Running around on the soccer field as a child, Colby Delahoussaye knocked over one of his opponents, stopped in his tracks, reached down and picked him up.
His coach got on his case, “Colby, what’s wrong with you?” he asked each time he would stop to help his opponents off the ground with an apology before he continued playing.
As children learn by example, Delahoussaye watched his mother’s positivity and helping spirit and emulated it as best he could, even during competition.
Always helping others, brightening people’s days with a simple smile is Colby’s niche. There is a spirit about him that makes people gravitate toward his lending hand, whether it be going into Celtic Studios and radiating positivity to a small child who was affected by the historic flooding, or assisting weekly a disabled man and learning about how precious life is.
“I think I get the most happy that I can be when I see that I have made other people smile,” Delahoussaye explained. “I really try to keep that attitude. It’s all about showing that you care.”
While driving her son to and from soccer practice every day, Bridgette Delahoussaye was always first to make sure that Colby was taking his education seriously, calling out spelling words and reviewing the day’s lessons, instilling the youngest of five children with a strong work ethic in both school and life.
At his games, it quickly became apparent that Colby had a knack for placing the ball wherever he desired on the field, and Colby’s father, Dwayne, decided to ask his son if he wanted to learn how to placekick.
The seventh-grader said he would consider it, and Dwayne asked a player he once coached, former Grambling State kicker Tim Manuel, to show his son the basics. A few short years later, the young Delahoussaye found himself sitting down with LSU coach Les Miles after a kicking camp in Baton Rouge.
“Coach Miles, I have a question,” Colby said. “What’s it like running out of the tunnel on Saturday nights in Death Valley?”
Miles immediately showed Colby his arms full of goose bumps, a silent response that left him awestruck with a feeling that he had aspired to know from a very young age, growing up an hour-and-a-half away from Baton Rouge.
“Running out of that tunnel is a feeling you can’t get used to,” the New Iberia, La., native affirmed with his signature smile. “It’s indescribable.”
In 2014, three years after his first sit-down with Coach Miles, Delahoussaye took the field as the starting placekicker for the second consecutive year and was walking onto the turf of Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium with a game riding on his shoulders.
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The game was tied at 27-27, and with three seconds left, Delahoussaye booted a career-long 50-yard field goal and was bombarded on the field by the LSU bench. He sealed the Tiger victory, and it was like a dream for the sophomore placekicker.
With the highs come the lows, and before the end of the 2014 season, Delahoussaye found himself behind close friend Trent Domingue for the starting role. However, Delahoussaye never lost sight of his positivity.
“There have been ups and downs, but when I say ups and downs, it’s in terms of playing and not playing,” Delahoussaye explained. “Mentally, it wasn’t much of a down not playing because I knew that it was a blessing to be here. It’s about making lifelong friendships because football doesn’t last forever.”
Family does last forever, however, and off of the field Delahoussaye and his family have had their fair share of battles to get through. His grandmother has battled cancer. His older sister, Caely, was diagnosed with cancer while she was pregnant.
His response to it all: “That’s just life. You have stuff thrown at you. I’ve done a lot of praying with my family. The baby is fine. My sister’s in remission; my grandma’s in remission. It’s just a testament to how awesome prayer is, taking the positive road and saying everything’s going to be fine.”
Then, another hurdle stood in front of Delahoussaye just two months ago on his way to a friend’s home in Wisconsin after participating in Kohl’s Kicking Camp. He was awakened by flames scorching his left thigh in the backseat of a two-door Mercedes-Benz coupe. He escaped the car that slid off of a roadway and hit a tree at the bottom of an embankment. Michigan State punter Mike Sadler and Nebraska punter Sam Foltz had their lives taken from them in the crash.
“Life is a battle,” Dwayne Delahoussaye said. “With everything that has been going on with everyone in our family, we’ve always had the ability to reorganize our priorities and then worry about the rest later.”
Colby traveled with the LSU team to Wisconsin two weeks ago, and his parents were able to visit with many of the people who took care of him after the accident, along with some of the Kohl’s Kicking Camp coaches.
Stepping onto the field for the first time since 2014, the usually calm-natured Delahoussaye was excited for his opportunity to regain his role as a starter, and he broke the ice by kicking two extra points at Lambeau Field, getting over the hurdle with a smile on his face and thoughts of his friends Sadler and Foltz.
“I could’ve just hung up my cleats and said I don’t want to do this anymore and said, ‘Poor pitiful me, why me, why am I the one to be alive?’ but I’m just trying to keep their names alive, keep their spirits alive through me and my actions.”