By Rebecca Burk Ellis / L’Observateur / June 15, 1998

LUTCHER – The days of student athletes at Lutcher High School sharing lockers and being crammed into tiny weight rooms will soon be over.

Tim Detillier, athletic director, asked the St. James Parish School Boardat its meeting Tuesday night if the department could borrow $200,000 to build a new athletic facility which would house lockers and weights.

The school board approved his request unanimously after a few minutes of discussion.

“Since 1991 we have been sharing lockers. But that’s a good problem,”Detillier said, adding that over half of the students at the high school are involved in athletics.

“Our locker room was built for 40 players and we have over a hundred on the team now,” he added. “We just can’t fit everybody anymore.”The athletic booster club, referred to as The Quarterback Club, will reimburse the school board with scheduled payments that will be determined later.

“The Quarterback Club got more aggressive with fund-raisers,” Detillier said. “They are one of the largest and most successful fund-raising groupsin the state.”Board member Kenneth Foret made a motion to accept Detillier’s request, which was seconded by Carol Lambert.

Board member Lloyd LeBlanc, who was concerned with the legalities of the request, made an amendment to the motion requesting them to follow all of the legal requirements the school board would have to meet in undertaking a similar project, such as getting bids. LeBlanc’s amendmentwas seconded by George Nassar.

Before a vote was cast, board member Richard Reulet asked Superintendent John Boughton if the board could afford to loan the money to the school. “How can our budget handle this?” Reulet questioned. “Weare getting ready to make a new budget and we don’t know where we stand.””We can afford it,” Boughton responded. “We have just under $3 million inservice funds.”At that, Reulet asked where the building was going to be constructed.

Detillier said that it would probably be on the north end of the visitors’ side bleachers.

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