‘Long overdue’: Eunice High Paying Homage to Coach Paul Trosclair with Renaming its Football Stadium

by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

Four years have passed since Paul Trosclair’s resignation as head football coach at Eunice High School, begrudgingly stepping away from a game he’s felt so passionate about.

Four decades of coaching and relationship building had given way to a diagnosis of myeloma which required chemotherapy treatments, and eventual concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic forced Trosclair to take care of his health.

Funny thing though, Trosclair never drifted that far from the game. He offered his replacement, head coach Andre Vige, help in scouting and conducting film work from his home, where he drew up play cards for Eunice’s scout team. 

Given an uncertain prognosis from doctors that he was battling a treatable, not curable malady, Trosclair was vigilant in 2014 and remained at renowned cancer treatment center MD Anderson for two months in Houston. He returned to coaching for the next six years before COVID-19 provided another set of social challenges, resulting in his resignation in June of 2020. 

“It’s been tough,” said the 68-year-old Trosclair, who continues to make weekly visits to Ochsner in Crowley for a three-drug treatment to combat his illness. “I’m still helping coach, so it’s helped keep me going.”

Trosclair is back in an on-the-field coaching role, overseeing the team’s linebackers. He’s also perched in the press box and on the headsets with the team’s defensive coordinator – his son Trenon – who took over when the team’s previous defensive coordinator, Dale Guillory, left for another job. Trosclair’s other son Trace is the Bobcats outside linebacker’s coach.

Life couldn’t be better for Trosclair to have the opportunity to coach with two of his sons for the school where he won 207 games, was three times named the state’s Coach of the Year, and led the Bobcats to the 2018 state championship. 

Eunice High is scheduled to give back to Trosclair during Friday’s 7 p.m. home opener with arch-rival Jennings when the school will rename Bobcat Field to add Paul Trosclair Stadium during a ceremony.

“I thought it was long overdue other than the fact he just hasn’t retired,” said former Eunice standout Donnie Bollich said, “It was an absolute no-brainer.”

The normally even-keeled Trosclair is looking forward to Eunice (0-1) evening its record against long-time rival Jennings (0-1) which also lost its opener. 

“It’s quite an honor,” Trosclair said. “Whenever I started coaching you think about trying to get the best out of your players. You never think about down the road, what awards you may win. It’s nice to get them, and it’s great to get recognized, but I did it because I loved athletics. 

“Being around young people and trying to help them develop into better young men or women because I also coached softball (won two district titles) for a while,” Trosclair said. “I did the best I could with the athletes I had. We had some success and I’m glad to be recognized. They’re supposed to unveil a big banner on the scoreboard. That’s going to be kind of overwhelming.”

Taking Over for a Legend to Put his Stamp on the Program

Trosclair wasn’t very far from Eunice’s program after his resignation, a scenario his doctors believed was in his best interest to avoid close contact with others during the pandemic. 

Reluctantly, after beginning a coaching career in 1979 in his hometown at Opelousas High School, Trosclair tried to drift into the background while his coaching heartbeat never stopped. He showed up at practice, met with assistant coaches, and if anything looked out of the ordinary, he pointed it out. 

“I want Eunice High to be successful, I’m trying to do my part,” Trosclair said. “All of sudden I’m on the field. I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing it. I’ll enjoy it while I can.

“Some people coach and I’m not sure they love it as much as do,” Trosclair said. “I actually love coaching and preparing. All of that good stuff. That’s all I wanted to do. That’s why I continue.”

Trosclair spent six years at Eunice High as the defensive coordinator, coaching under legendary coach Johnny Bourque who led the school to its first state championship in 1982. 

He left for five years and directed Oakdale to a 39-18 record and four district championships, before returning to Eunice in 1995 to replace Bourque who became superintendent of schools in neighboring Acadia Parish. 

“Coach Tros (Trosclair) allowed me to continue being the defensive coordinator,” said former Eunice assistant Curt Ware, who served under Bourque and is now head coach at Oberlin. “I learned both sides of the ball. He’s (Trosclair) got a great personality, fun to be around. That was some of the best years of my coaching life. I’ve been able to be pretty successful as a coach and I attribute a lot of that to him. I still run the same offense and defense that we did then.”

Trosclair remains indebted to Bourque, whom he remains in contact with today. 

“When he became principal, he hired me as head coach,” Trosclair said. “So, without Johnny Bourque, none of this would be possible and that’s clearly the truth. He has a lot to do with all the success I have, and a lot of success Eunice High has had. We took it and carried on and tried to take it as far as we could go.”

Trosclair directed Eunice to 207 of his 246 career wins, capturing 13 district championships and making three trips to the Superdome. The Bobcats won the school’s second state crown in 36 years with a 59-47 victory over Sterlington in the Class 3A final in 2018 – completing a 13-2 season.

“You try to do all of the X’s and O’s and be prepared,” Ware said. “We did a great job with that, but I also felt we had a really good relationship with the kids. To this day I’ve found the most successful coaches, if the kids believe in what you’re doing and the system you’re running and they know you care for them, they tend to play a lot harder.”

Cardiac Bobcats Thrived with their Backs Against the Wall

There appeared to be a recurring theme during Trosclair’s tenure, especially during the state playoffs when defeat in a single elimination format signaled the end of the year. 

Eunice was among Class 4A’s tops teams with a resume’ that boasted consecutive trips to the Superdome in 1997 and ’98.

“We didn’t lose many games,” Ware said of Eunice’s program during a stretch from 1996 to 2000.

Eunice’s first escape act took place at Bastrop in the 1997 state quarterfinals where Ware, who secured game film without reciprocation from the opposition, sent a warning signal to Trosclair during the week of preparations. During the team’s pregame warmups, Ware was in awe at the size of some of Bastrop’s players.

“I told Tros,” Ware said, “12-1’s not a bad record, don’t hang your head. He said what do you mean? They had two 230-pound backs, and one of them was going to Arkansas. I didn’t know how we were going to beat those guys. Then they’re warming up and I said, look at 62, look at No. 50. He turns back and says ‘quit looking them. Don’t look at them.

During a deluge, Eunice controlled the game, relying on the deception of its Wing-T offense in a 31-22 victory.

Eunice did one better a week later, trailing Hammond 24-7 in the third quarter of the semifinals. The Bobcats, though, rallied in the second half with 18 unanswered points with the last three coming on the right foot of Bollich – who nailed a 28-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining for a pulsating 25-24 triumph.

“A lot of it is just calling the right plays at the right time,” said Bollich, who also played quarterback, safety, and punter during his career and is now an engineer for Shell in New Orleans. “In three games in the ’97 run; we had close games that we came back from. In quite a few of them, either he (Trosclair) had a trick play up his sleeve that he waited until just the right time, or a series of calls that he waited until the fourth quarter when the other team wasn’t expecting it, and caught them with their pants down.”

Trosclair called the come-from-behind win over Hammond the best game he was a part of at Eunice.

Despite a 21-6 setback to state powerhouse John Curtis in the Class 4A final, that ’97 squad (14-1) with standouts such as Bollich, Harry Frank, Kyries Hebert, Tim Freeman and Casey Pedigo, finished with a school-record 14 wins and remains among Trosclair’s best. 

“We had a very good team,” he told the Eunice News in 2020. “The 1997 team may have been the most talented team that I coached in my time at Eunice High.”

Eunice’s return trip to the Superdome went through Bastrop again in ’98, but this time the Rams traveled to face the Bobcats who emerged with a 21-0 victory. 

“They still had almost everybody back,” Ware said of Bastrop. “Their coach (Brad Bradshaw) was quoted in the paper the next morning: ‘We got outcoached from the time we got off the bus and back on the bus eating the chicken.’ Our kids just believed.”

The Bobcats found a familiar foe in Curtis standing in their way once again, falling 20-7 to the Patriots in the 4A state final.

“That was quite an experience,” said Trosclair, whose team lost 18 starters from the previous season. “I knew about Curtis, but then I got the film and started talking to people. Coach (Rusty) Price at Broadmoor once said about Curtis, ‘Congratulations and condolences’. They were so well-coached, and they had better athletes. That was a bad combination.”

“When you’re at a public school, you’re going to have times where it’s not going to be quite as good,” said Trosclair. “We had some teams that weren’t so great, but we always competed. We always had help from the administration, teachers, and the booster club. We felt we had a winning culture no matter if we didn’t always go out there and dominate. We had a number of teams that I thought were close to making the finals and came up short. It was a great experience. I loved every minute of it.”

Twenty years later, Trosclair enjoyed the sweet taste of state championship success for the first time, guiding Eunice to the Class 3A state title in ’18. The two losses suffered by the Bobcats were by a combined three points.

“That was totally unexpected, it was like a gift,” Trosclair said. “We knew we had a good team, but there were six sophomores starting which doesn’t happen very often. As we went on, these guys matured and got better and better. That was a great moment, a great night with all of the people from Eunice. It was like the whole town came together for that night.” 

A Game to Play on a Big Night

Trosclair played football and baseball at Opelousas High before going on to college at then the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now UL-Lafayette) and played baseball.

His coaching career began at his alma mater, serving as an assistant football and head baseball coach for the Tigers for three years, before moving to Abbeville in the same capacity for three years – helping the Wildcats to a Class 3A state runners-up finish in baseball and earning the state’s 3A Coach of the Year honor.

With Bourque turning around a Eunice program that had won three games in two years before his arrival, Trosclair joined the staff as defensive coordinator and spent six seasons helping develop the Bobcats into a perennial winning program. 

Trosclair applied what he learned under Bourque and departed for Oakdale which he turned a winner after the Warriors had struggled for two decades prior to his arrival. 

“We had to develop a culture, you have to go through some things,” Trosclair said. “The second year we really got it going. It was a great experience. We had some players. That was never a problem at Oakdale. Those five years prepared me to step to the next level. It was a lot easier that way. I went away, established myself, and came back.”

Eunice has been home to the Trosclair family since 1995 when he was hired by Bourque at age 39. He’s had the luxury of coaching three of his four sons (the other played for him at Oakdale) with two of them – Trenon and Trace – rising through the ranks and becoming coaches with the Bobcats.

They remain on the same team, wearing the school’s green and white colors, with the end goal of seeing the Bobcats succeed.

“We love it here,” Trosclair said. “This is where I’ve raised my family. It was good to get back here. There’s no place I’d rather be. We’ve had such great support at Eunice High School. And to now have two sons on staff is special. Not many people get to have that. I’m just honored.”

Trosclair ranked tied for 25th among the state’s winningest coaches (246-110) with Carroll Delahoussaye of St. Martinville when the 2024 season began. He guided a public school in Eunice to three trips to the Superdome, winning one title with 13 district titles, and was a three-time winner of the state’s Coach of the Year honor by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. 

“We’ve talked when I found out about it,” Ware said of Trosclair’s honor. “I’m happy for him. He’s had a great career. Johnny (Bourque) had a great career and I’m sure he’ll get his due sometime.”

Because of concerns with the impending weather forecast for south Louisiana, Bollich is uncertain of his attendance for Trosclair’s ceremony but believes his unflappable former coach will be grateful for the honor.

“He’ll be proud, and the fans will probably get to him a little bit,” he said. “He doesn’t wear his emotions very much on his sleeve. I know I wouldn’t be able to just brush it off.”

That Eunice hosts long-time rival Jennings isn’t lost on Trosclair. He was part of the rivalry between the two schools for nearly three decades, a good portion of that against respected Bulldogs’ former head coach Rusty Phelps, but he doesn’t want to allow the game’s pageantry to interfere with what’s truly significant. 

“They’re really tough to deal with and it’s going to be a tough game,” he said. “I’ll be ready for the game to get started and get the other stuff behind me.”