1996 BATON ROUGE CITY & REGIONAL WRESTLING CHAMPIONS

 
Rebels Seniors:
Front Row: Jonathan Ocmond, Scott Boutte, Mike Gabel
Back Row: Jim Shaheen Tim LaTour, Keitric Barber, Coach Bill Bofinger

Wrestling Banquet held at Mike Anderson's Seafood Restaurant May 13, 1996

The Season - 1995-96
Baton Rouge City Champs - Regional Champs

Undefeated Dual Meet Season - 9th State Meet

A glimpse back into the 1995-96 season shows some very impressive result and accomplishments. The team, lead by three-year letterman Tim LaTour, was undefeated for the first time in Coach Bofinger's 27 years as head coach of the Rebels. The team averaged 46 points per outing while the opponents averaged only 16 points. The team won the City and Regional tournaments for the first time since 1986. The team set a team scoring record of 215.5 points at the regional tournament and qualified a team high eleven wrestlers for the state meet. The team placed no lower than fourth in eight of the ten tournaments they entered this season. The team traveled to Texas and Alabama for out-of-state tournaments and placed well in each meet. In the state tournament held in New Orleans, the Rebels finishing ninth place. We had a great season but had a bad weekend at state.

Some individual milestones were Brian Garland winning at Hoover, City and Regionals, Jake Ortego winning the Redemptorist Invitational along with City and Regionals, Tim LaTour winning Belaire, Tri-State, Tiger, Brother Martin, City and Regionals, and Keitric Barber placing first at Cashio-Schriber, Belaire, Brother Martin, City and Regionals. Keitric has won two city and regional titles. Garland, Ortego, and LaTour being named to the first team All-Metro while Scott Boutte, Jonathan Ocmond and Barber were named to the second team and Simon Vixathep, Chad Cedotal and Seth Overall were honorable mention on the team selected by the Baton Rouge Coaches Association. Coach Bofinger was named Coach of the Year. We had six wrestlers (Garland, Boutte, Ortego, LaTour, Barber, Overall) win the regionals. Barber was third at state while LaTour and Ocmond were fourth. Jake Ortego is only the fourth wrestler to win a city title as a freshman and was named Outstanding Wrestler for his efforts. He set a quick pin record of :09 seconds, and had more wins and pins than any freshman in Lee's history.

All of these accomplishments didn't just happen, they were achieved through hard work: starting last spring in the wrestling room with the VCR and wrestling tapes, traveling to Virginia for a week long wrestling camp, thru many miles of running and hours of training, along with encouragement from their teammates and coaches.

This has been a Very Good Year!!
 

Seniors 1995-96

Tim LaTour

Senior 189 pounds: A four year wrestler, Tim dropped down a weight class from his junior year to wrestle at 189 pounds and had a banner year lettering for his third year in a row. Tim won six tournaments with 36 wins and 25 pins, while winning the City and Regional tournaments and placing fourth at state for the second year in a row. Tim was hampered with injuries this year but still was a very good leader on the team that won both a City and Regional titles. He was selected by his teammates as permanent team Captain. Tim made it a "Brother Thing" when he won titles in the City and Regionals as his brother Brandon had won ten years earlier. Tim competes his high school career with 85 wins and 51 falls.

Keitric Barber

Senior 215 pounds: Keitric is another four year wrestler who lettered for the third time this year while winning two City and Regional titles and placing third in the state tournament. Keitric had a great senior year as he lead the team in four categories: Most wins (44), Most pins (31), Most 2 point near-falls (20) and most lettering points (225) tying Chad Cameron on the All-Time list. Keitric got in the finals ten times this season winning five tournaments. He was selected by the Louisiana Coaches Association to the All-State team. Keitric finished his four year career with 99 wins and 65 pins.
 

Scott Boutte:  Senior 130 pounds: Scott is a three year letterman and lead the team in reversals this season (37). A very hard and dedicated worker, Scott has a very good feel for the sport of wrestling, as he figured out many holds and techniques on his own. He never seemed to forget the things that he learned. Scott had a team high 45 wins last year and was fourth this year with 35 wins to finish his career with 99 victories. Scott did not finish any lower then third in nine tournaments this year while capturing first in the Redemptorist Invitational and the Regional tournament. Scott was one of the top wrestlers in the state in his weight class.
 

Jonathan Ocmond:  Senior 135 pounds: Jonathan wrestled for only two years but lettered twice for the Rebels. Exceptionally strong, physically tough, and highly competitive, Jonathan had an outstanding senior year recording 30 wins. He placed second in the City and Regional tournaments losing to the eventual state runner-up from Baton Rouge High. He qualified for state for the second year and placed fourth at 135 pounds. One of "Jon- O's" highlights in wrestling was beating the state runner-up from Catholic last year and being voted on as the meets Outstanding Wrestler. Jonathan, with his 18 wins from last year, had a career total of 48 wins in his two years.

Mike Gabel:   Senior 152 pounds: Mike is a four year wrestler who lettered for his third time this season. Statistics don't tell the whole story about Mike as I feel that Mike got more mileage out of his body than most people on most athletic teams. Not possessing the natural talents as some wrestlers, Mike improved through hard work and dedication to make himself a wrestler. There is not one thing that Mike hasn't done for the wrestling team over the past four years. It was my hope that maybe some wrestling victories would come his way and make all his hard work payoff. I feel as though the road traveled is sometimes more rewarding than the final destination. We will miss Mike and his positive attitude.