By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – The statistics on a new small business becoming a success aren’t the greatest in the world.

So you have to admire anyone who takes a stab at trying to start their own business in a small community like LaPlace.

But new owners Daniel and Danica Francois of the Athlete’s Foot in LaPlace got a pretty good boost this week, when they were fortunate enough to be selected as the store to host a top player from the New Orleans Saints, as part of a promotion the national corporate office held.

The Francois’ opened the store on August 9 of this year, and seemed to already be beating the odds with a strong three months out of the gate.

But obviously it didn’t hurt any when New Orleans Saints wide receiver Marques Colston showed up at the store this past week to meet and greet excited young, and old, fans who got autographed pictures from the popular new player on the team.

Colston came to the Athlete’s Foot in LaPlace thanks to a national contest held by the company called &#8220In My Shoes,” where they asked students to send in essays about what their aspirations were in their game of choice, and what inspired them to be the best they could be.

Only 10 winners were chosen nationally, with Metairie’s Todd Crawford, 16, one from this area who was selected. The LaPlace Athlete’s Foot was the closest store around, said Director of Retail Marketing Lori Hall, and therefore got to host Colston as one of the prizes for Crawford.

As for the young Francois couple, who have ventured into the small business world with some great success early on, it was obviously exciting to have Colston show up in their store.

Danica was born and raised in Reserve, then went on to school at East St. John and Southeastern, while Daniel was from New Orleans and went to Southern University. The couple married 11 years ago, with Daniel still working at Shell today.

However they said they both always wanted to open their own business, and after having two sons, realized there was a lack of athletic footwear in LaPlace.

&#8220We wanted some kind of franchise store and finally settled on the Athlete’s Foot,” they said.

&#8220We know it is hard to open a small business, but so far we are doing great,” Danica said. &#8220And we know we have God on our side, so we are going to do well.”

The store is located in the Riverlands Shopping Center on Airline Highway, and offers some apparel, along with the expected wide variety of shoes.