Football Coach Slams Team’s Academics, Resigns

October 26, 2010 / Football
From The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

Academics among East St. John High School’s football players are not as bad as a speech by their former coach made they seem, according to the school district.

St. John the Baptist Parish schools Superintendent Courtney Millet released the information in the school’s first semester interim report on Monday, apparently in an effort to refute statements made by former head coach Larry Dauterive in his speech to the New Orleans Quarterback Club last week.

Although Dauterive drew the most fire for statements he made about single parents and “being a white coach coaching 100 percent black students” that some say portrayed the black community in a negative light, he also referenced his players’ academics in his speech.

Dauterive resigned Friday after five black School Board members met with Millet to share concerns about his remarks.

“We don’t have many Phi Beta Kappas on our team,” he said in the speech. “We have a few guys that maintain a 3.0. The rest of them are just glad to be there. We try to just keep them eligible in the eyes of the LHSAA standards.”

The LHSAA requires students to maintain a 1.5 grade point average to play high school athletics. About 80 percent of East St. John High’s football team has a grade point average of 2.0 or above, according to the school district, “well exceeding the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s requirements to play high school athletics.”

More than 95 percent of the team’s sophomores, juniors and seniors maintain a C average or better, according to the district.

Principal Patricia Triche said some players also are enrolled in honors courses in core classes, such as Algebra and English, and that nearly one-fourth of the players are on the honor roll.

“We take much pride in our students’ successes, both inside and outside of the classroom. But our main focus on our campus is first and foremost academic success. We have set high expectations for our students — all of our students — and they are responding well to those expectations,” Triche said in a statement.

In his speech, Dauterive lamented the number of players coming from single-parent homes, where the parents “can’t read. The child can’t read, so it’s an endless cycle.”

But Triche said more than 70 percent of the football team’s roster, which includes 85 students, scored basic or above in math and/or English.

East St. John’s football team is 8-0 this season, with interim head coach Ronald Barrilleaux leading the players to a 49-14 victory over district rival Destrehan High School Friday night, the same day they learned their head coach had resigned.

On Monday, the school district also named Barrilleaux the interim athletic director. Before coming to East St. John in 2002, he was West Thibodaux Junior High’s athletic director for three years. Millet said Barrilleaux will be the interim athletic director until the end of December.

Meanwhile, as a tenured teacher, Dauterive still has a job in the St. John system. He was scheduled to meet with the personnel department on Monday to learn at what school he will teach next. However, that meeting was rescheduled for today after Dauterive was unable to make it, according to Heidi Trosclair, media coordinator for St. John the Baptist Parish schools.

On Friday, Dauterive said he was told that he will be employed as a physical education teacher, but it will not be at East St. John High.


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