UPDATED WITH STORY: Nicholls' Colonel Caravan rolls into Morgan City

Nicholls State on Thursday brought most of its coaching staff to Morgan City, a favorite stop for the Colonel Caravan as the college football season nears.
But it was women’s basketball coach Justin Payne who brought the energy.
Payne, a former hardnosed Nicholls point guard entering his second year as the women’s coach, radiated joy as he talked about his first Division I victory, a three-point win at heavily favored Tulane last November, and a first Southland Conference victory against Houston Christian in January.
Payne was just as excited when he talked about an off-the-court win, a renovation of the women’s basketball locker room — courtesy of a Morgan City businessman, Dane H. Daigle of DHD Offshore Services.
Payne and other university representatives repaid Daigle’s generosity with gifts of their own, including an NCAA basketball. And the bond between St. Mary and Nicholls was tightened.
You could see that connection in the packed meeting room Thursday at Morgan City’s Clarion Inn. Morgan City Council members Lou Tamporello, who helped organize the event, Tim Hymel and Bonnie Leonard were there. Leonard was accompanied by her husband, District Judge Ed Leonard, and Mayor Lee Dragna was in the audience.
The attendees also included Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice John Weimer, who has ties to St. Mary, attended, along with Berwick Town Council members Colleen Askew and Lud Henry.
And there were leaders in the local business community, including Daigle.
Daigle knows what it’s like to need affirmation now and again.
“I was a guy that wouldn’t go to college unless I got a scholarship,” Daigle said.
But he did, and he played football for a couple of seasons at Northwestern State. Injured during his third year, Daigle came back to finish his business degree at Nicholls.
Now 31, he was 22 when he started his construction and salvage company. He didn’t forget what it was like to be a college athlete and how something as small as a name over a locker can be a motivator.
“Small things mean a lot,” Daigle said. “It makes you understand what you’re working for.”
Daigle took 70 of his employees to see the Nicholls State women play Houston Christian, and kept the employees on the clock during the trip.
“We had a blast,” Daigle said.
Head football coach Tim Rebowe teased the crowd with hints about a tough opponent in the early schedule, and the opponent is …
Louisiana Tech.
The joke was that, formidable as Tech can be, the Aug. 31 game at Ruston isn’t the biggest challenge on the nonconference schedule. That would be the Sept. 7 game at LSU. After that comes a Sept. 14 game at Sacramento State.
When the Southland Conference schedule begins, the Colonels are the favorites, the preseason pick to win the league title. Nicholls went 7-0 in the Southland last year and has a solid core of returning players.
But “we don’t want to be the preseason favorites,” Rebowe said. “We want to be the conference champs at the end of the year.”
Rebowe took some goodhearted jabs from men’s basketball coach Tevon Saddler, who led the Colonels to only their eighth 20-win season in 2023-24, his first year.
Saddler noted that the Nicholls baseball team beat LSU year before last, and Saddler’s own team knocked off the Tigers 68-66 in November. So the pressure is on the football team.