MICHAEL KIRAL

ST. JAMES – There is a flurry of construction going on around the St. James High School baseball field. Behind the home team dugout, a new field house is going on, one that will include a concession stand, coaches’ offices, lockers and an indoor batting cage. Plans for a new pressbox are also in the works. But the biggest building project may be the one that is going on between the lines. For years, the Wildcat baseball team has been overshadowed by its football and basketball counterparts. The football team has won six district championships and made two appearances in the state semifinals in the past eight years. The basketball team captured the Class 3A state title in 2000 and made four straight trips to the quarterfinals in the mid 1990s. With all that success, it’s easy to see how baseball has played second fiddle. Now, first year head coach Marty Luquet said it’s time for that to change. “You hear all the negatives from the people on the outside,” Luquet said. “They don’t know these kids. They’ve gotten a bad rap. They work a lot harder than people think. I’m very encouraged by them. They listen, they learn and they have gotten better. “There is more talent here than people think. The success of football and basketball has overshadowed this program. I think it’s time for the baseball team to start making some noise.” Luquet is the architect of this building project along with assistant coaches Bill Calhoun and Steve Trosclair. All three have had success in baseball. Luquet coached nine years at Walker High School, making the playoffs all nine seasons and capturing the district title eight times. Calhoun, appropriately a building contractor by trade, was in the first tier of non-faculty coaches. He played in the San Diego Padre organization in the early 1980s and has worked with Luquet in the recreation leagues in the River Parishes. “Bill is an excellent pitching coach,” Luquet said. “He makes our pitching staff better by his pitch selection and how he handles the kids.” Trosclair starred at Thibodaux High School and went on to play at Southeastern Louisiana. He brought the SLU system of practicing with him, including a chart that includes what drills the players are doing and when. “Steve brings us youth and enthusiasm and love of the game,” Luquet said. “I feel we have as good as a staff as anybody.” The building project actually got its start last season under former coach Davey Clement. The Wildcats finished with a 10-15 record, the team’s best in 20 years. Clement left after the season to take the head coaching job at Riverside. Luquet came on board shortly after. The players actually met him before he was announced, going to a Lutcher playoff game to see him. The Wildcats were also helped out by playing in the Metro League, the first time in years the program had played during the summer. The team started practice four days before the season began. “We practiced long and hard,” Luquet said. “It kind of set the tempo. It gave the team a chance to know me and for me to know them. I am a new coach but we are not meeting each other in the spring.” It would be a successful summer for the Wildcats who finished with an 8-2 record. Included in those wins was one at cross-parish rival Lutcher, a perennial playoff team. St. James will have experience this year with seven starters returning. Two of those, pitcher Seth Folse and shortstop Thaddeus Sutherland, were second team all-District 9-3A selections last season. “We’re a young team but we are out here to win,” Folse said. “We want to start a winning tradition. We want to do something in district and make the playoffs.” Folse said one of the problems last year was that the team would start off games with enthusiasm but when things start going wrong, it would fall apart. An example of that was when the Wildcats took a 2-0 lead over eventual state champion E.D. White only to see the Cardinals come back over the final three innings. Folse said the team is working to overcome that this season. “We have a lot of confidence this year,” Folse said. “The older guys are helping the younger ones out.” Sutherland said playing in the summer helped the team gain that confidence. “We’re going to be good,” Sutherland said. “We’ve been working hard to get better. We’re looking forward to doing our best and to try to win district.” That district is one of the toughest in the state. District 9-3A has featured the state champion, E.D. White, the last three seasons and has had two other teams, Lutcher and St. Charles Catholic (in Class 2A) reach the state title game during that time. “We don’t expect anything less than winning,” Luquet said. “We are expecting to be in the playoffs. To do that, we have to knock off one or all of the big three. If we do what we are supposed to do, everything will work out. We know the big three will be good. We just have to work to be better.” To get the team prepared for the rigors of district, the coaches put together a demanding pre-district schedule. St. James will play Central Lafourche in both the jamboree today and during the regular season. The Wildcats will also play in the South Terrebonne, Destrehan and Ascension tournaments. One of the highlights of the schedule is a game against Thibodaux at Nicholls State. “We went out and got them a 5A schedule,” Luquet said. “Our district is as good as any district in the state. We had to get them competition as good as our district.” Trosclair said the players are looking forward to the challenges. “They are upbeat,” Trosclair said. “They are looking forward to the season. They know they are improved and they have a lot of faith in the things we do. They are ready to play. They are doing their best to prove people wrong. They are looking to bring baseball back to St. James.” And the St. James community is looking forward to having it back. The parent organization took over the field house project from the school board and it is expected to be finished by the time district starts. “We hope to keep making it better,” Luquet said of the program. “We have the support for this program from the administration, the athletic department, the parents and the school board, everybody all the way down to make this work. Hopefully, we’re the three guys to make this happen.”