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The Krewe of Hephaestus, top, presented “Vive Le France” and the Krewe of Amani, bottom, presented “Amani Salutes Soul” during respective Mardi Gras tableaus Saturday. Hephaestus was reigned by King and Queen Hepahestus LIX Chris Price and Mary Frances Aucoin, daughter of Michelle Trapp and Gregory Aucoin, during the Saturday event at the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium. Reigning over Amani was King and Queen Amani XXII Josh Singleton and Kizzy Gant on Saturday at the Patterson Area Civic Center. Singleton represented Don Cornelius and Gant depicted Aretha Franklin in keeping with the tableau theme.

Work on the new fishing pier at Burns Point Park should be complete in about three weeks.
The pier had been a career-long dream of Foulcard’s, according to St. Mary Parish Councilman Paul P. Naquin Jr. at the initial dedication of the pier prior to Foulcard’s death.
“Albert and I did a lot of traveling together, all over this United States,” Naquin said at the time. “Albert was always by my side and I was by his side, and everywhere we went, everywhere, I tell you, whether in DC or in Baton Rouge or on the council, at almost every meeting, Albert had to say something about the fishing pier, ‘Where is it? Where’s it at?’”
The pier is being funded by grants from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and World Wildlife Fund, appropriated by the St. Mary Parish Council.
Parish President David Hanagriff spoke fondly that day of his years working in conjunction with Foulcard. Hanagriff said despite not always voting in agreement, he always counted on Foulcard to explain and discuss why he was voting the way he had, and those explanations always held words of wisdom for Hanagriff. “This is just the beginning of this fishing pier,” Hanagriff said to Foulcard, “and I know that you’ve been working on this for many years.”
Naquin made one last comment before the ceremonial shovels dug into the ceremonial dirt, and he, like Hanagriff, spoke directly to Foulcard.
“I want to dedicate this pier to the Foulcard family and to Albert. Albert, if you can hear me, brother… I love you,” said Naquin, “I always will love you and you will always have a part of my heart. I’m telling you Albert, I enjoyed every minute that we spent together.”

Central Catholic is in the Final Four! Well, not that one, but it’s high school’s equivalent.
No. 2 Central Catholic used a late rally to stun No. 10 Southern Lab 65-58 in Division IV quarterfinal play Friday in Morgan City.
The win sends Central Catholic to its first semifinal appearance in boys’ basketball in 18 years. The Eagles (22-9) now will face No. 3 Hamilton Christian (26-8) in the Division IV semifinals Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.
“This is indescribable,” Central Catholic senior Brooks Thomas said after Friday’s win. “We worked really hard, so it’s great to advance, but we’re not finished yet. Our goal has been a state championship since the first days of practices. We talked about it all week. We knew they were going to be a lot bigger than us, but that didn’t matter. We play our game. It doesn’t matter who’s on the other side of the court.”
Friday, Southern Lab took a three-point lead into the half and extended it to 34-24 with 6:11 remaining in the third quarter.
So, Central Catholic went to its full-court pressure, which forced two consecutive turnovers to cut the Kittens’ lead to 34-27 with 5:39 remaining in the third period.
“I wanted to press earlier, but the way the game went, we just couldn’t get in it,” Central Catholic Coach Ree Case said. “You can’t press if you don’t score. Once we were able to get into it, we sped the game up, and we were able to get some turnovers. So the press got us going on the offensive side, too, because we were just standing around. The press helped us more on offense than it did on defense tonight.”
But Southern Lab wouldn’t go away and pushed the lead back to 40-30 with 4 minutes left in the third quarter, with Central Catholic’s 3-pointers rimming out.
Thomas got an offensive rebound and put back at the 2:28 mark, which led to three straight buckets by senior Elijah Swan. Swan also was a factor on the boards all night for Central Catholic.
“We knew they had the size advantage, so coach had me help out on the boards,” Swan said. “But everyone did what they had to to get this win.”
Swan led all scorers with 27 points.
“Elijah is a matchup problem for most teams, and he and Brooks made plays down the stretch for us,” Case said.
Central Catholic point guard Davidyione Bias finished the third quarter scoring with free-throw and a layup to pull Central Catholic to win five at 47-42.
Central Catholic’s pressure started to rattle Southern Lab again, and the Eagles cut the Kittens’ lead to 53-47 with just under six minutes left.
Later, Lab turned the ball over and was forced to foul Swan to prevent a layup on the other end. He made both to pull within three.
Bias hit 1 of 2 free throws with 1:01 remaining to give Central Catholic a 60-58 lead. Southern Lab was forced to foul down the stretch, and Central Catholic made enough free-throws to seal the win.
Other Central Catholic scorers were Thomas with 12, while Bias and D.J. Lewis added 11 each. Demondrick Blackburn added four.
Hamilton Christian advanced to Tuesday’s semifinal after routing Central Catholic’s District 7-1A rival, Vermilion Catholic, 73-42 in quarterfinal action Friday.
In the other semifinal contest Tuesday in Lake Charles, top seed Lafayette Christian (29-4) and No. 4 Opelousas Catholic (24-6) will meet at 4:45 p.m.
The two Division IV semifinal winners will meet for the state title Friday at noon.