‘It was just the right time’: Jesuit’s meant a great deal in David Moreau’s life
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
David Moreau could sense potential trouble from the dugout.
The three-time state champion baseball coach at Jesuit High walked the delicate tightrope to the mound, conducting discussions with pitchers who were incurring difficulty. His mind wasn’t always made up whether to take them out, thus hastening heart-to-heart talks with a sweat-soaked, ever-optimistic guy who believed he was still capable of leading his team to victory.
The balance, though, was trying to be fair to the greater good. Moreau never wanted the regret of staying with someone instead of following his managerial instincts and bringing in someone fresh.
“There are times where you may stay too long with a guy on the mound,” Moreau said. “You were committed to his heart, and you know, you have to have somebody else ready to go.”
Moreau, 67, applied that same logic to his personal life. After 43 years at Jesuit, a New Orleans parochial school where he’s served as a teacher/coach, and for the last 19 years as the school’s athletic director, he will transition to the role as athletic director ‘emeritus’ at the end of July.
Jesuit has announced Scott Bairnsfather as its new athletic director on May 12.
“I’m not 100% sure,” Moreau joked about his new title. “I’m working as athletic director until July 31. We’ll be talking more specifically over the next month. I still plan to do a whole lot at school.”
There’s never been a pitch count Moreau’s followed in the completion of a myriad of jobs he’s performed in his current role since 2007.
“Even if a guy wants to keep going, you have to pull him out, and it was the right time,” Moreau said, relying on his vast baseball background.
The timing of Moreau’s handing off the school’s top athletic position to Bairnsfather takes into account the overall health of the athletic department.
The school’s principal, Dr. Jeremy Reuther, a former Jesuit basketball player, has been at the school for several years and is well-schooled in LHSAA matters.
Of the school’s 15 varsity sports, they’re led by coaches with a minimum of two years of head coaching experience.
“When you look at the whole card, it was the best time,” Moreau said. “For anybody new coming in, they wouldn’t be in a position to hire a head coach or have to interview anyone for a head coach. That’s something that played into it.
“Dr. (Jeremy) Reuther’s done a fabulous job and is much more comfortable where it just seems everything just fits timing-wise,” Moreau said. “It was the right time. Selfishly, had I stayed another year, it would have been for only my benefit.”
Moreau, who met his wife Rosalyn 30 years ago at Jesuit, also looked a little more internally at the benefits the additional time in a day, a week, and a month will look like.
His father, Donald, a 1954 graduate of Jesuit, is 90 years old and living in Leesburg, Fla – approximately 45 minutes northwest of Orlando. He’s also a proud grandfather of a junior standout lacrosse player who lives out of state and is committed to the Air Force Academy.
“I’ll have the opportunity to go see my dad more, which I really want to be able to do,” he said. “I haven’t been able to see my grandson in two years, but we speak a lot of the time.”
Moreau graduated from De La Salle in 1977 and attended Northeast Louisiana University (now UL-Monroe), where he graduated in ’81.
His teaching/coaching career began that fall at Archbishop Shaw in Marrero, assisting in basketball and baseball.
“I love the opportunity I had at Archbishop Shaw right out of the college,” he said. “I met wonderful people there.”
That group included Shaw’s head football coach Joe Zimmerman and assistant football coach Hank Tierney, who has enjoyed one of the greatest careers in Louisiana history, and head baseball coach Pat O’Shea.
Moreau said he also experienced excellence in the classroom, getting the opportunity to teach Mickey Guidry and Joseph “Nacho” Albergamo, both of whom signed and played football at LSU. Albergamo further distinguished himself as an All-American and was selected to the school’s athletics hall of fame before joining the physicians’ group at Baton Rouge Clinic in 1997.
“Things kind of fell perfectly for me,” he said.
Holy Cross was Moreau’s next stop for the one year as the junior varsity/assistant baseball coach to the school’s winningest baseball coach, Lou Carboni, his Algebra 2 teacher at De La Salle. He also served as the head junior varsity basketball coach.
Jesuit found itself in the market for a head baseball coach that could also teach four Louisiana History classes.
Moreau met with then principal, Fr. Anthony McGinn, to discuss the possibilities in 1983, leading to an alliance that has been extended four decades and is still going.
“I loved history, I loved Louisiana,” Moreau said. “I was a social studies person. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
Two years later, Jesuit was the state champion.
Moreau added to the Blue Jays’ illustrious baseball tradition, where they hold the state’s record with 22 state championships.
The first for Moreau was a 12-4 victory over Catholic League opponent, Brother Martin, followed in 2002 with a 2-1 win over Barbe.
Jesuit was able to send Moreau out with an 8-2 triumph over Destrehan in his final game as coach in 2005.
Moreau, who also guided the Blue Jays to four state runner-up finishes in 1988, ’95, ’97, and ’04, won 77% (532-160) of his games and nine district championships.
He’s been inducted into the Louisiana Baseball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame and the New Orleans Prep Hall of Fame.
Moreau, who also coached the school’s American Legion team, Retif Oil, left the Blue Jays’ dugout after 22 years to succeed Jesuit High icon Frank Misuraca as the athletic director.
He served as an assistant to Misuraca for one year before taking over full-time in 2007. Misuraca, who passed away in 2024, spent more than four decades as a teacher, coach, and mentor at the school.
Misuraca, a member of Southeastern Louisiana’s Hall of Fame, led Jesuit to a pair of state titles in baseball, was the athletic director for 19 years, and was selected to the Allstate Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame and New Orleans Prep Hall of Fame – both in 2012.
“He was kind of my mentor at school in so many ways for baseball, for Jesuit High School, and in the world of athletics, also as an athletic director and with the LHSAA,” said Moreau, who averaged 24.2 wins per season. “He taught me a lot, was a wonderful person, and was great at everything that he did. So many of the things we’ve done, and continue to do at the school, have really been built on the foundation that he provided for the school.
“The only thing we did differently was to try and expand on the things that he did in maybe a little bit of a different way at times because times have changed,” Moreau said. “The structure of so many things that we do came from him, and I was fortunate to be able to work with him all those years to learn that. He took the time to teach me so many different things as well.”
Moreau wanted to foster the same culture with his coaches, the same camaraderie and like-minded approach, which were of paramount importance in the classes he taught and teams he coached.
“I always tried to make my classroom feel as if it was a team,” he said. “I never said you had this or that. I always tried to use ‘we’ have this or that. ‘We’re getting ready for the test. ‘We’re preparing for the quiz. It was always collective.
“Being on a team is so special,” he said. “You don’t realize it in athletics that you don’t get that opportunity many times in your life. A lot of times, it’s for only so many years in high school. Only a few get it later on. You want the guys to be part of something that’s going to be special. What you learn from being on a team, and being a good teammate, has to carry over for the rest of your life.”
Moreau’s vision was always reflective of the school’s mission and its expectations. He wanted athletics to support what the school already established in other areas, such as academics and discipline.
“It’s the formational aspect that we’re trying to give our guys, and athletics can certainly provide that setting,” he said. “You use the opportunity to make sure we’re teaching these positive character traits to our students.
“You’re doing something way beyond wins and losses,” he said. “It’s a standard that’s higher than victories and state championships. You want to intentionally teach character, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The far-reaching effects of the job haven’t always been rooted in the results from the playing field.
Jesuit upgraded its Louis J. Roussell Building, which was built in 1986, to include additional locker room space in the gymnasium.
“It was something that was needed,” Moreau said. “It gave space for all the teams to at least have their locker rooms.”
Gayle and Tom Benson Arena helped with a renovation of the school’s gymnasium, originally constructed in the 1950s, but it was the birth of John Ryan Stadium, home to Jesuit’s baseball and soccer teams, which brought a smile to Moreau’s face.
Moreau said the off-campus property became available in a search spearheaded by baseball lettermen of the school.
“We’d never had a place of our own for anything,” Moreau said.
Former Tulane baseball player Bill Babin added his support for the project that gained steam with Fr. McGinn’s wishes, leading to a multi-sport stadium with artificial turf that opened in 2012 and has also housed sub-varsity football.
“Having something of our own was fabulous,” Moreau said. “Those alums, everybody was wonderful in the way that they stepped up to try and contribute to trying to have that property for us and develop it. John Ryan came to the forefront and really stepped up.
“The football team practices there although the field’s only 80 yards long,” Moreau said. “It was very hard for baseball to practice. We’d go to Kirsch-Rooney or whatever. You had to beg, borrow, and steal, and a lot of times you didn’t get in. We’re not into a facilities race to be in a facilities race. It fit our purpose. One of the happiest days for me at Jesuit is when John Ryan Stadium opened.”
Moreau couldn’t have been more indebted to his peers in the Catholic League.
While fierce competition defines play on the field amongst rivals, Moreau said his personal growth and development into one of the league’s top athletic directors can be traced to those sage individuals who were always willing to lend a hand and share advice.
“We have been so fortunate,” Moreau said. “Whenever we have a new athletic director, you can’t believe the assistance everyone wants to give that person coming into the league. We meet once a month. I speak with both (Brother Martin’s) Mark Wisniewski and (Archbishop Rummel’s) Jay Roth, sometimes four times a week, to ask, ‘What about this, what about that? What’s the best way to do this?”
Moreau had the benefit of having pre-existing relationships with Roth, whom he worked with at Jesuit, and Wisniewski, whom he previously coached.
When he first got into the Catholic League, Moreau had such colleagues as Phil Greco at Rummel and Barry Hebert of Brother Martin.
“They were all unbelievably helpful to me,” he said. “We lean a lot on each other. Just the camaraderie of the ADs. We’re the only ones at times that understand what we have to go through, and we’ve taken ideas that maybe another school’s done something some way, and certain little things that were done there, and we can make that change for us that makes a lot of sense and fits into our program and our school.
“We work well together, and I was so fortunate to be in that spot where these guys were so willing to help me along the way, just getting started,” he said. “We still kind of return the favor today when we have a new AD coming into the league. In so many ways, these are the guys that you’re the closest with. We’ve all been lucky in our league to feel that way, and we still feel that way today.”
The athletic director’s baton was passed from Misuraca to Moreau, who, after a year in 2006 as assistant athletic director, took over full-time in ’07.
The Blue Jays baseball program had ushered out their coach in storybook fashion, winning a state championship in Moreau’s final game.
He couldn’t overstate the void of the team fabric in his life. For so long, he either played or coached the game, building bonds with teammates, players, and coaches, which have in some cases lasted a lifetime.
“There’s nothing like being part of a real baseball team, a football or basketball team,” he said. “There’s nothing like being part of a team. There’s just something truly special about it. The hardest point was walking away, leaving something that was so intertwined with your life. The relationships that you developed with your players or your teammates. That was kind of over.
“It took me a little while after that,” he said. “A few months later, all the things that I had been taught by my coaches in athletics was really preparing me for the day you would not be a part of a team. You had to use the same type of concepts that you learned from being a part of a team in the next professional role that I was doing, and the other roles in your life. It was tougher leaving baseball.”
Moreau has been part of a similar alignment as athletic director, working with the school’s administration, coaches, and parents to achieve a common goal.
The challenges may be different, perhaps not as easily discernible on a scoreboard, but require the same type of vision and effort to resolve.
“Just the work with the guys, the sweat, the challenges,” he said of coaching. “You have those every day in this position.”
Three years ago, Moreau was honored for his dedication to Jesuit High with the John Paquette Award. The school presents such a plaudit for 40 years of service to the school, recognizing the impact and guidance of such people as Moreau that have helped in the formation of its students.
“All of those life lessons are what we’re trying to give, and we try to define those,” he said. “How do we finish? Finishing is important. Every little thing that you can do, and do things with humility, and do things with compassion, and modesty. We’re trying to teach those things intentionally through our sports. I’ve heard a lot that a sport teaches you something. I never really believed that. I believed the person teaching the sport teaches you something or gives you the character.”
Rosalyn Moreau took the lead 14 years ago with her retirement from Jesuit after 33 years of teaching.
Administrative and coaching stability gave Moreau greater comfort to consider stepping away. Thoughts of accompanying his wife on peaceful trips, along with frequent visits to see his father, and trips to see his favorite lacrosse player in action, proved too great to repel.
With less stress and time constraints, Moreau intends to make his personal health a greater priority.
“Sometimes getting to the doctor, getting it checked as you get older, I’ve put aside to be truthful,” he said. “I’ve got to start being more aware of those things and take care of those things.”
The hiring of Bairnsfather was another key development in putting Moreau’s mind at ease.
“I’ll still be doing things probably five days a week, something with the school, but it’s going to give me the freedom to go out of town if I have to,” he said. “Scott’s going to do a fabulous job. He’s familiar with the mission of Jesuit High School. He’s been great for our school. He’s got great Catholic League ties (Shaw and Holy Cross) from the past. He’s got a lot of ties with the LHSAA and connections throughout the city as well. He was a great selection by our school. I’m ecstatic.”
Moreau, the product of a private school upbringing, couldn’t have envisioned a more rewarding time in his life than his past four-plus decades at Jesuit High School.
In addition to meeting his wife there, his son Steven is a second-generation graduate of the school and was a three-year baseball letterman.
“I love what Jesuit tries to do for the boys, for the guys they’ve been entrusted to care for,” he said. “To teach, enrich, and care for the boys they have. We’re at our best when we’re doing things all together in all different facets of the school, and we do things with purpose that goes toward the development of the young man.
“The thing that I’m most fond of is to have the opportunity to be a part of Jesuit – to learn from what Jesuit’s offered me and having the opportunity to make a contribution in some way to the school,” he said. “That’s been everything to me. It’s been fortunate for me to be a part of Jesuit High School. It really has been.”