When it comes to most teams, the conversation heading into the season revolves around who will be the leader on the field. Looking at the New Orleans Saints, it’s clear that Drew Brees is the leader for this team with the amount of experience he has in the league and his personality.
With the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns baseball team, it’s not about just one player. It revolves around a team effort.
“We’ve got some good leaders, but I echo Mike’s (Lotief) feelings I think everybody should lead because they say we will influence 10,000 people in our lives”, head coach Tony Robichaux said during his press conference on Monday afternoon as we draw closer to the regular season.
According to Robichaux, he has had a leadership course set up at the university for the last five or six years to help teach leadership to his team.
“There’s only two ways to learn leadership and character: it’s got to be taught and it’s got to be modeled.” Robichaux said, “Teaching is the easy part. Modeling leadership is what’s hard to do.”
When it comes to Robichaux, he has been one of the most respected coaches in the country and even more respected as a person with how much effort he puts into turning these college-age kids into men and preparing them for life after baseball. The life lessons that he’s given his players have helped them out off the field and paid off extremely well on the field.
Look at the last three seasons for the Ragin Cajuns. They’ve dominated the Sun Belt with three straight conference titles, hosted two NCAA regionals and a super-regional. What Robichaux and the rest of the Cajuns staff is working and perhaps the shift towards being a team of leaders is the way that teams should go if they want to reach a certain level of success.
-Clint Domingue