With Catholic High winning the state Class 3A softball championship Saturday night, we may have possibly seen the greatest single season for girls athletics in the Teche Area.

Think about it, in  one school year, Catholic High managed to win not one, not two, but three team state championships and one state runner-up and will most likely add an individual state championship Saturday at the Class 3A state track and field finals at LSU’s Bernie Moore Stadium. 

It started in November, when the Lady Panthers won the Division IV state volleyball championship over Academy of the Sacred Heart of New Orleans. Fast forward to February when CHS lost the Division III state soccer championship to that same school. Leap again to Saturday when the Lady Panthers not only won the Class 3A softball championship in Sulphur but also won the state gymnastics meet at Baton Rouge Magnet High.

I’m not an expert on such issues, but that may be the only time a school has won two state championships on the same day.

That in and of itself is a remarkable feat.

Three state titles and one runner-up in one school year. 

And it may not be over just yet.

On Saturday, Morgann LeLeux, who helped CHS win the state gymnastics title last Saturday, goes for her fifth state championship in the pole vault at the state track meet and barring illness or injury  or something else unforeseen is most likely to come back home with another individual state title in her signature event. 

This has been building at Catholic High for the past 15 years. Good coaching, good athletes and a little bit of luck has brought the girls athletic programs to this point where success is breeding more success.

And while the girls’ program may not go 3-for-4 again in a school year, there is no reason to believe that it won’t continue this recent level of achievement for the foreseeable future.

The girls, excuse me, young ladies, who are participating in volleyball, soccer, softball and gymnastics now, and the ones coming up, know what’s expected of them.

And no one wants lets a legacy slip  away.

 

Neal McClelland is assistant sports editor of The Daily Iberian.