J.J. said events like the car and motorcycle show provide a source of family for her as she copes with the loss of her bother. “(Other officers) look out for all of us, even people I don’t know,” she said. “They’ve kind of taken me under their wing as their little sister since my brother is not physically with me.

Instead of having one sibling, I can’t even tell you how many siblings I have now. It became like a bigger family.”

A bigger and better “Makin’ It Do What It Do” Motorcycle Ride and Car Show is already planned Sept. 26, 2015, and the fundraising angle remains at the forefront.

JEREMY TRICHE Jeremy Triche graduated with a criminal justice degree from Southern Arkansas University. He had aspirations of one day being sheriff or becoming a lawyer in an effort to take the law in a different direction.

Every morning he woke up and put

Jeremy, Kade and Misty Triche enjoy some birthday cake.

on his uniform with a sense of purpose, which was to help people.

“He loved this parish and just wanted to make things good,” said Misty Triche, who met Jeremy long before he was a police officer. “He looked proud every single time. I remember the day

he graduated from the academy and he was in full dress guard, he just had this look on his face that was indescribable joy and happiness that he was going to be able to start doing what he loved doing.”

In fact it was Jeremy’s facial expres-

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 41

sions that attracted her to him long ago and are so easy to remember now.

To hear Misty tell it, if you ever see a baseball picture of Jeremy, he had a way of biting his bottom lip and sort of smirking while maintaining a serious face.

“Kade does that and has been doing that since he was in the womb,” Misty said of her and Jeremy’s son.

Misty said whatever Jeremy put his mind to, he could do and do it right.

“He did it with no regrets and no bitterness,” she said.

“I remember his first (police) call.

It was a 16-year-old girl that died in Garyville on an ATV that rolled. It really shook him. It enlightened him.

It made him strive to work harder to make people know about safety and that the police are there to help.

He would stop and talk to people. He respected the people of this parish and wanted to protect them.”

Following Jeremy’s death, Misty and Chuck Bazile, Triche’s supervisor at the time of his murder, started an annual event — Jeremy Triche Narcotics K-9 Competition — that draws friends and supporters from around the country.

Misty said events like the competition and the help of people like her mother Sherry help provide strength through tragedy.

“Everywhere we go, my mom goes, my mother-in-law goes, people will ask how we’re doing, how Kade’s doing,” she said. “The community has been amazing.

“The first initial K-9 competition was to raise money for myself and for Kade. I didn’t take any money from the first competition. I put it in an account. We’ve been donating to police officers that are in poor health or anyone who needs help in the community.

It is something for me to be able to give back the way Jeremy did.”

Finding purpose and giving back is something that has come natural to Edie Triche, Jeremy’s mother, who tragically lived less than 100 yards from where her son was killed.

She has begun the Deputy Jeremy Triche Fallen Hero Foundation to further the efforts of law enforcement and contribute to K-9 officers through training and equipment.

“We figured that since he wasn’t here to do that, we were going to make his best happen,” Edie said. “We don’t want anybody to forget about him. He was determined to do this, so we are determined to get this done for him.

“We do have a lot of support, not only

Jeremy Triche gets some squeeze time in with son Kade, left. Before joining the ranks of law enforcement, Jeremy played baseball at Southern Arkansas University.

from St. John and the surrounding parishes. We get calls everyday wanting to know what they can do to help.

It is just amazing. Our foundation is not really out there yet, but with the help of all these other people, it’s going to get out there.”

Edie said the first major fundraiser is slated for June 13, 2015.

Organizers are working to produce the first annual Jeremy Triche Spots and Dots Fishing Tournament in Concordia, because Jeremy loved to fish the area with his dad and brother, always with an eye out for speckled trout and redfish.

NEVER FORGOTTEN The constant phone calls and growing fundraisers are near constant

42 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community

reminders that those who loved Brandon Nielsen and Jeremy Triche aren’t letting their memories and legacy be determined by the tragic deaths each suffered.

Each man found a unique calling in law enforcement, and friends and family agree, St. John the Baptist Parish and the greater River Region was a better place for it.

With that in mind, those who knew Brandon and Jeremy ask the community to keep their contributions in mind while supporting the benefits that bare the deputies’ names, events that show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

— By Stephen Hemelt

Emergency Services ‘‘

As our community continues to expand, we’re

‘‘

proud to expand with it and provide the quality health care it deserves.

Dr. Brent Giuffre | Emergency Services Medical Director

Innovative Approaches and Technology Include • Spacious and Multi-Functional Patient Rooms The design of the Emergency Services floor plan is based on the concept of multi-functional rooms, which are categorized as: Less Sick More Sick Trauma Behavioral Health.

Generous conference, results waiting and consult rooms are strategically located for patient and family convenience.

• Reduced Patient Wait Time Treating patients in the appropriate room setting reduces the door-todoctor wait time. It also helps the Emergency Services staff to effectively handle surges in patient volume.

• Self-Contained Exterior Decontamination Area Strategically located in the center of an industrial corridor, St. Charles Parish Hospital is prepared for chemical emergencies that may arise by having a Decontamination Area attached to the emergency department.

EMS units will have direct access to the Decontamination Area without having to pass through the main Emergency entrance.

• Direct Access To Hospital Support Services A wide hallway connects the new Emergency Services facility directly to the main hospital. In minutes, a critically ill patient can be within the radiology department for diagnosis.

• Advanced Equipment and Skilled Professionals Every patient room is equipped with the latest technology to handle crisis situations. Emergency physicians, nurses and staff are prepared to act quickly and effectively.

1057 Paul Maillard Road | Luling | (985) 785-6242 | www.stch.net

Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community ~ 43

Reserve Telecommunications was founded in 1935 by local entrepreneur Daniel Madere to provide telephone service to a portion of St. John the Baptist Parish that the big companies had passed over. Through the years, RTC has grown and prospered by expanding our service area and products.

Eighty years later we are a full service hometown telecommunications provider serving the St. John, St. James and Northern Lafourche Parishes with Telephone, Video, High–Speed Internet, and Security Services.

RTC is Louisiana owned, locally managed and an active member of the River Parishes & Bayou communities. We are focused on serving the needs of our local community. Our goal is to provide you with better products, better service and a better value.

44 ~ Roads, Roots & River: Celebrating Our Community