Hannan tournament a Catholic charity of its own

    Six high school baseball teams swung their bats  in a special tournament last weekend with a purpose that meant a lot more than winning.
    Archbishop Hannan’s team hosted the second annual “Swinging for Autism” tournament, an endeavor close to the hearts and minds of Hannan Athletic Director Joe Hines and head baseball coach Gary “Boomer” Nunez.
    Hines’ daughter Leah and Nunez’ cousin Averie are autistic children. So, when Nunez suggested the school sponsor a tournament to raise funds for the Baton Rouge Speech and Hearing Foundation, which is helping Averie overcome her special obstacles, Hines was all ears.
    Hannan hosted baseball teams from Slidell, Northlake Christian, Pearl River, St. Martin’s Episcopal and Crescent City Baptist in a three-day tournament at Coquille Park that raised more than $1,000 to benefit the foundation.
    And the star of the show was 5-year-old Averie, who was as excited to throw out the first pitch as the spectators were to see the little lady’s big moment.
Baseball season promising
    On a statewide level, the basketball season was disappointing for the local Catholic schools. By the end of the quarterfinal playoff round, all nine boys’ teams had been eliminated. The girls didn’t last that long; all were out in the regional round.
    But spring is here, and with it comes hopes of championship possibilities in the warm-weather sports whose seasons have started.
    Once again, Class 5A is loaded with baseball talent, and most of it is centered on southwest Louisiana and the Greater New Orleans area.
    Brother Martin is as hot as any team in these parts, having opened the week with a 12-2 record and a few days away from the start of play in District 9-5A.
    Jesuit (11-2) and Chalmette (8-5) are two other teams to watch in the district. Archbishop Rummel, the 2012 Class 5A runner-up, graduated the nucleus of its team and doesn’t figure into the mix right now.
    The other hot team  in the area is Marty Luquet’s Destrehan squad, which is rolling along with a 12-2 record and an early victory over Brother Martin.
    The Wildcats figure to be in another  battle  with Dave Bowdry’s Hahnville team for first place in District 8-5A. Hahnville has a 9-4 record.
    Things will be hot on the Northshore as well with no less than four teams capable of winning  the District 6-5A title.  Covington and Ponchatoula have won 10 of their first 12 games; St. Paul’s is right there with a 9-3 record as of Monday; and Slidell (8-2) is also playing well.
    In  the Southwest, the reigning 5A champion, Barbe, has a big target on its back and looks to have stout competition from no less than four teams in District 3-5A.
    The bad-boy Bucs, 12-2 with losses to Zachary and DeRidder, will  have  to get past Comeaux (11-2), Sam Houston (11-2), Lafayette (10-4) and Sulphur (8-4).
    The other formidable team comes from Dutchtown (9-5), which has not skirted tough competition to prepare it for a run at the District 5-5A and possibly state championships.
Other local districts
    Archbishop Shaw and Holy Cross are off to slow starts, but there is little reason to believe neither will win its respective district title.
    Shaw’s 5-9 record is a product of playing 10 opponents with winning records.  But the Eagles already have more wins than their five District 9-4A opponents, which sport a combined 6-31 mark.
    Holy Cross (4-9) is also taking its lumps, but its strongest competition in District 10-5A appears to be East Jefferson (5-3), which has scored 15 runs against Bonnabel, 12 against Bourgeois and 18 in a win over Terrebonne.    
    St. Charles Catholic is historically strong in its district. And although the Comets’ early record is just 5-6 and Brusly (9-2) and E.D. White (10-1) are blowing away the competition, look for this to be a close three-way battle.   
    Another team hardly making its presence known is De La Salle. The Cavaliers have won just twice in their first nine games. But, don’t despair, Cav fans; the four other teams in District 10-3A – Lusher, Miller-McCoy, McDonogh High and McMain – have a combined 3-9 record and are not as organized as De La Salle.
    Hannan’s 4-6 record is also deceiving. My observation of the Hawks is that they are very capable of winning the District 7-1A championship and should get a boost from their three district opponents, which are more efficient on the football field than the  diamond.
    Pope John Paul II will have to make big strides quickly to have an impact on the District 8-2A outcome. The team to beat is Northlake Christian, whose only loss came in the Hannan Tournament, a 9-2 setback to 5A Slidell.
Making tracks
    Track and field season got underway with a handful of meets, one of which was the Rummel Raider Relays last week at Tad Gormley Stadium, won by Hahnville, whose 133 points edged out Holy Cross (128) and host Rummel (127) for first place. There were a few promising performances:
    ➤ Rummel’s Conner Killian won the 1,600-meter run in 4:49.27, more than 10 seconds faster than the second place finisher. Killian was also third in the 3,200-meter run.
    ➤ Brother Martin’s Dominic Casadaban topped 14 feet, 2 inches to win the  pole vault.
    ➤ Senior Kent Shelby of Archbishop Shaw was first in the triple jump at 43 feet, 8 1/2 inches and finished second in the 110-meter hurdles.
    And kudos to two former local Catholic high school state champions, Devinn Rolland and Chris Kennie.
    Rolland, a Cabrini product, won the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference’s Women’s Field Athlete of the Week when she qualified for the NAIA National Championships by jumping 18 feet, 7 inches in a recent meet.
    Kennie, a Holy Cross grad,  was the men’s Field Award winner with a long jump of 22  feet, 7 inches in the Tulane Team Challenge meet last week.