When Brien Delahoussaye picked up a bat for the first time 15 years ago, he knew exactly where he belonged: on a baseball diamond.
From there, Delahoussaye grew up playing baseball, following in his mother’s footsteps who played high school softball. After finishing the 2008 season for Terrebonne high school with a .390 batting average, 24 runs batted in, two home runs, a high school coaches award, and second team all district pitching honors, Delahoussaye was sure he had offers to continue his baseball career in college.
To his surprise, there were none. The only letters Delahoussaye received in the mail had return addresses from Louisiana College and Southeastern Univeristy, to play football. The choice was simple – either to accept the football scholarship or express interest in a baseball program.
“My coaches told me to take the scholarship to play football because baseball just wouldn’t work out for me,” he said. “But I loved baseball so I was determined to play baseball somewhere even if I had to walk on.”
As the weeks passed, Delahoussaye received interest from Nicholls State University; however, he decided to explore his options before officially committing to walk-on to the Colonels team.
With no scholarships on the table, Delahoussaye’s last option was playing in a summer program with the Southland Hogs coached by Joe Tueton.
The program creates opportunities for seniors from Terrebonne parish to play other teams at several schools such as Louisiana State University, Southeastern and Tulane. Those in the program who were already recruited, were able to improve their skills for the upcoming season.
The rest of the players, like Delahoussaye, played with intentions of getting noticed by a college coach who was looking for talent to add to their team.
Mid- summer, Delahoussaye received a call. On the other end of the telephone expressing his intent to sign Delahoussaye was Gerald “Gee” Cassard, Loyola’s head baseball coach.
“I have a good friend from around Terrebonne who gave me a heads up of a potential player (Delahoussaye) who academically could fit at Loyola, who wanted to continue playing baseball, and who could help the team
