McMillan to try later date
In the mind of Lafayette High wrestling coach Brandon Billeaud, it’s just a one-year thing.
The seventh year of the Jacob McMillan Memorial Wrestling Tournament will be held on a Saturday afternoon in January for the first time this weekend. The decision had to do with a calendar conflict with the state football championships in the Superdome this past December.
The idea is that it’ll return to the Saturday closer to the memorial of McMillan’s death. The former Lafayette High wrestler was killed near Baghdad on Dec. 20, 2006.
Despite moving it to later in the wrestling season, Saturday’s festivities will include a military presence with McMillan’s memory and contributions again being honored.
“We’re going to move it back next year,” Billeaud said. “The football finals just fell later this year and most of the wrestling coaches are also football coaches and wanted to attend the games.”
Billeaud said the move to late January didn’t hurt the attendance with about 20 teams expected for the one-day event. The vast majority of the wrestlers will be come from Southwest Louisiana, but Billeaud said that there will also be representation from Doyline, Catholic High of Baton Rouge, Dunham, Parkview Baptist and Live Oak from outside the area.
Catholic High will primarily be bringing junior varsity wrestlers, but will be coming mostly due to assistant coach and former Lafayette High standout wrestler Sheridan Moran.
Billeaud said about 200 wrestlers is the goal, not so much the number of schools represented. “I think the numbers are good,” he said.