Tournament honors Lavergne’s memory
By Kevin Foote; 11:07 p.m. CST January 9, 2014
Technically, Greg Lavergne served as the assistant Carencro wrestling coach under Rip Eveland for 14 years, but his association with Carencro High went much farther back than that. In fact, so did his relationship with Eveland.
Long before Eveland was coaching wrestling, he was actually a baseball coach for the Golden Bears, just out of college in the early 1980s.
His first starting shortstop was Greg Lavergne.
Lavergne was also a wrestler. As the story goes, wrestling was a lot more popular in those days with not as many sports to compete against as exist today. Consequently, there was a signup sheet for each weight division to compete for the spot. Several of the weight divisions had as many as nine or 10 guys. At 126 pounds, the only name was Greg Lavergne.
“No one wanted to compete against Greg,” Eveland laughed.
The stories and memories go on and on and will be told for years around Carencro High. That process officially begins this weekend when his life and contributions to the school and community will be recognized at the 2014 Greg Lavergne Dual Championship. The tournament is the annual parish dual wrestling competition that Comeaux High has won 12 years in a row.
The tournament will now take on Lavergne’s name to honor him long after Eveland departs Carencro’s wrestling program. There will be a special ceremony to recognize Lavergne’s contributions at 7 p.m. tonight.
“It’s special for me personally,” Eveland said. “He was a close friend too.
“As a wrestling coach, he was a conditioning guy and he really helped out on the mat. He could do things to help the wrestlers on the mat that I couldn’t do. He helped out a lot with technique.”
Eveland said Lavergne was also heavily involved over the years with the city CAYSI programs in other sports, such as soccer and baseball.
Lavergne died of a heart attack at a Carencro wrestling practice last February.
As for the wrestling this weekend, the tournament schedule changed when St. Thomas More elected not to participate, reducing the format from seven to five rounds.
Comeaux and Teurlings are expected to battle it out for the top spot, while Lafayette High is the strong contender to finish third.
The host Golden Bears narrowly defeated Acadiana in a tiebreaker in a dual on Wednesday and hope to finish fourth.
“I feel like we’re making some progress,” Eveland said. “We’ve got some young guys scoring some points.”
Carencro is topped by heavyweight Blake Villard, who has been wrestling behind Greg Peltier for several years and finally has his chance to shine. He won the district tournament and finished third at the Teurlings Tournament.
The Bears’ youngest star is sophomore Austin Gary at 182.
“He has a lot of potential,” Eveland said. “Greg was very excited about working with him. He thought he could really help him. He’s good on his feet. He’s a good neutral wrestler.”
Then there’s the brother tandem of Bernard and Daniel Trappey. Bernard is a senior at 132 and finished second at district event. Daniel is a junior at 113. “They’re both fast-motor guys,” Eveland said.
Greg Lavergne Dual Championship
When: Today and Saturday.
Where: Carencro High.
Times: Weigh-in 2:45 Friday and wrestling begins at 3:30; weigh-in 7 a.m. Saturday and wrestling at 8 a.m.
Tournament Schedule
FRIDAY’S SCHEDULE – Round 1 (4 p.m.): Carencro vs. Lafayette High; Comeaux vs. Acadiana; Northside vs. Teurlings Catholic; Round 2 (6:30 p.m.) Carencro vs. Acadiana; Comeaux vs. Teurlings; Lafayette High vs. Northside.
(Special Lavergne Presentation at 7 p.m.)
SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE: Round 3 (8 a.m.): Carencro vs. Northside; Acadaiana vs. Teurlings; Comeaux vs. Lafayette High; Round 4 (10:30 a.m.) Acadiana vs. Lafayette High; Northside vs. Comeaux; Carencro vs. Teurlings; Round 5 (1 p.m.): Comeaux vs. Carencro; Northside vs. Acadiana; Teurlings vs. Lafayette High.