Colonel Caravan dances into Morgan City

The Colonel Caravan rolled into Morgan City on Tuesday, cementing ties between Nicholls State and St. Mary Parish.
Coaches and faculty members, as they do each year, praised Morgan City for turning out more fans and alumni than other caravan stops, including those in Houma, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. This year, they turned up the energy in a mostly filled meeting room at Clarion Inn.
That was due mostly to head women’s basketball coach Justin Payne. One of seven Nicholls coaches appearing Tuesday in Morgan City, Payne came to the lectern with a hip-hop tune on the speaker, and led the other coaches in a shoulder-to-shoulder dance.
They’re hoping they can make some beautiful music in sports in the coming year.
Tommy Rybecki was there for the first time as Nicholls head football coach after 11 years as an assistant, succeeding longtime coach and caravan member Tim Rebowe. Rybecki coached last year’s defense to a No. 12 national ranking in total defense and No. 4 in rushing defense.
His roster for the coming season includes some familiar names: running back and Berwick High grad Jayden Milton, and from Central Catholic linebacker Andrew Cavalier and Damondrick Blackburn, the running back who transfered to Nicholls from UL Lafayette.
There was more bragging to do.
Payne, whose team went 17-14 last year, talked about two recent wins at Tulane. On the men’s side, coach Tevon Saddler’s team is coming off a 20-win season.
Golf coach James Schilling said his team knocked 10 strokes off its team performance last year while raising its team grade point average to 3.4.
Athletic Director Jonathan Tyrell said the combined GPA for Nicholls athletes is now 3.18.
Tyrell talked about a sometimes troublesome landscape for college athletics, with cuts in sports programs at other institutions and relatively new rules governing transfers and payments for the use of names, images and likenesses.
“I just want you to know we can’t do it without you,” Tyrell told the crowd.
The caravan event wasn’t just about sports. Speakers talked about working with 39 businesses in the school’s Bayou Region Incubator and about possible ties between the maritime programs at Nicholls and Morgan City’s Young Memorial campus.
Nicholls President Dr. Jay Clune said St. Mary is an important source of students for the university.
“We’re invested here,” Clune said.