BATON ROUGE — The LSU gymnastics team’s meet against NC State Saturday at 6 p.m. CT in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center will mark a milestone in the season for the Tigers. The meet has been designated as the Second Annual Etta James Memorial Meet as well as Senior Night for two Tigers and Student Point Night for LSU students.
Fans are encouraged to wear pink and come out early as doors to the PMAC open at 4:30 p.m. and a sizable donation will be made to Foundation56 if 8,000 fans attend the meet.
Tickets are only $1 and can be ordered by logging on to www.lsutix.net or calling the LSU Athletics Ticket Office at 225-578-2184.
Fans will have several chances throughout the meet to win prizes, and the world famous show Quick Change will return to LSU to delight and dazzle fans at the conclusion of the meet.
Recently, Ochsner Health System hosted a contest entitled “Be an LSU Gymnast for a Day” where three winners were randomly selected to join the LSU gymnastics team Saturday for the Etta James Memorial Meet. The three winners selected were Noelle Vona, age 5, from Denham Springs; Asia Bethly, age 8, from Baton Rouge and Caroline Hollier, age 12, from Baton Rouge. Ochsner Health System is a Team LSU member and the Official Health Care Sponsor of the LSU Tigers.
Last season LSU and the Baton Rouge community helped raise $30,950 to donate to Foundation56, an organization created by former LSU linebacker and current Dallas Cowboy Bradie James who lost his mother, Etta, to breast cancer in February 2002.
A record crowd of 7,717 Tiger fans attended the first annual Etta James Memorial Meet last season when the Tigers faced Alabama, and the goal this season was raised to 8,000 fans to help support Foundation56 in its fight against breast cancer.
Donations will be accepted at the meet, and fans can purchase various items at the meet to show their support. Fans can buy a pink ribbon for $1, a Foundation56 “pink” bracelet for $5, a Foundation56 t-shirt for $10 and a purple and pink boa and a “pink” bracelet for only $15.
Because it is the final home meet of the season, the meet will represent LSU’s Senior Night for two Tigers. Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and Lauren Klein will step into the PMAC for the final time as Tigers.
With all the festivities and events surrounding the meet, the LSU gymnastics team (11-2, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) will be focused on improving its score from last week and setting a foundation for the rest of the season beginning Saturday against the Wolfpack.
“The key right now is staying healthy, practicing smart and being ready to compete because the difficulty that we are doing is what we are planning to do at the end of the season,” LSU head coach D-D Breaux said. “The main thing is consistency. Our ultimate goal is to score 197, but any time you can score 196.5 and above you are putting some big numbers in your lineup and having success.”
The Tigers have relied upon Clare-Kearney, the fifth-year senior from Manchester, Conn., all season as the anchor of the vault, bars and floor lineups, as well as junior Susan Jackson who has provided the 1-2 punch for LSU by anchoring the beam lineup and preceding Clare-Kearney in the other three events. Both Tigers rank in the top six of the all-around rankings as Clare-Kearney is third and Jackson is sixth, but LSU will need solid scores from the other four gymnasts in each event lineup in order to achieve victory over NC State (11-9) and reach the team’s goal of a high score.
“We want top-notch performances from every single person in the lineup because no one person is more important than anybody else in the success of this team,” Breaux said.
After the meet, LSU will turn its attention to its rival from north Louisiana when the Tigers travel to Shreveport to take on Centenary March 13 at 7 p.m.
Walk-On’s Press Conference
March 5, 2009
GYMNASTICS HEAD COACH D-D BREAUX
Opening Statement
“I want to start by thanking Walk-On’s. We have done this all season long, and it really makes a difference. It is a tremendous bonus for our program to be able to come to Walk-On’s and speak to the media at one time about so many great things that have happened this season. It really is gratifying to be able to end our home season with such an incredible event. Good events don’t just happen. They are the products of a lot of people working very hard. The planning that has gone to make this event happen has been incredible.
“Without Bradie James, his tremendous idea and his energy to want to give back to something that took so much from it ? to dedicate his philanthropic energies to breast cancer awareness and to help us find a cure and work hard to help us make a difference in our community where he went to school. He is giving back, and that is a beacon and a shining example of what we want all of our athletes at LSU to leave LSU and come back and make the kind of contribution that he is making to our community.
“Our weekend will start Friday evening at 7 p.m. We are having a tailgate with Bradie in the suites in Tiger Stadium. It is $56 a ticket for Foundation56. It is an incredible event. The money will go to Bradie’s foundation for breast cancer. The event is a lot of fun. There is a silent auction with music and food. It will be in Tiger Stadium, so we are hoping for a tremendous turnout for that. If you are interested you can go to our Web site and get more information. You can call the athletic department, and we would be happy to point you in the right direction.
“About the meet on Saturday night ? usually our home events are on Friday, but we moved this one to Saturday at 6 p.m. We have a lot of pre-meet things going on, and we would like for people to come out and get in the arena early. Donations will get you a bracelet or a t-shirt or a boa. We have a sorority on campus, the Zetas, who are working hard to make that part of this promotion be very successful. Our credit union here on campus is going to work with us in collecting the money. It is a community effort to make this event work.
“The tickets are $1. You can’t beat that. Bring a crowd and you will have a great time. It is going to be a fabulous gymnastics meet. Our team is doing extremely well. We have had a string of five big wins thus far going into this particular meet. I don’t know in the history of LSU if we have been able to put six consecutive wins together, especially with a victory over Alabama and Florida in the same season. Some of the things about the competition are at the end of the night. We will have a big announcement and there will be a money-matching challenge. If we get 8,000 people in the stands there is a money challenge that is connected to that particular goal. We have Quick Change who will do their show and perform at the end of our event. There will be a lot of excitement and enthusiasm, and it is for a great cause.
“We want you to come out, get excited about gymnastics this weekend. Come be a part of what we are doing on Friday. Be a part of what is going on Saturday.”
FOUNDATION56 CREATOR BRADIE JAMES
Opening Statement
“I always say when I see D-D now that she is one of my third or fourth moms. I am happy that she is passionate about this too. People talk about giving back, and really I don’t look at this as giving back. I look at this as doing something I am passionate about ? creating more awareness for breast cancer as living my life’s purpose. Once you lose a loved one to breast cancer ? a lot of people don’t realize that breast cancer doesn’t just affect the diagnosed person. It affects the whole family; it affects communities; it affects everyone. Here I am, an inside linebacker, a man ? my whole idea is to reach out to men and tell them that they have to be the nurturers because that is what our women are to us. We have to be there for them and be their emotional backbone and strength as they go through these things.
“We haven’t even completed two full years of Foundation56, but in a year and a half’s time we have donated to existing programs that have gone out to these underserved communities. They have produced pre-screenings and biopsies. They have created education. They have gone to the people who can’t get to the hospital and given them gas cards for transportation, so the money we have that has been donated to Foundation56 for breast cancer has definitely gone back into this community. Now as we focus on the future, our big challenge is to expand not only in Baton Rouge but to take it to Dallas and to get it back to Monroe. That is why we are having a second gymnastics meet, so that what we get from this will allow us to continue to do the same things like going to these underserved communities and creating biopsies and education pamphlets because pre-screening is what aides in the fight. It helps you in your treatment because the sooner you find out, the better, and a lot of people don’t want to find out if they have a disease like that. That’s what our goal is ? to get people that are falling through the cracks to actually get treatment.
“One thing I am definitely excited about is the gymnastics meet. I know just watching the gymnasts last year ? I showed up last year and I was talking to the girls. I said, ?Hey, how are yall doing?’ and they said ?Oh, my dad loves you! My brother loves you!’ D-D told me that just me coming in is a big experience for them, so I was excited about that. I don’t think I have been to a sporting event that I enjoyed that much last year because I equate it to a Super Bowl almost. Previously the largest crowd at the PMAC that those gymnasts had competed in front of was a couple thousand people. We had more than 7,000 people last year.
“As a professional athlete when I perform, I know I feel ?the more, the merrier’ because it makes me run faster and hit harder and just to see them and how the fans reacted, I enjoyed it. This year, our goal is to get more people out to make them feel good about what they are doing because they will be donating to a good cause that is giving back to the community, and that is putting money to work. People should come out to see the gymnasts out there too because it makes them perform better. We bleed purple and gold, and all the gymnasts were excited last year to have that many people there. If you have anybody you know, bring the kids. Bring everybody so we can have at least 8,000 people out there.
“I never would have thought that I could do something to continue to honor my mother and her memory. It means so much, not just to me but my family. It is amazing just to hear her name ring out and so many people be a part of how she was able to raise me.”