Chapelle breakthrough highlights sports seasons

By Ron Brocato, Sports
Clarion Herald

A poem I read many years ago comes to mind to illustrate the spirit and never-say-die attitude of Catholic high school sports within the archdiocese.

In writing this iambic pentameter gem some 60-plus years ago, Tennessee poet laureate Richard Gunn was reflecting on the spirit of the American people when their backs are to the wall. These lines also certainly apply to the resolve of young athletes and their refusal to give up against dubious odds.

Penned in the vernacular of the times in rural America, it reads like this:

“I passed a sandlot yesterday,

Some kids were playing ball;

I strolled along the third baseline,

Within the fielder’s call;

‘Say, what’s the score?’ I asked the chap,

He yelled to beat the stuffin’;

‘There’s no one out, the bases full,

And they’re up forty-two to nuthin’’;

“You’re gettin’ beat, aren’t you my lad?”

And then in no time flat,

He answered: ‘No sir, not as yet!

Our side ain’t been to bat!’”

This ode to an underdog hits home as another high school sports year has come to pass.     

Not one local Catholic school claimed a state, division or class championship in the marquee sports of football, basketball, baseball or track and field … the so-called “Big Four.”

And it’s not going to get any easier in the fall when Warren Easton is added to District 9-5A, formerly the “Catholic League.”

But the biggest story of this sports calendar, I believe, was penned by the bats and pitching of Archbishop Chapelle, which had been a perennial bridesmaid in a district that includes Catholic powers Mount Carmel and Dominican, John Curtis and Edna Karr, all of whose state championships in a variety of sports would fill a warehouse.

As did the proverbial sandlot team in this poem, the Chipmunks stepped up to the plate and pulled off one of their greatest achievements in Louisiana prep sports when they were crowned queens of Division I Select softball.

Chapelle has won team championships before, but never in the sport of softball. A 2-1 victory over Curtis in the Division I championship game on April 27 in Sulphur thus ended the long and painful vigil. The Chipmunks also were runners-up in the state bowling tournament.

Senior pitcher Kayla Giardina earned the title game’s Most Outstanding Player award for a performance in which the Southern Miss signee struck out 12 Patriots, allowing just two hits and an unearned run in 91 pitches.

Giardina’s accolades continued when the Allstate Sugar Bowl named her its April Athlete of the Month. During that odyssey, Giardina was 7-1 on the mound with a 1.75 ERA. She pitched 52 innings and struck out 68 batters while allowing just 24 hits. Opponents batted just .144 against her. At the plate, Giardina batted .391 with a home run and eight RBI and walked four times. 

In four playoff games, Giardina pitched 26 innings, going 4-0 with a 1.34 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 30 innings pitched. Giardina gave up just 10 hits in the four games combined. Among the eight teams Chapelle faced in April, seven made the state quarterfinals, five made the semifinals and three made state championship games.

In the playoff run, Giardina used her right arm and bat to lead fifth-seeded Chapelle to a 15-0 blowout over No. 12 Woodlawn of Baton Rouge, followed by a 5-3 win over district rival and No. 4 seed Mount Carmel and a 3-2 semifinal-round win over No. 1 St. Thomas More before downing Curtis for the championship.

During the nine months of high school championships, local Catholic schools won 15 state titles and were runners-up in 15 sports.

Jesuit led the group with five state trophies, having won championships in cross country, wrestling and soccer, and runner-up in swimming and tennis.

Holy Cross, like Chapelle, had struggled to keep pace among its district rivals in recent years, but the Tigers had a resurgence in 2023-24 by capturing division cross country, swimming and soccer titles and placing second in wrestling.

Archbishop Shaw returned to Marrero with state wrestling and bowling championship trophies.

Other team championships went to Dominican and Archbishop Hannan in the prestigious sport of volleyball; Pope John Paul II in boys’ swimming; Brother Martin in tennis; and St. Scholastica in girls’ swimming and soccer.