By Jake Terry
LSU Sports Information
Friday, Jan. 26, was a historic moment for LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux. Breaux and her Tiger gymnastics team defeated Arkansas 196.500-195.575 to capture Breaux’s 500th career victory.
Not many coaches in any sport ever reach such a colossal milestone, but Breaux was not focused on reaching victory total 500 against Arkansas. She was focused on moving her team’s record to 1-0 in SEC competition. In fact, Breaux did not even realize she was on the verge of capturing her 500th career victory until earlier in the week before the meet against the Razorbacks when LSU associate sports information director Laurie Cannon informed the coach.
“I never really thought about it,” Breaux said.
Once Breaux thought about what 500 career victories really meant, then the significance of the accomplishment sunk in.
“It (500 wins) took on great magnitude and a tremendous amount of reminiscing, thinking and reflecting because it really represents every student-athlete that I’ve had in the 30 years that I have been here.”
That’s not a misprint. Breaux has coached the women’s gymnastics program for 30 years, which makes her the longest tenured coach in LSU history in any sport. But it hasn’t been easy and at times it hasn’t been fun, but that has never stopped coach Breaux. Taking over the LSU program in 1978, the 24-year-old Donaldsonville native was a grad student in college, and that was just the beginning of the difficulties she faced.
“When I first got the job I was told that I would have to go to graduate school and finish my graduate work, so I started for peanuts,” Breaux said. “I didn’t have a facility, didn’t have a locker room, didn’t have much more than a space out in the middle of the (Carl Maddox) Field House and some support from some pretty incredible people.”
Breaux grew up believing she could accomplish anything she set her mind on, so it should come as no surprise that she was able to build a gymnastics program that was in its infancy when she took over into a national championship contender year in and year out. The road to success and respect has been hard for the coach and her team, but through the years Breaux has continually sought improvements and upgrades for her program. And it didn’t take long for Breaux to get the first sorely needed upgrade.
“We had a women’s gymnastics team that used to practice in the old Gym Armory that had no heater and no air conditioning, so when they hired me as the gymnastics coach I told them that I was not going to have a team over there, that we would at least be in the Field House,” Breaux said.
There was just one problem: the men’s gymnastics team occupied the Field House training facility and locker rooms. But that didn’t stop Breaux. She informed the administration of her team’s need for a better place to practice.
“They had to figure that out, so they gave us a space in the back corner of the Field House,” Breaux said.
When the LSU men’s gymnastics program was shut down in 1984, the women’s team received another upgrade as a direct result.
“Eventually I had this whole side of the Field House that wasn’t on the track,” Breaux said.
This time another problem arose inside the Field House, but Breaux rolled with the situation and accepted the challenge, a trait she has often displayed.
“We shared it with the football team when they came indoors and the track team when they came indoors and the baseball team when they came indoors. It was a beginning, but it was better than nothing.
“There were some serious setbacks along the way, some things that really stopped the progress of the program and really made us at a standstill for two years at a time sometimes. We were able to overcome that and continue to move forward and get our program back into the top ten, so it’s always been an uphill battle but I’ve lived to fight the next one.”
That’s the way D-D Breaux is. She is a fighter. She has fought all her life. It was the way she was raised.
“I grew up in south Louisiana, small town and eight kids in the family and extremely supportive parents. Nothing was impossible. Even if there was an argument among the siblings, we were told to go outside and settle it. Go fight. We grew up tough. We grew up fending for ourselves, taking care of ourselves, but with a tremendous amount of support and love,” Breaux said.
When asked to describe herself the first words that came to her mind were ? “I know I’m passionate.”
That passion, along with her willingness to fight for what she believes in, has driven the success for Breaux at LSU. From recruiting amazing athletes like 2002 individual national champion Nicki Arnstad and 2006 national champion April Burkholder to building up the program’s facilities, status and prestige, D-D Breaux has accomplished many of the goals over her career that she has set for herself and the program. But one goal has remained elusive ? a spot in the Super Six. Don’t think for a second, though, that Breaux’s drive and intensity toward that goal is not strong. It’s strong not only in the coach, but in her team as well.
“The thing that we are looking most forward to as a team and as a coaching staff is to be able to take our team to the next level and not just go to the championships but advance into the Super Six. That’s something that we’ve been so close to, by less than one-tenth of a point, just fractions, and we just feel like we’ve been denied time and again,” Breaux said. “That’s our goal (to make it to the Super Six). That’s what we want to do. We talk about it and we act on it everyday when we come to practice and train.”
Breaux understands that the goal is not out of reach for this year’s squad despite inexperience from many of her young gymnasts.
“Right now we talk about the process a lot. We’re trying to create a team that is very confident in themselves and in each other,” Breaux said. “We’ve got five freshmen and three kids who didn’t compete last year, so we’ve got eight out of thirteen that we’re still trying to mesh.”
Breaux isn’t worried, though, because she knows the talent is there for this season and for years to come.
“You have to live in the moment and you have to deal with what you have, but I’m really enjoying dealing with what I have because I just have a big gumbo pot full of talent and we just have to mix it up and make it come out right,” Breaux said.
As the season unfolds, Breaux will discover the right flavor for this year’s squad as she always does. And as the season begins to wind down, the question will invariably pop up: Is this the year D-D Breaux retires?
She looks back on all the struggles and battles she has gone through to build this program up to the level it has achieved today, but the love and passion for her job is still there. And that is what matters to Breaux.
“There are bumps along the road, and there’s problems and issues, and everybody has little tough things in their job. But I know I love my job. I love coming to work every day, and there’s no endpoint. Sometimes I go home at 4:30, sometimes 6:00, sometimes at 7:00. I left the weight room last night, and I had three kids still working out on the treadmill. They were just hanging out, and that’s how it ought to be,” Breaux said.
When the end of her career finally comes up somewhere down this long, tough but fulfilling road, another question remains: How will fans, friends and alumni remember D-D Breaux?
“LSU and Louisiana is such a great place, and I want people to remember me for how much I love my state, love LSU and love my job,” Breaux said.
Don’t worry, coach. We’ve known that for 30 incredible years and 500 career victories ? and we’re still counting.