Road weary: Barbe, DeQuincy wait patiently to go home
Published 8:00 am Thursday, August 31, 2023
The main gym at DeQuincy High School has sat unused since a pair of hurricanes hit in 2020 and is in need of major repairs before it can be used again. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
The main gym at DeQuincy High School has sat unused since a pair of hurricanes hit in 2020 and is in need of major repairs before it can be used again. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
The main gym at DeQuincy High School has sat unused since a pair of hurricanes hit in 2020 and is in need of major repairs before it can be used again. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
The main gym at DeQuincy High School has sat unused since a pair of hurricanes hit in 2020 and is in need of major repairs before it can be used again. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
A worker sands the new court in the main gym at Barbe High School on Monday. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
A worker sands the new court in the main gym at Barbe High School on Monday. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
Work is progressing on the new court in the main gym at Barbe High School. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
Show is damage to the ceiling in the secondary gym at Barbe High School when a light standard from the football field hit the gym during Hurricane Laura in 2020. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
Three years after Hurricanes Laura and Delta unleashed their wrath on Southwest Louisiana, some sports teams remain displaced.
For the Barbe and DeQuincy volleyball teams, it is the fourth consecutive season without an on-campus home gym.
“They have handled it very well and have handled it with grace with all the adversity of having to travel just for a home game,” Barbe head coach Katie Franks said. “I applaud them for that.
“They have to be adaptable and be ready for change even if it is last minute, having to change where we are playing or practicing that day. That can help in game play as well.”
For Barbe seniors Rory Boyd, Bailey Helms, Mia Parkerson and Grace Buff, and DeQuincy counterparts Hadley Mazilly, Kameryn Mitchell, Kinlee Reeves and Nakayla Williams, it has been a continuous road trip. But they continue to battle on.
DeQuincy has played its home matches at DeQuincy Middle School since 2020. The Tigers’ home gym is in a major state of disrepair with buckled floorboards, roof damage and mold issues. That gym stays locked because of the hazards. DeQuincy says it’s waiting to hear from FEMA before it can move forward, Calcasieu Parish School System public information officer Holly Holland said in an email to the American Press.
“Logistically speaking, it has been a struggle,” DeQuincy Principal Zach Jones said. “We are extremely grateful for the administration at DeQuincy Middle School allowing us the use of their gym facility to host home volleyball and basketball games for the past several years. However, we must still work around their scheduled practices and home games.
“We are hosting only eight of our 21 volleyball games at home (DMS) simply because of scheduling conflicts. We have been living the motto, ‘improvise, adapt, and overcome,’ since the hurricanes of 2020, and we continue to do so.
“I give a tremendous amount of credit to our coaches, student-athletes, teachers, and parents for the resiliency and grit they have shown in dealing with all the challenges which have been thrown our way, and we are all looking forward to some real progress being made soon.”
The Tigers are able to use a small non-competition gym on campus with a cobbled-together volleyball net but have to share time with the basketball, football and cheer teams.
“They have just had to adapt,” first-year DeQuincy head volleyball coach Taylor Istre said. “We practiced all summer at the middle school, then school started and the middle school team needed that gym.
“So we are practicing in the old gym at the high school during eighth hour then after school a little bit. We have this net setup. It’s the old-timey concrete bases with the standards sticking out of them, and we have a net rigged up.
“The last two years, they didn’t have a volleyball coach on campus. It was just a dad that volunteered, so they practiced here, there and everywhere whenever they could. But it really wasn’t ideal circumstances.
“The team seems to be thankful. It is such a good group of girls. We kept 21 girls, and it is just me, so it does get chaotic sometimes as far as space and everybody being occupied, but they are very thankful and never complain.”
DeQuincy returns five starters, the four seniors plus junior Alyssa Jeffries, who transferred from a high school in Georgia, and looks to return to the playoffs after falling short last season. The Tigers lost their home opener on Tuesday in a four-set nondistrict loss to Hamilton Christian, 16-25, 25-22, 21-25, 24-26.
“I think that if they can get over the mental challenges, they will definitely be in the playoffs again,” Istre said. “They are very talented.
“We are doing what we can. We are optimistic.”
At Barbe, Principal Patrick Fontenot said the Bucs have been able to practice in the girls gym but can’t use it for competition because it needs the floor replaced and roof work among other things. The main gym is further along and workers were sanding the new floor in preparation for painting court lines and staining the floor, but Fontenot said it is still up in the air when it will be ready to use.
“Our student-athletes, coaches and parents have met the challenge head-on and focused their energies on what the sport provides them and not what Hurricane Laura took from them,” Fontenot said.
The Bucs have played home matches at S.J. Welsh Middle School and rented facilities at McNeese to host a tournament on Sept. 15-16. The basketball teams have practiced or played games at nine locations since 2020.
“They have been good,” Franks said. “They have adapted to it, but I don’t think they know anything different.
“They came as a freshman group and have never played a home game here. But I know in their hearts and in their lifetime, they would like to play a home game here at Barbe High School. That is hopefully our goal before the season ends.”
Despite the nomadic lifestyle, the Bucs have made the playoffs the last two seasons and return four starters — Boyd, Ann Kat Barrett, Madi Areno and Ava Leger. They open the season today when they host Westminster Christian-Lafayette.
