This story is a copyrighted enterprise by Bruce Brown. 

When Ruthie Dugal arrived at USL in 1969, she knew she wanted to continue playing basketball beyond her high school years.

She didn’t know it at the time, but she would also play collegiate volleyball for the Ragin’ Cajuns, launching a long career as a high school coach.

"Basketball was the only sport offered to girls when I was in high school at Academy of Immaculate Conception (now Opelousas Catholic)," Dugal said. "I didn’t play volleyball until I got to college.

"All my friends in basketball said we’re going to learn ‘power volleyball.’ As an athlete, it gave me something else to do in the fall. Now it’s almost impossible to compete in those two sports, because of the overlap of seasons.

"At the time, there was no year-round training. Playing volleyball, at least you’d be in condition and could get ready for the basketball season."

Dugal played basketball for the Cajuns from 1970-73 and volleyball from 1971-74, and also served on coaching staffs at the school in 1974 and ’75. Her coaching career was shaped by that dual sport competition.

"I’ve always been a firm believer that playing more than one sport can help you in other sports," she said. "Kinesthetically, there’s an awareness, a carry over. In volleyball, you have a lot of jumping and quick movements, and you have the same in basketball. Your body learns to do different things.

"Also, you can get burned out focusing on just one sport. I enjoyed the comraderie, the friendships formed on those teams."

While collegiate sports has grown into a business, Cajun women athletics in the 1970’s was less money driven.

"It wasn’t a matter of going out and recruiting athletes," Dugal said. "Whoever came to school there, that’s who played. It was word-of-mouth.  If you found out somebody good was on campus, you talked to them about playing.

"In the beginning, we literally paid to play, paying for things like hotels and gas. We’d go to Houston in old station wagons, some with back seats facing backwards."

It was a tentative beginning of the return of women’s athletics in the modern era, a process that now includes women’s teams in soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball, track and field/cross country and tennis at the school.

Although they were trailblazers in a sense, the players weren’t aware of their significance.

"Day to day, we were just enjoying playing basketball and volleyball," Dugal said. "We wanted to continue to play after high school. There was no sense of opening a path for others to follow."

Dugal originally majored in computer science at then-USL, but found dealing with punch cards was not her favorite thing to do. So, given her love of athletics, she gravitated toward health and physical education.

Her first coaching assignment was at Ascension Day School (grades 1-8) in Lafayette. After three years, Dugal coached at Episcopal High in Baton Rouge from 1976-81.

Then came a 28-year stay at Lafayette’s Comeaux High School, and success coaching basketball and, later, softball.

She quickly found she worked best with athletes who shared her same zeal for their sport.

"The biggest thing was their work ethic," Dugal said. "If someone had that, I was gung-ho for that kid. I really struggled with kids who didn’t have that.

"There were things I didn’t know. I knew fundamentals very well, but not the technical aspects of the game. I went to a lot of clinics and came back and tried to implement what I’d learned. I always tried to learn."

Dugal served as Comeaux’s head basketball coach until the 2000-2001 season and her Lady Spartans once reached the state quarterfinals.

She was also a longtime assistant in softball, and late in her career took over a softball squad that had been state runner-up the season before. Two more second-place finishes followed as Comeaux just missed coveted state titles.

"I had some athletes," she said. "We had Lauren Castle, (future Cajun star) Karli Hubbell and Lauren Pitre. That can make a big difference."

For more than 20 years, Dugal has served as assignment secretary for the local volleyball officials association – a slightly ironic twist for a coach who had her issues with game referees through the years.

"I was horrible," Dugal said with a laugh. "In basketball, the game doesn’t stop for you to discuss a rule or a play. In softball, Paul Jumonville was my assistant, and I told him that if I ever started to go up the line after an umpire, to pull me back.

"It’s better in softball. There’s more time."

Dugal retired in 2010, content to "play golf every chance I get and play poker any time I want," but she frequently sees ex-athletes who remember her as their coach as well as former teammates.

She saw many changes in women’s athletics during her career.

"The best thing I’ve seen in basketball is the fast pace of the game now," she said. "It used to be, walk it up the floor and set up the offense. It’s not that way any more. For the kids, and fans, that’s a good thing. It’s a big plus.

"Another change I’ve seen is that girls are getting more athletic, and I think a big part of that is individualized personal training. That’s big in the Mandeville area now."

The growth of club sports and AAU sports has helped athletes, she said, but in some ways diminishes high school programs since college scouts can go to weekend AAU events and see hundreds of athletes at one time.

But in an age when physical education is required for just two years of high school instead of four, and when electronic gadgetry is a magnet, childhood obesity numbers and illnesses are on the rise.
That can creep into sports.

"Sometimes," Dugal said, "athletes can get distracted. The true athletes will be there, but some (others) aren’t so dedicated. There are too many other things to do.

"And, some athletes have the wrong perception. They’re good, but they could be so much better, instead of where they are."

The above picture is of the 1973 Volleyball team and includes Ruthie in the bottom right. Please click here for the enlarged picture. 

Click here for the 1971 & 1972 Photo Galleries of the Physical Education Major Club. 

Click here for the 1975 Women’s Basketball Team with Ruthie as assistant coach. Click on picture to enlarge.  

Our rich athletic traditions were entrusted to the vision, hope, loyalty, and dedication of those former athletes and we will forever owe them a debt of sincere gratitude. May God bless each of them and their families.

Anyone with information, materials, pictures, memorabilia, etc., of the university’s former athletic program participants is requested to contact Ed Dugas at athleticnetwork@louisiana.edu   Thank you.