Above and beyond: Erath’s Tommie Pillette leaves mark on a school, town that have meant world to him

by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

Two weeks away from retiring after 46 years from Erath High School, Tommie Pillette was still on the team’s football practice field lending a hand.

The Bobcats were nearing the end of their allotted practices, and the coaching staff of head coach Eric LeBlanc was minus several position coaches.

Among those vacant was running backs coach where Pillette, 70, served over the course of his coaching career and LeBlanc decided to use every available resource at his disposal, asking Pillette to help the team get through spring drills which ended Tuesday.

“I’m retiring from the school system, but I’m always going to be a coach,” Pillette said. “If they need something I’m going to be there. They don’t have a running backs coach until they replace me. I’ll go until they find someone.”

The sight of Pillette on the sideline for another Erath football season is a possibility, a scenario that may play out unless a hire has been made before the start of the 2024 season.

Pillette is contemplating serving in a non-faculty capacity, coaching running backs in football and outfielders in baseball, something that’s been a part of his DNA for more than four decades at a school that’s been a part of his life for the past 50 years.

“I’m going to be at Erath in some form or fashion forever,” Pillette said, who’s worked under nine different principals during his career.

Vermilion Parish Superintendent Tommy Byler, who’s spent 33 years around Pillette as a coach and administrator, doesn’t expect his friend to fade into the background any time soon.

“He’ll still probably show up around Erath,” Byler said. “I tried to get him away a couple of times. When I went to North Vermilion, I told him he needed a new start and could finish his career, and this is where your grandkids are. You don’t build the connections he has in Erath and walk away.”

To the surprise of many, Pillette’s actually retiring

Erath High will commemorate Pillette’s career as an educator and coach with a ‘Retirement Party’ in the school’s gymnasium Friday at 10 a.m.

The school requested those interested to RSVP in advance because the gymnasium, which bears Pillette’s name on the basketball court, is expected to be filled to capacity where an hour’s worth of tributes and tears are expected.

“That’s a long time at one school and he did it,” Vermilion Parish school board member Chris Hebert, a former fullback and basketball player for Pillette. “He never missed. You never saw Coach P sick. He was there every day. Very loyal.

“He played here, he came back, he coached here,” Hebert said. “He gave a lot of his time coaching and to the community. He affected a lot of lives … parents, their kids and grandkids. They’ve all had some type of interaction with him.”

Hebert was among those floored by the news of Pillette’s impending retirement. The same guy that coached him in two sports, and later coached together with him, showed no signs of ever relinquishing his duties to Erath’s schools and athletic programs.

“Just knowing him, I didn’t believe it until I saw his name on the (retirement) papers” he said. “I didn’t think he was going anywhere.”

There never seemed to be an expiration date on Pillette’s passion and commitment to his alma mater, one that spanned five decades dating to his time as a student.

Byler, whose father Jacob took over the Erath football program in 1988 and coached there for 21 seasons, said the topic of retirement with Pillette first surfaced four years ago.

In typical fashion, the unassuming Pillette showed up at the school board’s central office to make it official, filling out the necessary paperwork which required a recent correspondence to the state board of education in Baton Rouge.

“Him retiring is still kind of a shock,” Byler said. “I knew there was a potential two years ago. He had a senior class in basketball that he really liked, some real gritty kids. He stayed on and finished strong with the group and realized he didn’t have a lot of kids returning, a low number in the senior class.

“He figured let’s just go enjoy life which will be hard because for the last 60 years he’s gone to Erath schools every morning,” Byler said. “You don’t just change that. He’s going out on his terms.”

Formative years create vision for the future

Pillette grew up in Erath, now with a population of approximately, 2,200, where he walked to school every day at Dozier Elementary and Erath High.

A standout athlete, he was a three-sport letterman for the Bobcats from 1970-74, playing football, basketball and running track. He was an all-parish selection in football and MVP and captain of the basketball team where he averaged 16.4 points as a senior.

None of those sports, though, were his ticket out of Erath. It was baseball, which didn’t field a team at the school, which captured his heart and through his play in the summer and around the state, led to a next-level opportunity in Brookhaven, Miss.

He credited his father Dennis and mother Justina for setting the kind of example he wanted to follow.

“My father worked all of his life in the sugar cane industry and never retired,” Pillette said. “He showed me what hard work was when you had to go out and plant cane, one strip at a time. My mother was a caterer and probably cooked for every older family in Erath. She had this thing about discipline and detail. She could leave home for work all day and come back home and identify what each one of her kids did by looking at the home environment.”

Geography teacher Sue Butaud instilled the kind of belief that opened Pillette’s eyes about the future, one that included going to college and getting a degree.

Like most teenagers, Pillette was convinced he would be a Major League Baseball player until the harsh reality following a tryout camp with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The professional organization hosted 100 players in Tyler, Texas, and later informed the hopefuls they were only taking a pitcher and catcher.

“I thought I was the best teenager in America,” Pillette said. “I had enough money to go to Texas and back home. I did all the drills the Major Leaguers did. They said thank you, but they were only looking for two players.”

Pillette tagged along with friend Stanley Coleman to a college tryout camp without packing any of his baseball-related gear.

Coleman was the object of the desire of the coach, Dwain Rourk, putting on the tryout. Rourk later asked anyone else on hand if they had ever played baseball.

Pillette acknowledged that he had and was asked by Rourk to attend a ‘mini’ tryout at an adjacent park.

Wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes, he borrowed a glove for the impromptu workout where Rourk asked Pillette where in the outfield he wanted to him to hit it.

“I told him he could hit it anywhere he wanted, that was the confidence I had,” Pillette said. “I was used to playing. He hit the ball; I did my drills.”

As promised, Rourk awarded Coleman a scholarship later that same evening, but to Pillette’s disbelief, he offered him a scholarship as well with instructions to get his parents’ signature on the document.

Pillette was an official member of the Whitworth College baseball team.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I held onto it (scholarship) all the way home. I had been playing baseball all my life, it was easy. He (Rourk) had never seen me before and they were just starting a team, so we were all freshmen and sophomores with about the same ability.”

Two years into his career, Whitworth College dropped its athletics program, resulting in discontent on Pillette’s part. His potential vehicle to professional baseball no longer existed and his dreams had vanished.

Pillette had taken care of his business in the classroom, accruing more than 60 hours of credit. When Rourk guaranteed scholarships to anyone interested, Pillette followed him to John Brown College in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

Pillette completed both his career and education at John Brown College in June of 1978.

At the conclusion of the season following a national tournament, the 12-hour drive home for Pillette was mixed with a bit of anxiousness.

With professional baseball in his rearview mirror Pillette was focused on the future.

“When I went to college, I realized some guys are just better than you,” Pillette said. “During my college career I thought I’m probably not going to make the pros. I knew if I didn’t get drafted out of college, I was going back to Erath and try and coach.”

With the start of the school year more than two months away, Pillette began the interview process. He went to Abbeville and Kaplan, but Erath said it didn’t have any openings at the time.

Education became a viable option when Pillette realized the influence it could have on young adults, the kind of effect his basketball coach Jimmy Vice had on him. He also the positive impact it had on his sister Virginia Ann, a teacher at Dozier.

Yet, he was unwavering in his desire to work at Erath High.

With the start of the school year nearing and Pillette still unemployed, he received a call from Erath principal Robert Segura, the same principal he had in school. One of the school’s teachers – Jimmy Poche – had left for a job at Texaco, thus creating a late opening.

The job was at Erath Middle School and Pillette jumped at the chance to return to his roots and begin giving back.

He didn’t stop for the next four-plus decades.

“It was being at the right place at the right time,” Pillette said. “If he didn’t go to Texaco, I would have been in the parish somewhere. It just happened.”

‘This was just home to me’

There wasn’t a handbook for Pillette to follow, only his heart.

Without an idea of the length of his tenure in his chosen profession, Pillette showed up every day with an ambition to make a difference in the lives of children, much like Vice had done for him. There was also the valuable guidance he received from football coaches Willie Lutring and Jacob Byler during his coaching career.

He learned that he didn’t want to stray away from Erath High School. There were job offers from Patterson and Catholic-New Iberia, and later from Tommy Byler at North Vermilion, but they were all rebuffed by Erath’s blue-and-white barrier.

“I just knew I wanted to be there,” Pillette said. “I never thought about how long or what I was going to coach. It was a good school and a great community. I figured this is where I would stay. It just worked out. It was home to me.”

Pillette spent seven years coaching at Erath Middle School, a span that included construction of a new gymnasium at Erath High, a structure that would house part of the legacy he would build.

“I’d walk out and say, ‘I’m going to coach in that gym one day’,” he said.

Pillette became an assistant coach at Erath High and after a revolving door of head coaches, was elevated to defensive coordinator by Jacob Byler. He also taught a variety of subjects ranging from Free Enterprise to American History and Civics.

“Work ethic and trust,” Tommy Byler said of his dad’s belief in Pillette. “My dad heard Coach P was loyal and did what you need him to do. I think my dad taught him a lot of things and didn’t just throw him to the wolves. He learned from him and eventually did things on his own.”

Jacob Byler and Pillette grew to be more than just coaches, they developed a deep friendship that involved both of their families.

Tommy Byler did his student teaching under his father and coached 17 years alongside Pillette.

The Bylers coached both of Pillette’s sons, Jeremy and Josh, in football while Jacob coached Pillette’s oldest daughter Jamie in track. Tommy Byler, also Erath’s softball coach, coached Jamie as well and another daughter, Joni, served as team manager after her duties with the football team as a manager/trainer.

All five of Pillette’s children graduated from Erath High along with his oldest grandchild.

“We’re really connected,” Tommy Byler said of Pillette, a groomsman in his wedding. “I worked with him but was part of his kids’ lives.”

Pillette’s tireless efforts included being an assistant in football, head boys’ basketball coach for a total of 25 years, head baseball coach on three different occasions spanning 21 years.

“There was never a time where I didn’t coach something,” he said.

Pillette also coached the girls’ basketball team for four years and when the 2021-22 season was in peril. The head coach left after the start of school began, and Pillette stepped in to coach the team for the first time in 20 years and along with the boys.

Pillette was also the head coach of a fourth sport, softball, for four years and ‘helped’ with track and field before the start of baseball season.

“To see a guy stay at one school, it’s almost unheard of to stay that long and the sports he’s coached,” St. Thomas More coach Danny Broussard, a Vermilion Parish native who played against Pillette in high school. “He coached them all in the same year without ever having a break. He’s a special person. You don’t meet those kind of guys very often.”

Pillette, twice the parish and district coach of the year in both boys’ basketball and baseball, enjoyed milestone moments with his induction into the Erath High School Hall of Fame in 2010.

Eight years later, there was another indelible stretch where Pillette was voted Grand Marshal of the school’s homecoming parade and later his principal, Marc Turner, renamed the basketball floor in the gymnasium, ‘Coach P Court’.

“He’s the one that really got me playing sports, got me off the streets, and started to get me involved in sports at school,” Hebert said. “I coached (CECP) with him when I graduated and I’m still doing it to this day a little bit. He was a very big influence in my life.”

‘This is where I wanted to be’

The anticipation of a jammed-packed gymnasium for Pillette’s farewell has many layers. His longevity and dedication to the school and community are unmatched, along with his empathy for those he’s worked with and mentored along the way.

Pillette’s always placed the welfare of his students above his own interests. He’s participated in Erath High’s version of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and has taken part in several Project Graduation events and did his best impression of Elvis Presley at this year’s prom, complete with a light blue leisure suit and wig.

If Erath High or the tight-knit community needed him, Pillette championed their many causes.

“My entire career I’ve seen him from afar and he’s more than just Coach P,” Tommy Byler said. “He’s their friend, he’s their father figure and he’s all about it. He’s all about coaching and kids.

“He was a relationship builder, and really good relationships lead to quality teaching,” Byler said. “When you build relationships, you build a lot more trust in kids. He made kids feel special and that’s what made him unique.”

Even with school was out for the summer Pillette has cast a presence on local baseball fields where he’s umpired for 55 years, anything ranging from T-ball to American Legion. He’s also donated his time each summer and served as an umpire to generations of Erath High graduates who return annually for the school’s alumni softball tournament.

Broussard’s Slam ’N Jam Basketball Camp is one of the biggest and longest running showcases for kids K-9. It got its start more than four decades ago in Vermilion Parish, taking place at both Erath and North Vermilion.

Running camps require knowledgeable, high-energy instructors and when Broussard realized his first stop would be at Erath High in 1984, he asked Pillette to join.

Pillette’s been a part of it ever since.

“He was awesome, and the kids loved him,” Broussard said. “We did it for two years at Erath and North Vermilion and the camps in Lafayette started to grow. I said to Tommie we wouldn’t be using Erath again, but we would love having him on staff. He said he could work and he’s still working.”

Slam ’N Jam has grown significantly in its 40 years, expanding to five sessions in June.

Broussard said one of the camp’s constant themes is promoting positive thoughts to enhance the day. The thought of waking up in a good frame of mind leads to the boundless energy that can carry you through a day.

One of the constants in Pillette’s everyday life is his punctuality, outgoing nature and perpetual smile. But there have been setbacks when Pillette informed Broussard that his wife, Brenda, had passed away.

“I never saw him have one bad day in 40 years,” Broussard said. “Then he came to tell me his wife had passed away. He’s always upbeat. I’m sure he’s had issues in his life just like everybody else, but when he comes to camp, he’s always ready to work. I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t like him. I’ve never met anybody that doesn’t just love Coach P.”

Retirement hasn’t provided Pillette with any novel ideas on where to spend his new-found time.

Family, which includes his five children and four grandkids, will always be a paramount importance but Pillette, who’s taught Driver’s Education at Erath High, has expressed an interest in becoming a limousine driver.

Without a hard-and-fast set of hobbies, or a desire to travel and scale tall mountains, Pillette has his eye on a possible first trip to Omaha, Neb. – home of the College World Series.

“This is it,” he said. “I go to the casino every now and then and  I have a dog.”

Erath High and its community will get one final opportunity to say thanks to Pillette on a job well done. He will be on the receiving end of a myriad of tributes and heart-felt speeches about the legacy and impact he had on a school and community.

“It’s hard to believe, it was what I was kind of hoping for it to be,” Pillette said. “This is where I wanted to be. This is not my town, but my town and I don’t think I could have done it anywhere else.”

Tommy Byler said the parish witnessed the retirement of a 50-year employee last year , and that Pillette’s remarkable run of 46 years was among the five longest during his tenure.

There was no doubt on Friday, though, Pillette will rank No. 1 amid a festive blue-and-white backdrop on his final day of work at Erath High School.