Those on the field at Turpin Stadium may not realize it -- or coaches through the years might say that too many of the players sometimes do -- but a football practice is a great time for a conversation.
On the sidelines or in the stands, that is. Most safely, in the stands. Up there, there's no chance of having your attention somewhere else when the 6-3, 240-pound tight end stretches to make a great catch or get the extra yard, and you're right in his path. They call that "getting turfed."
I've seen it happen and fortunately not to me.
Another great reason to sit in the stands at a football practice as opposed to watching from field level is the chance to sit, and maybe even in the shade. Saturday morning, that's why I was in the east side student section seats (been a while since I've been there) with former Demon players Britt Brittain and Bryan Arceneaux watching the team go through practice.
Brittain (1974-78) and Arceneaux (1980-84 as a player, the next two years as a student coach) didn't cross paths back in their playing days, but have become good friends. Their first common bond was Bobby Hebert, now known as "The Cajun Cannon," the former Saints and Falcons star quarterback who roomed with "Britt" as a true freshman in the fall of 1978. Arceneaux and Hebert are Bayou Boys from Galliano and South Lafourche High School.
Hebert is now a sports talk show host on WWL-870 AM in New Orleans and will be interviewing Demons head coach Scott Stoker today at 4:45.
Arceneaux talked about his first spring practice as a Demon defensive tackle before Delaney's senior season, 1980. Offensive line coach Joe Raymond Peace made a big impression on Arceneaux, who was oblivious to who he had just smacked down with a helmet to helmet hit.
"I didn't have any clue who Joe Delaney was. He was the guy running the ball, that's all I knew. I hit him right upside the face mask pretty good and here comes Coach Peace, asking me did I know who that was? I got the idea real fast, he was our stud," said Arceneaux.
Brittain chimed in that when he was a player, before the internet and extensive broadcast coverage of prep football, he didn't know much if anything about many of the incoming players. He did, however, say he remembered wanting to see Delaney, the guy who ran a 9.4 100-yard dash at Haughton High School, and Joe D. was everything he was billed as and then some.
Arceneaux was a senior in 1984 when NSU's other NFL Rookie of the Year, John Stephens, was the Gulf Star Conference Freshman of the Year as a tailback right out of Springhill High School.
"John had incredible talent," said Arceneaux. "When he cranked it up full throttle, it was awesome to see. He was learning to play tailback as he went along."
Stephens was an offensive guard at Springhill until his senior season, when a knee injury to the Lumberjacks' returning starter there resulted in moving the powerfully-built future star to the backfield. Such are the amazing twists of fate.
The reminiscing ended as practice did, after phone calls to touch base with former teammates. Brittain's former teammate Kenny Meeks gave Arceneaux the phone number for J.T. Fenceroy, who played in the early '80s, and it wouldn't surprise me if Arceneaux has now gotten in touch with Stephens to remember those days and look ahead to this fall.
Stephens and Stoker stay in contact -- they played together at NSU in 1986-87.
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