By Ron Brocato

As the temperature warms and spring sports take center stage, Brother Martin athletics has risen as a program among the most elite in a district reputed to be the most competitive in its class.

The Crusaders’ soccer team enjoyed a 22-4-1 season, bringing home the Division I runner-up prize, and the basketball team claimed 21 victories in its 31-game season with the most undersized team in District 9-5A under head coach Wesley Laurendine. And that’s a sign of more great things to come.

The soccer season

Matt Millet, a fiery leader who has enjoyed success throughout his coaching career, guided the team through a season in which the Crusaders earned the Division I No. 2 playoff seed. They defeated Live Oak, Lafayette High, H.L. Bourgeois, and Denham Springs, scoring 17 goals to their opponents’ three (all by Denham Springs in a 4-3 Crusader semifinal round).

But there is one more hurdle to climb, the blue cloud of Jesuit, which edged the Crusaders, 2-1, in winning its 14th state championship on Feb. 28. The No. 1 seeded Blue Jays were also the district champion via a 4-2 win over the Crusaders.

Millet reflected on the match and season, pointing out, “I’m a brash type of person who says things to make a point. And I think the kids have started to understand, in all the hot air I preach that there is substance behind it. In both games against Jesuit, we took a lead. Other teams just don’t do that.”

Can Brother Martin’s program finally stand on the same pedestal in the coach’s mind?

I don’t know if it’s fair to say that we’ve caught up with them, but we definitely deserve to be with them on the field now,” Millet said. “They have the ‘IT’ factor. And when you’re winning, it becomes part of your DNA. It takes a really special team to beat them, so I can’t say that our program has caught up, but we’re a team that, on a special day, can beat them.”

Making its first championship match appearance since 2002, Brother Martin took a 1-0 lead in just 15 minutes, something few other teams have been able to do during Jesuit’s 21-0-1 season. Jesuit scored the final two goals to salvage the win.

“I think the outcome was the result of a couple of mistakes we made at key times, giving them the opportunity to score. That was the difference,” Millet added. “We were prepared, and we were organized for 50 minutes. One mistake gave them a bit of momentum.

“The environment was incredible; the kind of environment you want to be part of,” the coach said about the atmosphere at Strawberry Stadium. “And the student support – when students travel 45 miles by bus to support the team, says something about the way we are trending. I know it was the finals, but kids don’t usually come out for a soccer game like that.”

Although he said losing the match was crushing, there was still a lesson to teach. “When we got the second place trophy, some of the kids started dribbling off to the bench. But I made them come back to watch Jesuit celebrate because that’s fuel to the fire you can draw from.”

The basketball season

After four successful seasons at the helm of Archbishop Shaw, Laurendine was ready to move on to a higher division, and the prospects of coaching in the highly competitive “Catholic League” had been his goal from the time he was a player at Archbishop Rummel. Other schools’ administrations were aware of his ability to motivate athletes, as well, but there were no openings available until a vacancy emerged at Brother Martin last year.

Laurendine inherited a team of enthusiastic athletes who overcame their lack of overall size under his watchful eye. He installed an aggressive offense that attacks the goal through its constant movement and complemented it with an equally aggressive defense that harassed the Crusaders’ opponents, which would be essential to compete in a district that sent seven of its eight teams to the LHSAA playoffs.

Laurendine knows about competition. As a guard on the 2002-04 Archbishop Rummel teams, he defended Brother Martin’s D.J. Augustin quite well. Today, he coaches on the court named in honor of the two-time All-State MVP and 12-year former NBA star, looking forward to continued improvement against top competition as his team matures.