Holy Cross' wrestling program isn't like any other in the state.
No, it's not because the Tigers are practicing in a Metairie warehouse that's owned by a Jesuit alum. It's nothing special that the wrestlers arrive by 7 a.m., work out until 9 then head to school at Cabrini by 2:30 p.m. And they don't seem to mind that they are just weeks away from going to class in trailers that will sit adjacent to their condemned 9th Ward campus.
Nah, that's all normal in these post-Katrina days.
So what is it that's different?
Meet Sue Ellen Lyons, former cheerleading moderator and Louisiana's first female head wrestling coach.
A fixture at Holy Cross for 28 years, Lyons took over for Frank Barbire, who had the job just two weeks before evacuating to his home state of Pennsylvania.
"When we were talking at the faculty coffee watering hole, we were really hurting for a wrestling coach, and she laughed and said, 'I'll do it,' " Athletic Director Greg Battistella said. "So she helped out a lot in doing that, and I hired her on the spot."
The school hopes it has Barbire back next season. But if he doesn't return, Battistella will look for a permanent coach. For now, he is grateful that Lyons was able to help keep the program going.
"The alumni would have probably had my head if we wouldn't have had wrestling this year," he said.
The 'den mother'
Lyons bleeds blue and gold, and she'll do anything she thinks will help the boys. What some might think is an awkward situation is nothing of the kind. The wrestlers look up to her and appreciate the fact that they have salvaged a season.
"More than being a coach, I feel like the den mother, and I've always loved wrestling," Lyons said. "I've followed it for most of my 28 years at Holy Cross, and this is a great group of kids. They deserve better than what they're getting, but we were determined not to let the devastation of Katrina destroy their season."
She became enthralled with this male-dominated sport from the first match she saw, although it took persuasion to even get her to attend. Just the thought of her students being slammed to the mat and tossed over the top of the ropes was just too much for her to bear.
What? This isn't World Wrestling Entertainment?
"The first year that I taught at Holy Cross (1978), I had a ninth-grader who wrestled," Lyons said. "And I went to football games, I went to basketball games, I've always loved sports. . . . So this one particular student I had wrestled, and he kept asking me to come see him wrestle, and I thought it was like the (WWE). I kept making excuses and kind of putting him off, and one day he says, 'Mrs. Lyons, it's not fair. You went to every football game we had, and you go to every basketball game. Why don't you come see me wrestle?'
"I said, 'Vincent, I just couldn't stand to see somebody throwing you around and beating up on you. I couldn't take that.' He gave me a strange look, and told me it wasn't like that. He said, 'Come to one wrestling meet, and if you don't like it, I'll never, never ask you again.'
"Well, I went to one dual meet, and I was hooked."
And her students are hooked on her. Just ask them.
Wrestlers Edwin Mathews and David Dalton couldn't care less whether they have a female coach. It's all about wrestling to them, and they were thrilled that their senior season was not taken from them.
They say why not Lyons? She understands the sport; she has been working at the scorer's table since before they were born.
"I love her," said Dalton, who spent the first couple of months at St. Charles before deciding to return to Holy Cross. "I didn't even know if I was going to come back. When I got here, I was just happy that I was with them. . . . If they weren't going to have wrestling, I was going to stay where I was.
"Without her, where would we be? We wouldn't have a program."
She knows the rules
Battistella chose a person who understood the rules of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association. As the faculty moderator, it is part of Lyons' job.
But she's not doing it by herself. She has help from non-faculty coaches, and things are running smoothly.
"Mrs. Lyons is just another one of the adults, just another one of the coaches," Mathews said. "We have a good base of alumni that come help us, and Mrs. Lyons is there, too. She's just one of them. It's really not that different. Everything just kind of flows."
It was never a question for Battistella, Principal Joe Murry or Headmaster Charles DiGange that Lyons could handle the job, and they weren't concerned that a female might not command respect.
"If there's any woman in the world who can do this, Mrs. Lyons certainly can," Battistella said. "She's a veteran at Holy Cross, and she's been at every wrestling match there's been since then. That's why it's such a natural fit. Not only does she know all the moves and all the rules, but she knows all the referees and all the coaches in the whole state."
Since their campus was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, the odd seems ordinary at Holy Cross, as it does at many other campuses across the metro area. This was just another chance for Lyons to prove that she can do the things a man can do.
"It's sort of nice," she said. "It is a novelty in Louisiana. They do have girls wrestling in other places. As far as (coaching), I'm used to existing in a man's world. Being at Holy Cross all these years, I don't see myself as female, I just see myself as one of the guys. I like it when the kids treat me that way.
"I'm not a scary person, I'm not intimidated, and I'll go toe-to-toe with anybody. It's not like I welcome any kind of confrontation, but I certainly don't back down from one. And I will defend Holy Cross School and these kids until the death."
As she has adjusted to her added responsibility, the wrestlers have accepted her as their coach. These days, the only awkward moments between coach and wrestler come when it's time to wipe down the mat.
"This morning, me and (Mathews) got in a tussle over the mop. They try to keep me from mopping the mat. They're like, 'No Mrs. Lyons, don't touch the mop.' But I like to mop, and I can do it much better and much faster than they can."
Always remembering his manners, Mathews said, "While she's our coach, she's still a lady, and we still have to be gentlemen around her."
Jim Derry can be reached at jderry@timespicayune.com or (504) 232-9944.