SHHS baseball team sets new standard

For decades, Ville Platte has been a baseball icon in Louisiana. Teams from all ages and the local high school produced great teams and even a handful of state championships.
Anyone who was part of any of this success knows it takes some key ingredients to build successful championship teams. Usually, there has to be a dominating pitcher or a few home run hitters, or a combination of both. So how do you explain the 2014 Sacred Heart Trojans? They have none of the above, but yet found a way to make it to the Class 1A State Championship game and earn the state runner-up title.
“This team is exactly that, they are a team,” said SHHS Head Coach Cody Vidrine. “If anyone would have told me we would have been playing for the state title when the season started, I don’t know if I would have agreed with that.”
Vidrine would have plenty of reason to doubt anyone who may have said that. The Trojans finished with a 5-3 record in district and they were ninth in the power ratings. While that is good, it is not your usual numbers for a team that would be predicted to win the state title.
From an individual standpoint, SHHS did not have a pitcher that dominated the game and racked up big strikeouts and no-hitters. Junior Philip Vidrine and senior Andy Lafleur combined for the Trojans’ hurler staff. Neither would be considered overpowering, yet both found ways to get their team in a good position to win the game.
On offense, Sacred Heart did not light up the scoreboards with home runs and stud hitters. In fact, they combined for less than a few home runs all season long.
So how did this team win four games in the playoffs, including upsets over St. John, Mangham and top seeded Ouachita Christian? Simply put, W.A.O., was their team strategy. “We Are One” is how the team played and came together as the season was coming to a close. The Trojans played as a team and learned to do whatever it took to win. They would play wide open with no regrets or looking back.
“This was special,” Vidrine remarked. “There is no doubt about that. This team proved that if you play together and play hard and play unselfish, nothing is out of reach.”
The Trojans over-achieved on almost every level in 2014. They did not have the overpowering talent the state championship teams of 1993, 1992 or 1990 had, but they had a camaraderie that kept them together.
“These guys feel like they will get back there next year,” Vidrine explained. “That confidence is hard to measure.”
Sacred Heart ended a 21 year drought of making it to the state championship game in baseball when they beat St. John in the Class 1A semi-finals. The way the team came together and played till the very last out sets the bar for all future SHHS baseball teams to come.