Welcome to Lake Charles, Ayla Guzzardo.

By the way, Lake Charles is also located in America; we just don’t think we need to remind people about that.

Ayla, you look much better in blue than in green. Green, though, is a fitting color considering where you came from — Southeastern Louisiana fans are probably pretty green with envy right now.

On Monday, Guzzardo, a two-time Southland Conference women’s basketball coach of the year, moved her base of operations from Hammond to “The Chuck.”

Since no international borders were crossed, one can assume both cities are in, in fact, in America. We certainly don’t feel the need to remind people of that with our uniforms. We just assume our folks know how to read a map.

Guzzardo fit right in when talking speaking during her formal introduction on Monday. Everyone was sitting in their seats when she began to speak. Everyone except for Rowdy, McNeese State’s mascot, who must have gotten lost on his way.

Rowdy arrived, more late than what’s fashionable, but it’s been a long week for us basketball folk in Lake Charles. Or maybe Rowdy was born in Hammond and struggles with a map?

It doesn’t matter. He, like the rest of us, knows what a good hire this is for McNeese and its resident thief, Athletic Director Heath Schroyer.

Like any true gangster, Schroyer stole his rival’s goods and then laughed about it.

“Every good story needs a villain,” Schroyer said. “I embrace being a villain.”

To the rest of the Southland, Schroyer is the devil, especially when it comes to basketball. First, he stole the conference tournaments, and now he’s heisting coaches.

Making matters worse, he didn’t just steal one Southeastern head coach, he lifted the Lions’ pockets for two. SLU seemed poised to name Kenneth Lee as Guzzardo’s replacement.

Lee was the Lions’ associate head coach last season when they went 26-6 to win the Southland regular-season title. He would make perfect sense as a head coach.

Guzzardo wanted to bring her entire staff along for the ride to McNeese, so Schroyer got on the phone. Ten minutes later, Lee was moving, too. Schroyer poached two head coaches from a rival in a matter of hours

It would not have surprised us if he also bought the team bus.

If you’re playing poker with Schroyer, you better bring a gun.

Guzzardo said she would like to bring most of her SLC champs with her, meaning McNeese will have both the defending men’s and women’s basketball champs in the house next fall.

McNeese can always use a minor league system. Thanks, Hammond, and America, for filling that role, too.

I don’t envy Southland Commissioner Chris Grant one bit the next time he has to preside over his league’s next AD meeting.

None of this matters to Schroyer or, at this point, Guzzardo. They’re both all about winning. And that’s the difference between the McNeese of today and the McNeese of old.

It’s how it got Will Wade. It’s how we know men’s basketball won’t fall off a cliff with Schroyer around. That story might change when Schroyer leaves, which he surely will one day, just like Wade did.

For now, it’s attack, attack, attack.

If that means taking a coach or two from a foe, so be it. Schroyer’s worried about Lake Charles and McNeese, not Hammond, America.

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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com