In Nick Trosclair’s first season as the Blue Jays’ head basketball coach, St. Edmund finished 12-12 overall, 3-2 in District 5-1A.
“Last year there wasn’t a lot of expectations,” Trosclair said. “They hadn’t won many games prior to last season.”
The six previous seasons, the Blue Jays garnered 16 total wins.
St. Edmund opens the season Monday at Notre Dame before participating in the Northside Christian tournament that tips off on Thursday.
“We had some success last season so the minimum expectation is to match that this year,” the coach said.
“We started day one with eight kids and we finished with 14,” Trosclair said of last season’s roster. “We have 22 out for basketball this year.”
Trosclair said he is excited to see what his seniors can do this season.
“Seniors are always special to me,” the coach said. “Last year, we had one senior who will be hard to replace – Alex Dupre.
“The core group that I had last year, they are the guys who are going to make things go.”
Senior point guard Henry Brown is joined by first team All-District 5-1A selection Easten Coleman along with Luke Trahan and Alex Fontenot.
“We have 11 seniors, some who are new to the team this year,” Trosclair said. “We will think this can be a special season for the team.”
The seniors are Henry Brown, Alex Fontenot, Coleman, Trahan, Gus Brown, Ross Fontenot, Avery Heinen, Dominic Prudhomme, Nic Fontenot, Tony Walker and Jacob Southall.
Trosclair has seven juniors including Landen Carroll, Ian Dupre, Garrett Dubois, William Driggs, Nick Bertrand, Mark Fruge and Blaise LeJeune.
Kieran Davis is the only Blue Jay sophomore, while Copeland Miller, Brennan Manuel and Jay Lavergne are freshmen.
“We want to see success this year, but we also want to build for the years to come,” the coach said. “We want boys basketball to be remembered along with the other sports at St. Ed’s.”
Trosclair said he knows COVID-19 issues could affect the schedule, but he is hopeful the season can continue without interruptions.
“We are going to play a lot of games this season,” the coach said. “We owe it to the seniors to get in as many games as we can because we don’t know how this year is going to unfold because of COVID.”
One of the highlights of the season is the Blue Jays will hold its own tournament Dec. 28-30.
“We are going to host a 10-team boys tournament between Christmas and New Year’s and that is going to be exciting for us,” Trosclair said. “It will be a great event.”
The Blue Jays will also participate in the Northside Christian tournament (Dec. 10-12) and the Vermilion Catholic tournament (Dec. 22-23).
The Blue jay coach said he likes the District 5-1A format where they play each team just once instead of the home and away series.
“It gives you freedom with your schedule to build up power points,” Trosclair said. “We will continue to play Sacred Heart twice because we love that rivalry.
“We could see Westminster twice because they are coming to our tournament,” he said. “OC is a team we need to learn to compete with – playing them will only make us better.”
No. 3 Opelousas Catholic defeated No. 14 St. Edmund 83-49 in the opening round of the Div. IV playoffs last season.
In 2019, the No. 22 Blue Jays stunned No. 11 Hanson Memorial 53-34 in the first round of the playoffs before falling to No. 6 Vermilion Catholic (65-29).
In 2018, the No. 22 Blue Jays lost in the first round to No. 11 St. Martin’s Episcopal, 69-35.
