Contracts for UL baseball coach Tony Robichaux and new athletic director David Walker are on the agenda and up for approval today by the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors.
The contract for Robichaux, heading into his 14th season as Cajun baseball coach, includes a four-year deal with a base salary of
$100,000 annually plus a $5,000 auto allowance. The contract allows for additional income from all camps and equipment deals.
Robichaux will receive an additional month’s salary if UL wins the Sun Belt Conference regular-season or tournament titles or earn an NCAA Tournament berth, two months’ salary if the Cajuns reach the NCAA Super Regional and three months’ salary for a College World Series berth. Those become cumulative if UL wins a national title.
Robichaux will also receive a $2,000 bonus if the baseball team compiles a 3.0 grade point average and if the team graduation rate exceeds the overall university graduation rate, both nullified if UL has an average of 925 or below on the NCAA’s Academic Performance Report (APR). He will earn a $3,000 bonus for winning Sun Belt or Louisiana Coach of the Year honors, $4,000 for a South Regional Coach of the Year honor, $5,000 for a national Coach of the Year honor, and $2,500 if UL’s average paid home attendance is 2,500 or higher.
Walker has served on the university staff since 1978 and was interim athletic director for almost two years before being named athletic director on July 17. His four-year contract carries a base salary of $127,500 plus a $3,600 auto allowance.
With contract approval, Walker will receive bonuses of $2,500 if UL has no sports penalized through the NCAA’s APR scores, if the athletic graduation rate exceeds the university graduation rate, or if UL wins the Sun Belt’s Vic Bubas Award in all-sports rankings.
World class
Former UL triple jump standout Lawrence Willis will begin competition in the World Track and Field Championships Saturday in Osaka, Japan.
Willis, a native of Iota who won four Sun Belt Conference titles during his Cajun career from 2002-04, competes in the qualifying round of the triple jump Saturday. The top 12 advance to a Monday final at the world meet, which ranks second to the Olympics in importance in international track circles.
Willis, returning to competition after an 18-month layoff, finished a surprising second at the U.S. national championships in June with a career-best 55-8.25 jump. That finish qualified him for the USA team for the Pan American Games, where he finished sixth earlier this month, and for this weekend’s world meet.
His 55-8.25 leap at the U.S. meet is the fourth-longest in the country this year.
Mahfouz a Cajun
One of Acadiana’s most successful track and field coaches has joined the UL staff as a volunteer coach.
Charlie Mahfouz, holder of six Louisiana state championships in an 18-year high school career, has joined the staff of new head coach Steve Silvey.
Mahfouz was track coach at Eunice from 1984-92 and led the Bobcats to Class 3A state titles in 1990, 1991 and 1992 while also winning five district and St. Landry Parish titles. He later went to Opelousas High, where the Tigers won the St. Landry Parish title in each of his nine seasons from 1993-2001.
His OHS teams won three straight state Class 4A titles from 1998-2000 after his team was the state runner-up in his first year in 1993. His teams won six district and five regional titles in those nine years.
Mahfouz coached national indoor hurdles champion and high school All-American Ubeja Anderson, who still holds the state composite record at 13.75 in the 110-meter hurdles, at Eunice. He also coached state champions Tommy Fay and Jacques Prudhomme at Eunice, and coached current New Orleans Saints receiver Devery Henderson to state sprint titles at OHS.
UL football coach Rickey Bustle celebrated his 54th birthday Thursday, and UL staffers surprised him with a cake after their morning football staff meeting.
A bigger surprise was the picture on the cake.
Unbeknownst to the coach, Bustle’s wife Lynn provided a picture of Bustle in his elementary school years, and the cake bore that likeness. So did small signs posted around the UL athletic complex and given to the assistant coaches.
The staff carefully cut and served from the outside of the cake, leaving the picture in the middle intact.
"I really hate that picture," Bustle said.
The football staff also sang Happy Birthday.
"I’m glad they can coach a little bit," Bustle said, "because they can’t sing a lick."
Brad Kemp/Advertiser file photo
The Louisiana System Board of Supervisors will vote today on a new, 4-year contract with UL head baseball coach Tony Robichaux, second from right, that includes a base salary of $100,000 annually.
