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NOTE: Scroll down to the bottom of the Vermiliontoday.com home page and watch Luddy Herpin's son, Shay, fuss at the school board members before they voted for Luddy's replacement.

Former school board member Luddy Herpin got his wish for 12 hours by having his son, Scott, sit in his seat as the school member of District A. But after being sworn in on Monday night, Scott is going to have to step down because he does not live in District A.
That fact was discovered Tuesday morning after seeing were Scott lives.
A second special meeting will take place tonight to rename Luddy’s replacement. The meeting begins at 6 p.m.
After watching Monday night’s special meeting take place and seeing board members agree and disagree about who they want to replace Luddy, his wife Shirley Herpin told her children she wants to sit in her husband’s school board seat for the three month period. Then a special election will take place on March 24 to serve the remaining part of his term.
According to Luddy’s other son, Shay, his mother called him Tuesday morning to tell Shay she was not going to let Luddy’s wish be denied.
Shirley is no stranger to school board meetings. She has attended them with her husband for the last three years.
Luddy Herpin, a long-time educator in Vermilion Parish, passed away recently after a short battle with cancer.
While he was sick, he told his family if anything should happen to him, he would like his son, Scott, to take his place as the school board member.
Once he passed, the Herpin family mailed letters to each school board member explaining Luddy’s request.
On Monday, in a special meeting, the school board members voted 5-2 to name Scott Herpin as the temporary replacement. The entire Herpin family was in the audience at the meeting. No one bothered to check to see if Scott lived in the district before the vote was taken.
At the time, voting in favor of Luddy’s request were board members Laura LeBeouf, Sarah Duplechain, Kibbie Pillette, Chris Hebert and Stacy Landry. Voting against Luddy’s request were board members Anthony Fontana and Chris Gautreaux.
Before the vote, Fontana nominated Gueydan’s Scott Vallo to fill Luddy’s seat. Gautreaux second Fontana’s nomination.
LeBeouf made a substitute motion and named Scott Herpin. Duplechain second her motion.
Before the vote occurred, a 10 minute discussion took place as why it was not unanimous when honoring Luddy’s final request.
Shay, who is a teacher/coach at Kaplan High, was upset that not everyone was in favor of honoring Luddy’s final school board request.
Shay stood up and addressed the board members before the vote was taken.
“This is my father’s last request, who gave his life to this parish and these kids,” Shay said. “It is hard for me to understand how you, as a board, can not honor his last request. That is amazing. A man who gave so much to our parish. The man loved kids. You are going to sit here and have a debate for three months. You can not give my father happiness for three months? That is absorbed.”
LeBeouf asked School board attorney Woody Woodruff if there ever had been a time when the school board did not honor the family’s request of a dying school board member and name someone else?
Duplechain said, “I am so heart broken that this is even a discussion. Allow the Herpin family to continue their mourning process and do what is right.”
The Herpin family is expected to be at Wednesday's meeting to see if the school board votes to name Shirley as the new school board member.

February 25, 1938 ~ December 2, 2017

ABBEVILLE — A private memorial will be held at a later date honoring the life of Willie Ray Lane, 79, who died Saturday, December 2, 2017 at Eastridge Nursing Center.
Willie is survived by his wife of 54 years, Cecile Foster Lane; daughters, Janise McAfee of La Valle, WI and Sharon Fournerat of Porter, TX; step-daughter, Gwen L. Johnson of Abbeville; step-son, George Anthony DeAngelo of Abbeville; four grandchildren, Tobian Ivins, Kelsey McAfee, Brandie Fournerat and Brenda Fournerat; four step-grandchildren, William “Chip” H. Miller, III, Beau C. Johnson, Jeremy DeAngelo and Jared Roy DeAngelo; twelve great grandchildren; four step-great grandchildren; one great-great grandchild; and numerous brothers and sisters.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Hugh Lane and the former Myrtle Mae Bonnette; daughter, Cynthia Lynn Lane; grandson, Charles Fournerat; and numerous siblings.
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.

On Sunday night, the parish basketball coaches voted on who were going to be the top seven seeds.
On the girls side, North Vermilion, who is 6-0, got the No. 1 seed and will draw a bye on Thursday.
On the boys side, Abbeville received the No. 1 seed and also got a bye.
The tournament will be held at North Vermilion High gym and North Vermilion Middle School gym.
It will begin on Thursday and conclude on Saturday in the NV High School gym.
The cost is $6 and each person will be given a bracelet, letting them go in both gyms.
Game schedule for Thursday.
NV High School gym
Boys
No. 7 Delcambre vs. No 4 Kaplan ( 5 p.m. , NV gym)
N0. 3 VC vs. No. 6 Gueydan (6:20 p.m.. NV gym)
No. 2 NVHS vs. No. 7 seed Erath (7:40 p.m. , NV gym)

NV Middle School gym
Girls
No. 5 Abbeville vs. No 4 seed Gueydan (5 p.m. NVMS gym)
No. 3 seed Kaplan vs. No. 6 Erath (6:20 p.m. NVMS gym)
No. 7 Delcambre vs. VC (7:40 p.m., NVMS)

KAPLAN - The best way to beat the Kaplan Pirates is to keep their offense off the field. That is what the Richwood Rams did Friday night in front a packed E.D, Memorial Field crowd.
In the final 7:30 minutes of the game, the Rams pounded the ball down the gut of the Pirates defense, which led to a 15-8 victory over Kaplan.
It is the second straight year Kaplan falls in the Class 3A semifinals.
The Rams scored the ago-ahead touchdown with 3:48 to play in the game. It capped off a 50-yard, 8-play drive, which featured all running plays.
“We normally go with the spread offense, but I knew would could run the football up the middle,” said Richwood head coach Robert Arvie. “I told my offensive coordinator to quit throwing and just pound it.”
On the game-winning drive, Richwood tailback darted 27 yards for a first down and put the ball down to the Kaplan 28-yard-line.
The Rams drove down to the 3-yard line and called time out when they were facing a fourth down from three. After back to back time outs to figure out if they wanted to kick a field goal or go for it, the Rams went for it on fourth down. Watson found a hole to run through thanks to a massive offensive line. The two-point conversion gave the Rams a 15-8 lead.
Kaplan got one more possession with four minutes to play in the game but would turn the ball over.
“They pretty much played our game,” said Kaplan head coach Stephen Lotief. “They just stayed on the field a lot longer on offense than we did. It’s harder to play defense than offense.”
The Pirates were without fullback Braylon Romero, who broke his foot against St. James. Taking over at fullback was Rhett Menard, who also played linebacker.
Kaplan’s quarterback, Trae Case, played all game with a hurt ankle.
KHS did not score in the first half and was down 7-0.
Kaplan did manage to put together a 92-yard drive capped off with an 18-yard scoring run by Thibeaux with 3:51 left in the third frame. Menard scored two points for KHS, as the Pirates went ahead, 8-7.
It remained that way until the Rams scored the game-winner with four minutes to play in the game.
“We lost to a good team. We made mistakes and you can not do that against a team like Richwood,” Lotief added.
The Pirates had a chance to score in the second quarter. On a fourth down, from the 2, Richwood stopped them.
“They didn’t do much different than what we thought,” Lotief said. “They just outweighed us so much. We held them to 15 points, and we had our chances. The fourth-and-goal, they got theirs and we didn’t. That happens.”
Eighth-seeded Richwood (11-3) will meet West Feliciana, a 45-26 winner over Jennings, in next Friday’s Class 3A title game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Thibeaux finished with 116 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown.
Watson led his team with 21 carries for 105 yards and a score.