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September 20, 1959 ~ March 6, 2021
 
ABBEVILLE — Neil Jude Dugas, age 61, of Abbeville, was called home by God on Saturday, March 6, 2021.  Neil was born September 20, 1959 to Larry G. Dugas, Jr. and Flaudry Prejean Dugas.
Neil was happiest when riding horses, sitting behind the wheel of his 18-wheeler, and when with his family, children, and grandchildren.  He had a love for classic rock and roll and country music, possessed a quick, dry wit, and had an amazing talent for charming young children, despite his intimidating size and demeanor.  To say that he will be missed is an understatement of epic proportions.  
Neil was preceded in death by his maternal and paternal grandparents; grandsons Kalix James Broussard and Gabriel Anthony Breaux; and granddaughter Ella Elizabeth Breaux. 
Those left to cherish his memory are his wife, Trena; daughters Danielle Dugas Breaux and husband Scott, Heather Touchet Broussard and husband Bubba; sons Shawn Dugas and Broc Touchet and wife Raelyn; parents Flaudry and Larry Dugas, Jr.; sister Laurie Dugas Bush and husband Rodney; nephews Michael Bush and Cameron Bush; grandchildren Kavan Broussard, Kealy Broussard, and Ian Dugas; and great grandson Kash Peters. 
Services for Neil will be held at a later date.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.vincentfuneralhome.net.
All funeral arrangements are being conducted by Vincent Funeral Home of Abbeville, (337) 893-4661.

Annemarie Broussard closed out the indoor track season by making history at Northwestern State.
This past weekend, Broussard competed in the Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field Meet and walked away first in the pole vaulting event. It was also the first time a female from Northwestern won a Southland Conference pole vaulting title.
Her winning jump was 12-11.75 feet.
“It’s not my best jump, but I am happy that I got to jump it there because it was my heightist height that I jumped this indoor season,” said Broussard.
Broussard and the rest of the track athletes watched their outdoor season get cut short last March because of COVID-19. They could not practice due to COVID-19 restrictions. But that turned out to be a good thing for Broussard. When she was getting into the outdoor season, she began having foot pain.
Today, she is better thanks to the rest.
“I feel pretty good with this height because I have only been practicing for six weeks,” said Broussard. “I didn’t have any fall training due to an injury, so saying that it’s pretty good for just getting back to jumping.
“It always feels great to get back to competing. I missed being around my friends and competitors, and everyone is so friendly and nice. We all enjoy it when we are out there. I missed it a lot, and we had a short indoor season, but we have a very full outdoor coming up.”
This was only the third indoor meet Broussard competed in this season. Now it is time to move on to the outdoor season. She enters the outdoor with expectations.
“I am so excited for this outdoor season because we have a meet almost every weekend for the rest of the semester,” she said. “I’m also ready to compete for outdoor. I haven’t jumped in a competition outdoor since 2019 since COVID shut us down last spring.
“My outdoor goals are just to do my best and get back to where I was before my injury. I want to jump 14 feet because that’s around the height you need to go to nationals in Eugene, Oregon.”
The sophomore begins the season with a new look. She recently cut her long hair.
“I cut my hair just to,” she said. “It was something different I had never done before. I was like, ‘Why not, it’s hair, and it will grow back.”
Thus far, the new look is agreeing with her and her pole vaulting career.

With Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, Americans can expect a series of progressive bills to be introduced. In a budget reconciliation process, the bills can be passed in the U.S. Senate with a simple majority. This is what happened with the $1.9 trillion monstrosity known as the COVID-19 relief bill.
Fortunately, most legislation does not qualify for this designation and will require a 60-vote threshold in the U.S. Senate to pass. With such a requirement, it would seem the future looks bleak for the newly introduced Background Checks Expansion Act (BCEA). This gun control legislation will be subject to a Senate filibuster unless U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) changes his mind.
When reporters asked Manchin about whether he would change his position about supporting the filibuster, he was extremely clear in his response. Manchin shouted, “Never, Jesus Christ! What don’t you understand about ‘never’?” As long as Manchin defends the Senate filibuster, Second Amendment supporting Americans can rest assured about new gun control legislation passing Congress.
Regrettably, politicians constantly change their minds and Manchin is no exception. Recently, he promised only to support the COVID-19 relief bill if it included input from Republicans. He vowed, “I want it to be bipartisan. If they think we are going to throw all caution to the wind and just shove it down people's throats, that's not going to happen.”
Well, that is exactly what happened in both houses of Congress as the legislation was passed without the votes of any Republican members. Among the Democrats who voted for the legislation was none other than Senator Manchin.
With only Manchin preventing gun control legislation from passing Congress, Americans who support the Second Amendment should be quite worried. With the possibility of new gun control legislation being enacted; Americans need to thoroughly examine the issue.
Gun control advocates often talk about “gun violence,” which is the imprecise phase they cleverly use to imply that they are concerned about crime. Sadly, they are not primarily interested in reducing violent crime. If they were primarily concerned about crime their “solutions” would address criminals, not the possession of firearms by law abiding citizens.
Democrats never offer solutions, such as lengthy prison sentences, that would make it more difficult for criminals to obtain and use guns. They never advocate, for example, sentences of life in prison for criminals who continually use guns to commit violence. In addition, gun control advocates do not seek incarceration with hard labor when a convicted felon is found to be illegally in possession of a gun.
All these policies would reduce the number of criminals with guns terrorizing innocent people on the streets of our country. Tough penalties for criminals who illegally use guns would clearly make our violent cities safer. Unfortunately, these goals are not shared by gun control advocates.
Why not? All Americans should share these goals, but many liberals who constantly push gun control initiatives have other motives. These advocates prefer to focus on the so-called “root causes” of crime instead of the painful reality of criminals using guns to steal, kill, or rape innocent victims.
Gun control proponents focus on issues such as poor schools, extreme poverty, or lack of economic opportunity. Surely, there are long standing problems in many of our cities, but there is also another important factor. The criminal is individually responsible for both illegally obtaining a weapon and using it to commit a felony.
In today’s political environment, liberals hate discussing issues such as individual responsibility. Instead, criminals are victims of “society.” Thus, criminals using guns are not really lawbreakers, in reality, they are the true victims. Criminals are victims of such evils as systemic racism, corporate greed, climate change, and improper allocation of resources among other societal ills.
Since gun control advocates are not primarily concerned with crime, what truly motivates them to push for this legislation? They will never admit it, probably even to themselves, but it is utter contempt. They hold a deep, abiding contempt for traditional American values and a true hatred for the people who hold these beliefs.
Many of our country’s gun owners, who love the Second Amendment, are the “smelly Walmart people.” These are the Americans who Barack Obama identified as those who “cling to guns or religion.” These are the “irredeemable” people that Hillary Clinton mocked. These are the God-fearing Americans who actually question policies that allow transgender boys to compete with girls in wrestling and track events.
These patriotic Americans, in the eyes of liberals, are deeply contemptible, and they must be made to conform. They need to be re-educated and shown the errors of their ways. However, it is difficult to re-educate people who are resistant to such attempts and actually fight back by protesting and engaging in political activity. This is why the political left wants to disarm these Americans. It is one of the terrifying and unspoken goals of the gun control movement.
We should not be fooled into thinking that gun control measures are being introduced to reduce crime. There is almost no correlation. The motives are much more sinister.
The real goals are to force change on Americans who are not part of the totalitarian left. If these bills were truly about crime, gun control advocates would focus on criminals, but they never do, and that should tell Americans everything they need to know about the issue.

Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and is a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com

KAPLAN - The Kaplan Lady Pirates are 11-0 on the year and are ranked No. 1 in the latest Class 3A power rankings,
They are getting it done with the combination of pitching, defense and hitting.
In the 11 wins, Kaplan is averaging 12 points a game. They scored a season-high 19 runs twice and 18 runs once. The least amount of runs they scored is 7 in an 7-0 win over Loreauville.
Kaplan head coach Brittany LeBeouf said, “We focus on the process and the little things. When you do the little things, positive results come. This group of girls has come in a worked extremely hard for our coaching staff. They are continuously trying to be better than the day before. What sets this team apart is our team chemistry and every player playing their role. This team has been one of the most fun teams I have been around.”
The Lady Pirates have smacked 22 home runs and scored 135 runs in 11 games.
LeBeouf said her team has put in a lot of work in the off-season to get where they are today.
“I knew we were going to compete at the plate,” LeBeouf added. “With the amount of time and work our players put it, I knew it would pay off. When every single girl can hit a ball out at any moment, it makes our opponents have to focus in the circle. If a mistake is made on any pitch, we will capitalize on it. What has changed at the plate is our approach. We are looking to do damage every single pitch, and it is paying off for us.
Against St. Charles, Kaplan notched three runs in the sixth inning. Kennedy Marceaux had an RBI-home run in the inning to lead the run-scoring.
Pitcher Carina Chargois took the win for Kaplan. Chargois surrendered three runs on nine hits over seven innings, striking out 15.
Kaplan’s top four batters had a total of eight hits.
Lead-off hitter, Marceaux, went 3-for-4, including a home run in the sixth inning. Chargois was 2-for-3, and Molly Sistrunk was 2-for-4, including a homer in the first inning. She finished with knocking in three runs batting in the game.
Lauryn Packard, the fourth batter, went yard in the fifth inning.
Three of the top four batters in the lineup had home runs.
Kaplan socked three home runs on the day. Marceaux went deep in the sixth inning. Molly Sistrunk put one out in the first inning. Lauryn Packard went yard in the fifth inning.
Kaplan racked up 10 hits.

Kaplan...19
Cecilia.....6

Kennedy Marceaux didn’t feel much like getting out on Saturday, tallying five hits and leading Kaplan to a 19-6 win over Cecilia. Marceaux doubled in the first, singled in the second, homered in the third, singled in the fourth, and doubled in the fifth.
After Kaplan scored four runs in the top of the fifth, Cecilia answered with four of their own. Kaplan scored when London Greene singled on a 0-1 count, scoring one run. Marceaux doubled on a 1-1 count, scoring two runs, and Reese Broussard grounded out, scoring one run. Cecilia then answered when Calais tripled on a 1-0 count, scoring two runs, Champaigne grounded out, scoring one run, and Meche singled on the at bat’s first pitch, scoring one run.
Kaplan pulled away for good with four runs in the second inning. In the second, Marceaux singled on the first pitch of the at-bat, scoring one run, Chargois singled on the first pitch of the at-bat, scoring one run, and Molly Sistrunk homered on a 0-2 count, scoring two runs.
Kaplan scored five runs in the fourth inning. Chargois and Janyia Small all contributed in the big inning with RBIs.