MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / June 6, 2000

LAPLACE – East St. John High School has had a long baseball tradition,capturing five state championships in the sport.

One of the best and most influential of those Wildcat teams was the 1968 team that captured the state title, the first in school history. Dr. Nemour(Steve) De Laneuville, the coach of that team, has published a book about that memorable season titled “The 1st Baseball State Championship.”De Laneuville writes that Leon Godchaux High School played Neville for the state championship in 1955 but by 1962, the baseball team was on the verge of being abolished by the school’s athletic department after winning just one game that season.

De Laneuville took over as coach in 1963 and began building the program behind a formula of nurturing esprit de corps among the players, developing a first class baseball program, organizing baseball practices with a purpose and improve school and community interest in the program.

De Laneuville’s 1965 and ’66 team would win district titles. The 1968 teambroke through, defeating Minden for the state title behind a perfect game by Richard Simon.

De Laneuville’s book takes the reader through a game-by-game account of that 1968 season, peppered with quotes by the coach and box scores for each game. He concludes the season with a detailed look back at thechampionship game win, including a play-by-play account. The book concludeswith a look back at the honors won by that team and the Wildcat baseball dynasty throughout the years.

De Laneuville said the 1968 Class 2A state champions were a good team at the beginning of the season and became better after going through an early schedule that included a number of Class 3A (then the highest classification) teams and the Nicholls State College freshman team.

“They went from a good team to a great team during that schedule,” De Laneuville said. “They got confidence and became a great team during thattransition.” De Laneuville noted that the 1965 and ’66 teams laid the foundation for the baseball program and the 1968 championship solidified it. It would be thefirst of three consecutive state titles for the Wildcats, the last two under the direction of Don Savoie. East St. John later won state titles in 1990under Johnny Owens and 1992 under Casey Stockton.

“Three years in a row winning a state championship and five state championships overall, I think that’s a great accomplishment,” De Laneuville said.

De Laneuville, now a professor at the Dale Mabry Campus of Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Fla., said the idea for the book started twoyears ago when a 30-year reunion for the 1968 team was being planned. Oneof the players, J.C. Weber, suggested that napkins be printed up so thatthere would be a souvenir from that team. De Laneuville said he would dobetter than that, he would write a book about that season.

The reunion eventually fell through but De Laneuville went ahead with the book. He worked on it for the past two years, gathering material from avariety of sources, including The Morning Advocate, The Times-Picayune, L’Observateur, The Minden Press-Herald and the 1968 Leon Godchaux High School official baseball score book.

De Laneuville said the most important thing he wants the reader to take away from the book is how special the players on that team were. Membersof that team were Keith Guidry, Mike Broussard, Gus Lehmann, Bennie Cashio, Henry Haydel, Ken Clement, Richard Simon, Ricky Jacob, Charles Rousselle, J.C. Weber, Kevin Jacob, Ira Remondet, Tommy Henry, RodneyMontz, Robert Jacob and Wade Trosclair.

“They were student-athletes,” De Laneuville said. “They were outstandingbaseball players and good students and role models. They were the type ofsons you would like to have. They represented their school and the parishvery well. They were hard-working, really dedicated baseball players.”They were outstanding students as well as outstanding baseball players.

They showed if you work hard enough and have a good work ethic, you can accomplish whatever you want in this world.”

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