Robichaux talks draft, signing process and more

Last year was a great year for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette athletically with baseball, softball, football and basketball all reaching postseason play.

For Tony Robichaux, UL Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns baseball coach, that means the challenge is to continue to move forward with the program.

“In this business, it’s so tough because people forget very quickly where you were last year,” he said while talking to the Rotary Club of Crowley Tuesday.

Robichaux and his team began conditioning work Tuesday morning, but he knows the road ahead is long.

For all the success the Ragin’ Cajuns had last season, it is not easy to continue to build up, particularly on a roster that features 21 new athletes to the team.

The catch?

According to National Collegiate Athletic Association rules, baseball teams can only have 35 members to a team, meaning 60 percent of Robichaux’s team is new.

Robichaux spent a large chunk of his time talking about the draft process and what it’s like from a coach’s standpoint.

The Ragin’ Cajuns lost nine players this year to the draft, and for Robichaux and many coaches like him across the country, the summer time “off time” is never really “off” and must be spent talking to parents of high school seniors mulling their futures to explain the pros and cons of going to the majors out of high school.

“Most people think we have a summer. There is no summer,” said Robichaux. “We try to get the parents to understand why this would be a mistake (if he signs). Of course, the scout is at his house the night before telling him how great everything is.

“My summer is just unbelievable.”

All things considered it will make for an interesting fall for UL Lafayette as well, not only on the field, but around campus as the athletic department continues work on improved facilities.

The work for baseball facilities is a part of Tier Two, according to Robichaux, and will provide much needed additions and changes to the campus.

Robichaux spoke about how the baseball program has outgrown its facilities not just through age, but through increased popularity. He pointed to hosting a regional and super regional tournament this past year but knows that if UL Lafayette wants to continue to do so, facility upgrades such as light upgrades are needed, especially when networks like ESPN come in to televise games.

“Those things all have to be upgraded so we can continue to try and operate at this level and bring in the recruits and ESPN to televise these games,” said Robichaux.

“(ESPN has) really grown baseball, really grown softball by leaps and bounds. More and more college sports are on TV, so your venues have to be set up for TV.”

At the end, Robichaux fielded questions from the Rotarians where he talked more about the baseball program’s place on the campus and the continually changing landscape of collegiate athletics, among other topics.

On the value of the Ragin’ Cajuns baseball program for the university: “I think we can’t ever underestimate what our true mission is, that’s educate student-athletes — bottom line — and research. 

“Where I think we come in, I think we’re the front porch of the university. I can’t find anyone that will pay $5 to watch two people take a math test, but I know they’ll pay to come watch a baseball game.” 

On continued talk of paying college players: “The big players (conferences) will continue to try to move away from the small players, that’s the bottom line. They don’t want to share revenues. They want to continue to move forward, so you can see those five doing that.

“They will eventually pay players, I can tell you that. That’s where they are headed. I really do think that.”

On the people of this area: “At all our conference meetings, all our coaches come in and say, ‘Man, I don’t understand how y’all draw so many fans.’

“So they come and take pictures of our ballpark and they go back and build barbecue pits and so on and a year later it’s ‘Coach, I don’t understand it, we built everything y’all have and still don’t have the people.’

“And I say, ‘It’s because you can’t copy our people.’”