Tuesday evening, after her Lady Panthers clinched the outright District 6-2A title with a 10-5 win over Delcambre, first-year Catholic High softball coach Jenny Moneaux was all smiles.

Not only did CHS beat rival Delcambre, of which Moneaux is a proud alum who helped lead Delcambre to the state title in 2008, she also got to finally got the better of younger sister Taylor, who’s the starting third baseman for DHS.

“She’s beaten me the past two years, so it was my turn right?” said the CHS coach, obviously kidding about the “rivalry” with her younger sister.

Sibling rivalry aside, it was a proud moment for the Delcambre grad, who guided a young Catholic High team to its first outright district title in four years.

“It feels great,” said Moneaux, who was former head coach Mark Suire’s assistant at CHS two years ago. “The girls came together, worked hard, did everything I asked them to do.

“I’m speechless.”

While the new Catholic High coach was searching for words to describe how she was feeling after winning the district title at the field where she made so many memories while in high school, she admitted she really didn’t know what to expect of her Lady Panthers when she accepted the job in the fall after Suire left CHS to take over at Centenary College in Shreveport.

“Honestly, coming is as head coach, I didn’t know what to expect,” Moneaux said. “I knew that I had some big shoes to fill, I knew that I had a good group of girls and luckily, he (Suire) got them started on the path for me.”

It’s obvious that Suire had a big influence on Moneaux. Suire was head coach of the Delcambre softball team when Moneaux played for the Lady Panthers, and she said she learned a lot about coaching as his assistant for a year.

So when the former CHS coach called Moneaux and asked her to consider taking over at Catholic High  when he accepted the Centenary job, it was a relatively short phone call.

“He called me and said that there’s an opening at Catholic High and asked me if I was ready (to be a head coach),” said Moneaux. “I don’t think that any is ever “ready,” it’s kind of something that you jump on the saddle and hang on tight.”

And it’s been a wild ride for Catholic High softball this year. After stating the season with a 2-4 record, the Lady Panthers have been slowly, steadily getting better and better under Moneaux’s leadership.

After beating Delcambre, CHS is now 16-8 on the year with four games left in the regular season and battling for a spot in the top half of the Class 2A power rankings and the home first round playoff game that comes with it.

Currently, Catholic High is unofficially 18th in the rankings and the top 16 get first round home games.

“I knew that I had lost a few starters but I knew that I had a few coming back,” Moneaux said. “I didn’t know what we’d have but there was no doubt in my mind that when these girls come together and play together, they do great things.”

With one season goal out of the way, Catholic High can now work on making sure to get that first-round home playoff game and try to get back to the state tournament in Sulphur, where Catholic High has not played since losing to Evangel Christian in the semifinals in 2012.

And for CHS to return, Moneaux knows exactly what it will take to get there.

“We have to show up and play our ‘A’ game every time out from here on,” she said.