That former LSU coach Les Miles is no fan of his successor is no secret. Miles made it official recently during an appearance on a Houston radio show. Miles was reacting to a comment made in the spring by head coach Ed Orgeron. Orgeron was quoted by The Advocate when asked about the LSU offense: “I ask the fans to be patient. We are not where we need to be, but we’re going to get there.” Miles reacted, telling the Houston radio host the following: 

The path on which Dr. Joseph Murry’s journey took him to realize his full potential in athletics and academia began when he was a high school student at St. Aloysius. The seed was planted by the words of his senior English teacher, Sacred Heart Brother Clement, who told the class in 1964 that he was the only Brother of the Sacred Heart who had achieved a doctorate, and he was proud of that accomplishment.

This week, the Saints wrap up their offseason with mini-camp at the club’s Metairie facility. Coaches will do what they always do. They will coach their players hard and make sure that no detail is missed. But, there is something else that Saints head coach Sean Payton must coach against this summer and throughout the season. And, that is the notion that somehow the success of 2017 will carry over.

To say the recently ended track and field campaign for Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans was less than stellar might be stretching the truth just a bit. Two schools – the Academy of the Sacred Heart and St. Katharine Drexel Prep – won team state championships. 

Academy of Our Lady senior Erin Burkart was named the Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete for the month of April. She will be honored at the annual Hall of Fame ceremony in the summer.                            [Photo by Ron Brocato | CLARION HERALD]

At Tulane University, the time has come for the school to fix its baseball problem.  Since 2008, Tulane’s once flagship athletic team has reached the NCAA Tournament twice. The reason why is something that has persisted through the end of the very successful tenure of Rick Jones, through the brief and successful tenure of David Pierce, and now through two years of current head coach Travis Jewett.

The Mount Carmel volleyball team (above) celebrates its Division I championship match victory over St. Joseph’s Academy on Nov. 11, 2017, at the Pontchartrain Center. The win was the first of 16 state, class or division titles won by Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans during the 2017-18 school year. 

Archbishop Rummel will host its annual Summer Basketball League, beginning on May 31 at the school gymnasium. The league features 10 teams. Each will play eight games through June 26 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

It was a tell-all visit by a free-agent quarterback. When Ohio State transfer Joe Burrow stepped on campus at LSU in mid-May, Tigers’ head coach Ed Orgeron was telling all about his personal evaluation of the quarterbacks currently on campus.

To echo the words of Maurice Chevalier’s hit from the internationally acclaimed screenplay, “Gigi”: “Thank heaven for little girls.” That was the theme of the May 4-6 LHSAA Allstate Sugar Bowl Track and Field Championship meet at LSU.

He could have departed 25 years ago for a Division I head coaching job, but he’s glad he stayed. Delgado baseball coach Joe Scheuermann is now 32 wins shy of 1,000. “Not many junior college baseball coaches get 1,000 wins,” said Scheuermann. “That all of those wins are at Delgado, makes it even more special.”

I know that high school principals have souls. And those men and women who voted to have separate playoffs for public and non-public schools should be searching theirs to find an answer to the question: What were they thinking?

The draft-day hysteria began early when a reporter from the in-house NFL Network said the Saints were making calls to other teams about possibly trading up in the first round. Ian Rappaport reported that the Saints were interested in “likely a quarterback to be the heir apparent to Drew Brees.”

If the Louisiana Softball Coaches Association’s final Top 10 poll holds true to form on Saturday (April 28), Mount Carmel will repeat as champion of Division I. The LSCA has ranked the 2017 Division I champion as the top Select school in its Class 5A poll.

There’s tangible evidence that Tulane football is ready to turn the corner – a big, wide turn toward respectability. Winning has been an elusive endeavor Uptown. Since winning eight games and the Hawaii Bowl in 2002, the Green Wave has had one winning season. Since 2002, Tulane has won three or fewer games in seven seasons.

Since we are on the doorstep of softball and baseball playoffs, let me make a few observations of what may be about to happen: 1. I expect to see Archbishop Hannan and St. Charles Catholic face off on one of the diamonds at Sulphur’s Frasch Park in the Division II semifinal round on the morning of April 28.

Friends, family, former Jesuit schoolmates and coaches gathered at The Cannery to pay tribute to the late Daniel “Rusty” Staub who died on March 29 at age 73.  Rusty’s brother, Chuck, was one of several speakers to celebrate the former major league slugger’s life.

The Saints’ stunning improvement over the last two seasons is cemented by the numbers. In 2015, the Saints’ point differential was minus-68. It improved to a plus-15 one year later, and, in 2017, the Saints scored 122 more points than their opponents in 16 regular-season games.

The  Catholic school for girls that occupies acreage next to Archbishop Shaw has claimed its first distinction since fielding athletic teams when it opened in 2007. The Academy of Our Lady is a state champion and can take its place among Louisiana high schools who share that title.

She left a team that she thought was poised to win a national championship for a team that had never had a winning season. “I love Loyola University,” said former women’s head basketball coach DoBee Plaisance. “I had no intention of leaving.”