Having a ball on the bayou

Focus on fun earns East Baton Rouge Parish SI Sportstown honor

By Andrew Schulman

Every local parks and recreation organization across the country is important to its community, but once in a while you happen upon a town or county that is so intimately tied to its parks and rec group that residents cease to become participants in the group’s programs and instead turn into fans of the organization itself.

Such is the case in the parish of East Baton Rouge, La., and its Recreation and Parks Commission. How else could you explain local residents’ eagerness to purchase everything from t-shirts to coffee mugs and mouse pads emblazoned with the BREC (as the organization is lovingly referred to) logo? BREC’s success has engendered this fervency among the locals and has earned the parish of East Baton Rouge the title of Sports Illustrated Sportstown for Louisiana.

One of the state’s 63 parishes (or counties), East Baton Rouge –- home to the state capital –- serves a population of more than 450,000 people and offers a full complement of sports and activities programming for children, adults and seniors.

Among East Baton Rouge youth, football and basketball are kings. And, in a state with several high-profile college and professional teams, children are taught from an early age how to throw a pass and make a free throw. they can begin playing in flag football leagues at age 4, and competing in tackle football and basketball soon after. But early on –- and really throughout the life cycle –- BREC coaches and instructors focus on fun.

“Sports are a major part of life here,” said Marc Palmer, BREC’s Sports Manager. “But we try not to make our leagues too competitive. We understand that most of our kids are coming to play and have fun and we want to give them that experience.”

That mantra carries over to BREC’s adult programs as well. The most popular activity for the “big kids” is a co-ed Sunday softball league that has turned into an impromptu weekly gathering for local families.

“Sunday afternoons in the spring and summer is time for the adults to be kids,” said Palmer, who helped develop the program. “Families come out to our fields, barbecue and play softball. It’s just a really fun atmosphere.”

This focus on fun has helped some BREC residents go on to stardom in college and professional sports –- most notably Atlanta Falcons running back Warrick Dunn and current LSU women’s basketball sensation Siemone Augustus. With a number of other BREC alumni in the NFL, it’s not uncommon for Dunn to line up across from someone he’s known since he was a child.

“We are proud to say they all got their start at BREC,” says Kristi Barnett, the Commission’s communications director.

So proud, in fact, that earlier this year, the organization created “Champions of BREC” to honor top athletes like Dunn as well as local stars who have helped make BREC what it is today.

“Everyone has a story,” says Barnett. “The children and adults that came out, participated and achieved something they didn’t think they could do. That’s what Champions of BREC is all about.”

Indeed, that’s what being a Sports Illustrated Sportstown is all about, too.