By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director

As the 2025-26 athletic year approaches, there’s still a couple of weeks left to reflect on the best moments by Centenary’s male student-athletes and teams this past year.

We presented the women’s top 10 over the past two weeks. Today, in my humble opinion, here are the latter half of the Gents’ top 10 sports accomplishments in 2024-25.

Go Forth, young man!:  Diamond Gents’ junior left fielder Lenny Forth was named to the D3baseball.com Team of the Week on April 23 after his impressive performance at home against the University of Dallas.

The Team of the Week is D3baseball.com’s weekly honor roll, a national team that recognizes the top performers at each of nine positions from the previous week. Players are selected from nominations from their school’s sports information directors.

Forth was red-hot against the Crusaders, finishing a sizzling 8-for-11 (.727) with a .750 OBP and slugged a whopping 1.273 with eight RBI, a home run, three doubles, and seven runs scored. He also stole two bases and did not strike out in his 11 at-bats all weekend.

Lacrosse explodes offensively: The Gents capped their season with a flourish, posting a 27-9 victory over Northland College on April 19 at Atkins Field. Centenary exploded for a program record number of goals against Northland on Senior Day and scored 20+ goals for the third time during the season. Centenary flexed its offensive muscles all season long as the Maroon and White scored 161 goals, averaging 14.6 goals per game, and added 90 assists for 251 total points.

Freshman Gamble Harvill scored a team-leading 38 goals to set a new single-season program record and scored eight in the win over Northland. Sophomore Gibson Harvill matched his younger brother with eight goals of his own on in the regular-season finale and scored 26 for the season.

Back on the floor, Beverly is Gents’ bright spot: Junior guard Quentin Beverly missed the first six games of the season but flourished in the 18 games he played. He averaged 18.6 points per game and reached double figures a whopping 16 times while scoring 20+ points eight times and 30 or more twice.

Beverly, who was named third-team All-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, finished the season by scoring in double figures nine times in a row with four 20+ point games and one 30+ point performance. He scored a career-high 32 points twice – on Jan. 7 against LeTourneau and again on Feb. 9 against McMurry.

Swimmers finish strong: The Gents finished fourth at the SCAC Championships and earned 292 points as they recorded their best finish in the event since 2021.

The Gents were impressive in the championship final of the 200-yard butterfly as senior Antonio Barbee finished fifth with a time of 1:58.68 and freshman Adam Stelly was eighth with a time of 2:07.19.

Freshman Hunter Hedges finished eighth in the finals of the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:00.04 which was preceded by a time of 59.67 in the prelims- the eighth-fastest time in school history. Hedges also swam the 10th-fastest time in the 100-yard butterfly (51.68).

Cormier’s sprints highlight track team’s spring: The Gents finished 12th in the 2025 SCAC Championships, but sprinter Christian Cormier had a superb sophomore campaign for the Gents. He  was one of the top competitors in the conference all season, named the SCAC Men’s Track Athlete of the Week (April 22) after sharing the honor a month earlier (March 18).

Cormier ran a season-best time of 10.69 in the 100 meters in the SCAC Championships, which tied for the 11th-fastest time all season in the event in the conference.

Next week: my top five feats for 2024-25.

Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu

On July 30, 1932, Walt Disney changed the course of animation history—not with a feature film or a major character, but with a short cartoon about singing trees and blooming flowers.

That cartoon, Flowers and Trees, marked the first commercially released film to use full-color three-strip Technicolor, a revolutionary leap forward that dazzled Depression-era audiences and cemented Disney’s reputation as a creative risk-taker. It also signaled the beginning of a new visual era for animated storytelling, where imagination was no longer confined to black and white.

At just over seven minutes long, Flowers and Trees was part of Disney’s Silly Symphonies series—shorts that were more experimental than the Mickey Mouse cartoons that had launched the studio into public favor. Originally planned as a black-and-white release, Flowers and Trees was redesigned mid-production after Disney secured exclusive rights to the new three-strip Technicolor process, which allowed animators to use a broader spectrum of vivid reds, greens, and blues on screen for the first time.

The result was a lush and whimsical woodland fantasy where trees sprout arms, flowers dance to classical music, and nature itself becomes the story’s protagonist. To 1932 audiences, accustomed to muted grayscale animation, the effect was stunning. Color wasn’t just decorative—it became part of the emotional language of the cartoon.

The gamble paid off. Flowers and Trees was a critical and commercial success, winning the first-ever Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject in 1932. It also paved the way for Disney’s continued dominance in the animation industry throughout the 1930s and beyond. The success prompted Disney to colorize all future Silly Symphonies and eventually convert Mickey Mouse cartoons to Technicolor as well.

More importantly, Disney’s early use of Technicolor helped normalize color in mainstream filmmaking. The process itself had been available in various forms since the 1910s, but technical limitations and cost had made it rare. With Flowers and Trees, Disney proved that color could be more than a novelty—it could elevate storytelling.

The timing was strategic. America was in the grip of the Great Depression, and movie theaters served as an escape. Audiences were hungry for wonder. Disney gave them color-splashed joy at a time when they needed it most. Behind the scenes, the innovation was just as bold: using the new Technicolor system required major changes in how animation cells were painted and photographed, demanding both technical precision and artistic vision.

The impact of that decision is still felt today. Without Flowers and Trees, there might never have been the vibrant fantasy worlds of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Little Mermaid, or Encanto. The commitment to color redefined what animated films could be, inspiring generations of animators around the world.

Now, 93 years later, it’s easy to forget a time when animation was anything but colorful. But on July 30, 1932, Disney’s choice to take a chance on color reshaped the future of animation—and reminded us that sometimes, a bold splash of paint can rewrite the story.

As modern animation evolves into 3D, CGI, and virtual reality, the roots of that progress trace back to a little short about trees in love. Flowers and Trees didn’t just add color to the screen—it added depth, emotion, and limitless possibility.

So on this day in pop culture history, we tip our hats to Walt Disney’s visionary leap into Technicolor. It was the first of many bold moves, but perhaps the most transformative of all.

Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone who is well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”

By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services

It was 4:30 on a late February afternoon. Class was over, and the high school senior was working as a volunteer at Caddo Parish Fire District 5.

“They ran over the railroad tracks, hit another car head on, and (the crash) killed the driver instantly.”

The 18-year-old responded to the scene.

“She was still alive, but she was trapped,” he said of the passenger. “It was an S-10 Blazer. The fuel injector was shooting gas on her. Then, it ignited and burned them both up. She was still alive.”

But he didn’t recognize her, even though he had been at school with her a few hours earlier.

“I could tell it was a white female because she had Keds on, and everyone wore Keds. I could tell she was white because her socks were pushed down, and she didn’t burn where the socks were. She was totally black.”

Before going to sleep that night, he learned their names. The girl was a schoolmate, and the boy was a former schoolmate.

“I didn’t know until the news announced it later that night, because they were so burned.”

54-year-old Grayson Boucher, who has worn – and continues to wear – many hats but is likely best known as a Shreveport city councilman serving his second term, told me that excruciating story – and his story – during lunch at a place he chose, Monjuni’s Italian Café’ and Grocery, on Louisiana Avenue. Grayson had half of a Porkie’s po-boy (he requested it be toasted crisp), a house salad (with an extra side of dressing), and unsweet tea. I enjoyed the Turkey Lite Salad, and water with lemon.

“I remember lying in bed thinking – their faces kept coming back to me – do I really want to do this? Do I have it in me to do this? I made that conscious decision to do it, and I did it all the way up to 2011.

Grayson spent more than 20 years with both the Shreveport Fire Department and Caddo Parish Fire Districts, fulfilling a childhood dream.

“I always wanted to be something in public safety. I didn’t know quite what . . . . This sounds real nerdy – and I still do it to this day but not as much – I listen to the scanner. (Growing up) I knew all the cops. When I moved to Shreveport, I listened to the scanner but couldn’t understand what Shreveport police were doing, so I migrated over to the fire department.

Grayson spent his first 12 years in Springhill, Louisiana, doing things kids do in a small town. He rode motorcycles, went mud riding, played sports (“But I never enjoyed it. Everybody thought since I was a big, tall guy, I would be really good at it. But I wasn’t”), and was The Tin Man in the community theatre’s production of The Wizard of Oz.

“Springhill to me was kind of Utopia, almost Mayberryish, but a little bit bigger.”

The town thrived as the home of International Paper Company’s paper mill. But in 1978, the plant closed, and just like that, 2,400 jobs were gone. Grayson saw people’s lives change. His father, a realtor, helped executives sell their homes and move away.

“It gave me a little bit of an understanding as to how quickly your economy can switch.”

When Grayson’s parents divorced, he and his mom moved to Shreveport. Grayson loved Springhill, and wasn’t interested in replacing that love.

“The move was traumatic. I didn’t want to leave. I had my whole family there.”

In fact, one day while at Youree Drive Middle School, Grayson decided he had had enough.

“I knew there was a pay phone across the street at the Texaco. I brought some quarters with me, and I was going to call my grandmother – my mom’s mom – to pick me up.”

But before Grayson could escape, the school’s assistant principal (Ollie Tyler, who later became Shreveport’s Mayor) intervened.

“She took me in her office. She started telling me things to get involved with. How to make friends. She started introducing me to people. It just meant a lot to me. I remember how warm her hands were, taking my hand and telling me what I needed to do if I wanted to acclimate. It really helped.”

Grayson played in the school’s band (trumpet),  as he did at Captain Shreve where he was drum major his senior year. After graduating, Grayson went to LSU Shreveport off and on for a couple of years, but his heart was at the fire station.

“To me, conjugated nouns and all that other stuff just wasn’t as important to me as learning how to extricate somebody from a car, or how to be an EMT.”

At 30, Grayson became Chief of Fire District 5, building two fire stations and starting ambulance transport service. At the same time, he was doing real estate, and appraising. Grayson’s business grew so big, he had to make a decision. That decision was based, in part, on something Grayson learned in a leadership class.

“Once you get to the point where you go to work and you don’t know what you’re going to do, it’s probably time to leave. I had done everything I wanted to do at Fire District 5. I wanted to stay around for my friends, but I didn’t want to stay around for the job anymore.”

But he still had the need for public service. Grayson ran for Justice of the Peace, and won. He ran for city council and, to his surprise, won. If not for the urging of Heather, Grayson’s wife of 31 years, he would not have been a candidate.

“I (told her), ‘I won’t win. I don’t have a college degree.’”

Grayson also didn’t have the connections he assumed he needed.

“I thought at the time, somebody like me couldn’t be friends with a doctor or lawyer, because I wasn’t as educated as them. I ended up becoming friends with a lot of doctors and lawyers . . . . It just made me realize that no matter where you are in life, or what you do in life, it can always turn around if you have the ambition to do something.”

The father of two daughters has since won re-election. But it’s not so much putting out council-related fires in his district, but rather all those years putting out real fires and responding to life and death situations, that helped mold him into who he is today.

“There was an activist at a (city council) meeting one day who didn’t like what I was saying about something, and called me a racist. After the meeting, I politely went up to him and said, ‘Look, I know a lot of what you’re doing is for show, and that’s fine. But I spent 24-25 years of my life as a fireman. I can honestly tell you I never pulled up to a scene, saw a black man laying there, and said ‘I’m not going to treat you.’ The fact is, when your blood is running out on the street, and my blood is running out on the street, they are both red, and I’m going to try and save them.’”

In fact, in 2014, Grayson took that a step further. He saw his wife, who was a Centenary College police detective, shoot a man when, according to Grayson, the man pointed a gun at his wife’s police officer partner.

“I did CPR until the fire department got there. He had a sucking chest wound. I covered it with my hand – my bare hands – and I did CPR for what seemed like forever, probably 10 minutes.”

The man died.

“It’s a horrible thing to go through. (Heather) has a lot of emotion from that.”

Knowing how busy Grayson is with council business and real estate, I asked my final question. As always, what has he learned throughout life that could be helpful to others?

“When you’re going through life, you think things are screwed up. Nothing really makes sense . . . . But when you go back and chronicle everything, God gives you a well-written novel. It’s just at the time, when you get bits and pieces, it doesn’t make sense . . . . I just tell younger people that you may be lost, you may be confused – I’m still lost and confused on stuff. But if you look back at your life and what’s gone on, it chronicles pretty well. The hard times, the bad times, the good times. Usually, it ends up good.”

And God is still chronicling Grayson’s story.

Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.

The Journal’s weekly “What’s Your Story?” series is sponsored by Morris & Dewett Injury Lawyers.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Secretary of State Nancy Landry announced that, due to legislation passed in the 2025 Regular Legislative Session, the Independent Party will cease to exist as a recognized political party in Louisiana on Aug. 1, 2025. Voters registered as Independent will have their party affiliation automatically changed to “No Party” in the state’s voter registration system. Affected voters will receive a notification by mail, including an updated voter information card.

The Louisiana Legislature mandated this change in Act 84 of the 2025 Regular Session to prepare for the state’s transition to a Closed Party Primary system for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Louisiana Supreme Court, Public Service Commission, and Board of Elementary & Secondary Education contests. Closed Party Primaries will begin in 2026 and participation will be limited to voters whose party affiliation is listed as Democrat, Republican, or “No Party” on their voter registrations.

“Many Louisiana voters who are registered as Independents mistakenly believe they are unaffiliated with any political party, when in fact they are members of the Independent Party,” Secretary Landry said. “This proactive change will allow voters formerly registered as Independents to participate in Closed Party Primaries next year, preventing voter confusion while maximizing participation.”

Louisiana’s new Closed Party Primaries were created by the Louisiana Legislature in Act 1 of the 2024 First Extraordinary Session. Secretary Landry encourages voters to check their voter registration information on the GeauxVote Online Registration System or free GeauxVote mobile app to ensure their information and party affiliation are up to date.

I’m not very well suited for this one.

Not a Cubs fan. Don’t detest them like all you Cardinals and White Sox fans do. I do believe that if you truly love baseball, at least a little part of you must bear some fondness for the Cubbies.

Wrigley Field, “The Friendly Confines,” with the ivy on the outfield wall since 1937. Nothing but day games for decades. Site of the Babe’s called shot against the chirpy Cubs in the 1932 World Series. Home of Ernie Banks, who coined “The Friendly Confines” and was known to smile broadly and say, “let’s play two.”

The wind blowing out over Waveland Avenue, and major leaguers looking like slow-pitch softball sluggers as they took advantage.

The Curse of the Billy Goat, rooted in the city’s Billy Goat Tavern, which found the spotlight in the 1980s thanks to a recurring Saturday Night Live skit featuring Bill Murray, a Billy Goat regular, and Chicagoan John Belushi, who recited the trademark refrain, “Cheeburger, Cheeburger, Cheeburger. No Coke. Pepsi.”

Fergie Jenkins. Full name Ferguson, but Fergie just felt better. Unless you had to hit against him.

Sammy Sosa. Say what you will about supplements and such, Sosa’s 1998 friendly duel with the Cardinals’ Mark McGwire as they pounded past Roger Maris’ MLB-record 61 home runs captivated all of us, baseball fans or not, and brought big league baseball back into good graces with the American sports fan.

Even if you were not a Cubs fan, if you are of a certain age, a baseball buff who had leisure time in the 1980s and a TV, you watched the Cubs on WGN. You watched the Braves on WTBS. Depending on where you lived, you saw the Mets on WOR. There was no nightly range of games to watch. You wanted to see baseball on TV, those were your choices.

The Cubs had the incomparable Harry Caray, that lovable lout, perhaps soused, but leaning out of the WGN broadcast booth and singing “Take Me Out To the Ballgame” over the public address system to the Wrigley fans in the seventh inning stretch.

For goodness’ sakes, the Cubs had Bill Murray as their unofficial No. 1 fan. And we all were nuts for that nut, Bill Murray. Noogies for everybody!

It wasn’t just because Lee Smith spent more time with the Cubs than any of his other MLB stops that he entered Cooperstown in Chicago blue. Ask him today, and his eyes will sparkle when the Castor resident talks about the Cubbies, his buddy Randy Hundley, his catcher, and more of his teammates.

Today, his eyes are doubtlessly damp at the loss of one of them, the greatest Cub of this generation, Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg, whose cruel battle with cancer ended Monday at age 65.           

When the sad news broke late in the evening, passionate tributes poured in from every angle – teammates, MLB peers, fans, random people who had been graced by Ryno’s personal touch, showing kindness and going out of his way to make a fan’s day. The highlights flashed almost incessantly across SportsCenter.

“A quiet superstar” was one description. Here was his:

“I love to play baseball. I’m a baseball player. I’ve always been a baseball player. I’m still a baseball player. That’s who I am,” he said from the podium at Cooperstown during his 2005 Baseball Hall of Fame induction.

He also said things like, “If you played the game the right way, played the game for the team, good things would happen.”

Talk about For Love of the Game, Ryne Sandberg personified it.

Thanks to Lee Smith, I saw it up close, almost exactly six years ago, on the eve of Smith’s Cooperstown enshrinement. The flame-throwing reliever and his wife kindly put me and my pal, Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame artist Chris Brown, on the invitation list to the Cubs’ otherwise exclusive party celebrating his induction. We were star-struck along with several of his Natchitoches American Legion baseball teammates, and other family and friends.

All of the team’s living Hall of Famers were there, and they all spoke about their relationships with Lee. Billy Williams, who scouted him. Fergie Jenkins, whose career ended with Lee closing games for him. Andre’ Dawson, and Lee’s 1984 teammate, that season’s runaway National League MVP, Sandberg. As we milled around the venue, we didn’t flinch at chances to chat with luminaries like MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, and yes, all of the Cubs greats.

No one was more gracious or sincerely nice than Sandberg. It probably helped that Chris pitched in the Cubs organization after his Northwestern State career, but I would never have imagined going into that evening that we’d share a five-minute conversation with the Chicago icon.

I’ll always remember that one of big league baseball’s most popular and accomplished players didn’t big league us. He didn’t bounce away quickly. He was enjoying it.

Because Ryne Sandberg loved baseball.

“The reasons I am here, they tell me, is that I played the game a certain way,” he said on his own Cooperstown weekend, “that I played the game the way it was supposed to be played.”

He was speaking of baseball. He played the game of life just right, too.

Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com

By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports

Shreveport native Sam Burns is taking a break from the PGA Tour this week, hoping it’s the pause that refreshes.

He’ll be back in action next week as the FedEx Cup playoffs begin in Memphis with the FedEx St. Jude Championship, followed a week later by the BMW Championship near Baltimore, and culminating with the top 30 pros in the points standings teeing it up at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

While high finishes are always the goal, they have added value this time of year. The race to make the 12-man USA Ryder Cup team is coming down to the wire and Burns needs to finish with a flourish to earn one of the six at-large slots that captain Keegan Bradley will choose.

Burns is 15^th on the Ryder Cup points list. He stands 22^nd in the FedEx Cup points tally and is 23^rd in the Official World Golf Rankings.

He hasn’t dipped despite mediocre finishes in his last three outings: 47^th in the Genesis Scottish Open, 45^th at the British Open two weeks ago, and 61^st last week at the 3M Open in Minnesota. That last finish, not on a links-style track and coming where he was 12^th last season, might dampen Burns’ bid unless he can approach what he did last year in the PGA playoffs.

After a fifth place in Memphis in 2024, he was runner-up at the BMW, and 12^th at the Tour Championship. That helped him earn a spot in his third straight international competition, the Presidents Cup. He is bidding for a second Ryder Cup team berth.

Bradley is 10^th in the Ryder Cup standings and is expected to be a playing captain. General speculation is that there are perhaps a dozen pros contending for 2-3 at large Ryder Cup roster spots to fill out the USA card.

In the mix: No. 11 Maverick McNealy, No. 12 Brian Harman, Andrew Novak at 13^th, No. 14 Patrick Cantlay, and Burns at 15. Wyndham Clark, Lucas Glover, Daniel Berger, Cameron Young and the red-hot Chris Gotterup, a New Jersey native, are next in the standings to make the American team playing on home turf at Bethpage Black on Long Island Sept. 26-28.

The standings do not dictate the captain’s choices. Burns’ putting, although he’s slipped from No 1 to No. 3 in total putting on the Tour standings, is as good as it gets in the game, making him a valuable team member in the various Ryder Cup formats.

He is sixth on Tour with 12 consecutive cuts made, showing his consistency, another virtue.

Undoubtedly, the Calvary Baptist and LSU product is honing his game at home on Squire Creek Country Club in Choudrant, preparing for the trip to Memphis and what he plans to be a season-ending surge.

Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com

By JASON PUGH, Northwestern State Sports Information Director

NATCHITOCHES – As the Northwestern State football team gathered together Monday for its “report day” portion of fall camp, there was something that seemed to be lacking a season ago.

Familiarity.

“We didn’t really know what to expect (last year),” redshirt junior linebacker Danny Sears said. “We had only had a spring (with head coach Blaine McCorkle and his staff) before fall camp. New people, you’re merging with a lot of different people, and you didn’t know what to expect. I think we’ve done a really good job this summer of coming together more. We know what to expect from each other, and we really established our standards as a team.”

The Demons spent most of Monday handling the tedious parts that come with the beginning of the season.

There were forms to fill out, equipment to pick up and, of course, meetings. Hearing from university athletic staff took up most of the afternoon, but it was the Monday night meeting that signaled a change in attitude.

“From the moment we got here, everyone was excited to get into the locker room,” junior offensive lineman Isaiah Ybarra said. “We’re excited to be here, which we haven’t had in a while. Guys are ready to eat.”

Ybarra added waking up for breakfast this morning truly will have him ready for camp, which begins with meetings and culminates Day 1 with a 7 o’clock practice tonight at Turpin Stadium.

The Monday night team meeting, which followed a day of administrative meetings, set out a road map for the Demons to follow throughout McCorkle’s second fall camp at Northwestern, which leads into the Aug. 28 season opener against Alcorn State in Turpin Stadium.

“Things are a little more football-specific tonight,” McCorkle said. “Things are a little more intense in nature in the way the presentations are made. We outline who we are and where we’re going.”

Some of that roadwork was put together during summer workouts, which has made report day a bit of a misnomer as most of the Demon roster spent time in Natchitoches in June and July.

“The way things are now, the kids are here all summer, so it’s not like you’re excited to see them because you haven’t seen them in a while,” McCorkle said. “You see them every day all summer, which is great and a nice change of pace, but a new year is upon us.”

Contact Jason at pughj@nsula.edu