LC-M’s Griffith to face familiar foe Saturday

[KFDM COOP]

LC-M’s Griffith to face familiar foe Saturday

Gabriel Pruett

The Orange Leader

LITTLE CYPRESS — Olsen Field in College Station will certainly feel like Don Gibbens Field this Saturday afternoon.

The reason being the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Battlin’ Bears will be there to play some non-district baseball and when LC-M Coach Steve Griffith looks across the diamond he will recognize the opposing coach quite well.

The Bears will take on Joshua High School Saturday and it is Jason Bourgeois, who worked under Griffith at LC-M, heading up the Fighting Owls.

In a very ironic turn of events, Griffith’s coaching and teaching tenure started at Joshua High School, which is located south of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Not only will Griffith be able to do a lot of remembering of past days, he gets to watch his Bears play ball on a major, college field.

“The whole package is a good deal to me,†Griffith said. “I get to see Bourgeois, former players and co-workers and coach at Olsen Field. For both sets of kids to play on that field, it is the only chance for some to play on a field like that. I am proud we are able to give them that kind of opportunity.â€

Griffith has been on the phone the last several weeks talking to former players who are also making the trip to College Station.

“Those players live all over the place in Texas,†Griffith added. “About six to eight of my former players will be up there to watch the game and visit.â€

Bourgeois said Griffith also had one stern request when the two coaches were negotiating the game’s date and place.

“He said Toni Landers had to be there,†Bourgeois said. “She was a real big mentor for him when he first started coaching and he said she had to be there if he was going to play this game.â€

Landers is now a counselor at Joshua High School.

“She is one of the greatest ladies I have ever met in my life,†Griffith said. “I said I would only play if she comes.â€

Bourgeois’ mentor certainly will be at the game as the coach said Griffith is one of the main tutor’s in his career.

“It is going to be a fun day,†Bourgeois said. “LC-M will always be a strong team and I was even showing my shortstop the Bears website and he said, ‘We have to play those guys.’

“Anytime you see Coach Griffith on the field across from you it is going to be awkward because he is one heck of a coach. I consider him one of the greatest coaches in baseball in the state of Texas. It is going to be a lot of fun seeing and going up against him.â€

Bourgeois added he still calls Griffith on tips about the game of baseball.

“Griff was my mentor then and he is my mentor now. I call him about three times a week. Anything he ever says I try to put in my memory and remember later. He probably gets tired of me bugging him so much.â€

The two teams now hope to build a future of playing against each other in the upcoming years.

LC-M and Joshua hope to participate in each team’s tournaments in the near future.

[silly365]

GOOD STORY . NEEDS TO BE MORE OF THAT AROUND HERE

[Catcher_in_the_Wry]

From my experience with Coach Griff and Coach Bourgeois, the only thing that may matter more than winning is turning these boys is to fine young men.  Griff and Bourgeois both put as much effort into teaching these kids about right and wrong.  Both programs are never without giving back to the community through a charity drive or sending care packages to Iraq.  Class acts.

[ksagrl1]

This should be a great game.....both teams have very similar records.  Great opportunity for the kids to get to play on Olsen Field at A&M.