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I was recently discussing the hot new sports movie Glory Road with former Louisiana Ragin' Cajun and St. Martinville Senior High standout Tyrone Jones when something occurred to me.
It brought to my mind a conversation I had two years ago with the head of AAU boys basketball in Louisiana, Roch Weilbaecher. Weilbaecher told me back then that he was working on a movie, so I asked him if the now-popular Glory Road was that movie, and it was.
Many Acadiana area residents, including former Cajun guard Brad Boyd, played small roles in the movie, but Weilbaecher was a behind-the-scenes consultant for the film. His job was to make sure that the directors and actors ran the same plays that Texas Western and Kentucky coaches and players ran back in 1966.
Weilbaecher is an athletic director and assistant boys basketball coach at Karr High in New Orleans, in addition to his duties as the state's head of AAU basketball.
Miami Heat coach Pat Riley, who played on that Kentucky team, visited the set and told Weilbaecher that he was impressed with the way the actors were running the plays from that game.
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060203/SPORTS/602030357/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Dave Thibodeaux
sports@theadvertiser.com
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Weilbaecher got to meet Texas Western (former UTEP coach) Don Haskins and some of the former Texas Western players. He said the stories they told him about their championship year were unbelieveable.
Most of the movie was shot at Chalmette High's gymnasium, which became Texas Western's gym. The championship game was filmed in the LSU agricultural building in Baton Rouge.
That's where the good news ended in my conversation with Weilbaecher. He said the news isn't getting much better for the schools in the New Orleans area in the post-Katrina era. He said about 16 high schools won't be returning, and the populations of the schools are down about 70 percent.
"We were going to have all of our players back this season (at Karr),'' he said. "It was going to be one of our better teams. Right now, we have to practice outside. We're having to play all of our games on the road. It's not good.''
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