SLIDELL – Ralph Oneal is supposed to be enjoying his retirement now.
After 20 years as a Phoenix city policeman, followed by 10 years as a California Highway patrolman, Oneal and his wife, Maria, decided that Southeast Louisiana was the perfect place to retire.
“We had visited here many times and loved the area with all your music and food,” he said. “When we considered retirement, we wanted to live somewhere that was more reasonable financially, so the North Shore was just right.”
But something happened on the way to soaking up the sunshine on a beach somewhere, or traveling across this great country of ours.
Shortly after arriving on the North Shore in 2003, Oneal was asked to help a new organization forming in St. Tammany Parish called SALT—Seniors and Law Enforcement Together.
Oneal is now the driving force for the group, which will host the 7th annual Elder Abuse Seminar for Monday, June 10 at Northshore Harbor Center in Slidell, from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. There will be three different seminars that offer continuing education credits for nurses, social workers, counselors and attorneys. Early registration with lower fees ends on Monday, May 27. For more information or to sign up, go online to stsalt.org, call 985-809-5455 or e-mail weaad@stsalt.org.
Oneal’s 30 years as a police officer, plus his technological knowledge, made him a perfect fit for SALT, and in less than a year, he was not only volunteering with the group, but promoted to chairman.
SALT “picks up where law enforcement leaves off,” Oneal explained, acknowledging the fact many people in St. Tammany are still learning what his group is all about.
SALT’s main goal is to provide for the safety and security of St. Tammany Seniors, linked to a national non-profit organization in name only, and left to develop their own local programs that help senior citizens get support in key areas such as fraud or elder financial scams, evacuation plans and notification for natural disasters, cell phones for seniors that can only call 911, and various forms of security where they live.
“Elder Abuse needs a lot more attention,” Oneal said. “One in 10 seniors is the victim of elder abuse, but only 4 percent of those cases ever gets reported.”

He said many seniors are afraid to report elder abuse since the perpetrators are usually family members or friends of the senior citizen, and the elderly person usually needs that person in their life.
“When you begin to understand how many of these issues tie back to what is called elder abuse, you wonder, ‘where is the outrage for this against our seniors?’ That’s why I have suddenly gotten so interested to do this,” he said.
Oneal took over the leadership of the St. Tammany SALT group and has found a better way to reach many parish seniors, rather than one at a time.
“We now hold an annual Elder Abuse Seminar that is geared for professionals who serve seniors,” he said. “This is a way to reach more people since each of the ones who come to our seminar is probably in touch with dozens and dozens of seniors.”
Oneal started seven years ago with the first Elder Abuse Seminar in St. Tammany, and now holds it in June each year, linking it to World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. He additionally has found a way to draw larger and larger crowds by making the seminar an opportunity for professionals to get continuing education credits, simply by attending the elder abuse classes.
“The number one concern for seniors is to be safe,” Oneal said he learned from studies and surveys. “That’s what we focus on in everything we do, along with many ways they are victims of financial scams or exploitation.”
In seven years, SALT has achieved some admirable goals, starting with a Senior Evacuation Notification System (SENS) that is now linked to the parish ALERT system. Once a senior signs up with the system, they will get phone notification of any parish evacuation plans, along with a follow up call that checks to see which seniors stayed, and which ones left.
“That helps law enforcement know who they need to check on,” Oneal said.
To also help in that situation, SALT started a program in 2006 called Cell Phones for Seniors, seeking donations of old cells phones that were refurbished and programed to only take a 911 call. They have handed out over 700 of the phones since starting.
Also among the most important topics for seniors is I.D. theft, plus many ways they are the victims of financial exploitation—frequently coming from caretakers who are family members or friends. SALT played a key role in getting Western Union to greatly upgrade their work towards halting the fraud, since some of the scams involve someone calling and getting a senior to wire money through such companies.
“There is one called the Granny Scam, where a person calls a senior and says, ‘your grandson is in jail and needs money.’ If the person has a grandson, they frequently offer to wire money to supposedly get their grandson out of jail,” Oneal explained. “When we showed Western Union how serious a scam it is, they became a leader in halting it, and even gave back $62 million in nine months to people who had lost their money.”
Along the lines of security, SALT began a program that gives seniors flashing light bulbs for their porch, which are activated if you flip your switch twice in a row. It alerts law enforcement that there is a problem in the home. They also give out peepholes that have a 160 degree viewing range.
“There is more of a need for our work than many people realize,” Oneal said. “And while we are getting very well known in the country for the professional speakers we have brought in, this problem falls through the cracks locally for different agencies. We want seniors to understand how many things can constitute elder abuse, so we’re trying to educate the caregivers and professionals, so they can offer more help for our seniors.”
SALT continues to seek funding help for its all-volunteer group of only 20 staff members. If you would like to become a supporter of the group, contact Oneal at 809-5455.

SLIDELL – Leo Rose is obviously a man who looks at the bright side of things.
Even though he has had two knee replacements, four hernia repairs, surgery on his gall bladder and rotator cuff, and dealt with two leaking valves in his heart, he says, “my health has been pretty good most of my life.”
However, it was time spent with doctors in different jobs he worked that helped him recognize the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, when he began to have hand tremors, and noticed a problem getting out of his chair.
“It was about eight months ago and I was watching TV from a chair in my house,” the Pearl River resident said. “I suddenly noticed I was bobbing my head to something on TV, but I wasn’t really trying to. Then I began having trouble getting out of the chair.”
Rose, 85, said he thought he was seeing the early signs of Parkinson’s Disease, and once he visited his doctor, it was confirmed he was already well into the early stages of the disease.
But Rose was fortunate enough to live in an area where a new treatment for the disease is showing remarkable results. Slidell Memorial Hospital’s physical therapy department has been teaching the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) system, which is a physical therapy being used for Parkinson’s patients.
The voice treatment therapy involves making patients speak exceptionally loud, exaggerating their speech. Now that approach for treatment has been utilized in Parkinson’s patients, to help them regain their movements in a normal manner, and also to reduce the shuffling that is typical in the disease.
“Once I knew I had Parkinson’s, I heard about a new program at SMH in their rehab department so I wanted to try it,” Rose said.
The rehab consists of four straight days each week of P.T., continuing for a month. The treatment takes about an hour-and-a-half each day, using exaggerated exercises to walk, sit down and stand up, plus other exercises.
Rose has been amazed at the improvement he saw in only one month.
“They told me I had lost 70 percent of my mobility from Parkinson’s, but after only one month, I regained 35 percent of it,” he said. “The staff at SMH is so incredible, and they really helped me regain a lot of my normal movement.”
Rose lives on a few acres of land, so he continues to use the exaggerated walking—taking long steps while swinging his arms—when he goes to get the mail each day, or heads out to his barn.
“I think the biggest surprise to me was that the exercises helped the shuffling to improve a lot,” Rose said. “Shuffling causes you to trip, and after four weeks I got a lot better, not to mention I can sit and stand up just fine again.”
“This is the first therapy (for Parkinson’s) where I’ve said, ‘Wow, this is really working.’ And when patients realize it’s working, they get enthused and work even harder. It’s uplifting,” Outpatient Rehab Director Julia Thomas said. “We’ve seen walking speeds nearly double and our patients say they feel more confident and safe.”
Rose was a lifelong resident of St. Bernard who worked at several medical facilities in the accounting department during his professional life. He has been married for 63 years and had purchased a house and land in Pearl River before Hurricane Katrina.
“I almost sold this property before Katrina, but I’m so glad I didn’t,” he said. “When the storm hit, St. Bernard was wiped out, so we were pretty happy to have this house where we could live. We had a lot of family out here after the hurricane.”
Rose said the only challenge to maintaining his improvement is that the therapy continues for a month at SMH, then patients need to maintain the daily exercises at home.
“I’ve slacked off a little,” he said with a smile. “It’s harder when you don’t have someone pushing you like I did at Slidell Memorial. They have a terrific staff and really made me get everything done.”
Typical treatment for Parkinson’s Disease includes medications that elevate levels of dopamine, medications that decrease tumors and other drugs that mimic the role of dopamine in the brain. In some cases where medication doesn’t show good results, surgery is considered and a deep brain stimulator is implanted.
“If I keep doing the exercises, I will be OK,” Rose said. “I was really pleased with the results, especially since there are others much worse off than me. But I saw really great results when I did the exercises.”
SMH has three therapists certified in the LSVT treatment. You need to be recommended for the therapy by your healthcare provider.

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It’s a miracle!
OK, maybe not a real miracle, but my youngest daughter, Vicky, graduated from college this past Saturday in Hammond.
Yes, we pick on her a bit since Vicky is one of those young people who are kiddingly called “a career student.”
She is 25 years old and finally finished college, taking more years than most to earn what is usually seen as a four-year degree.
So jokes aside, I am still quite proud of her since she was determined to not give up, and earn her degree. And as I have said to many people, any kind of degree is valuable these days since so many jobs require you to have some kind of degree.
Vicky finished with a General Studies degree and I actually think that some degrees like hers, or a general business degree, is versatile in that a business can see you did graduate from college, but you aren’t tied to a specific focus in the work world.
My third daughter has always been called “independent” by my wife since she is the child who takes her own path, living life to the fullest every single day.
She is the daughter with several large tattoos and a piercing or two. And yes, I was a bit shocked when I saw the first one appear, but I’ve certainly gotten used to them by now, and as all us older folks know, you sure can’t change the mind of a young person who has decided that is what they want.
Vicky is the daughter who led me into a love for country music, after she started college near Nashville, Tenn., going to Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro, all because she wanted to be close to the heart and soul of country music.
I still think she might end up in Nashville once she makes a firm decision about what career path to follow, but for now, you might see her always smiling face working for our newspaper in some capacity. If she starts working with me, that would mean all four of my kids are now working at the paper in some form or fashion. Pretty neat, I would say.
But for today, I just want to congratulate her on a job well done. As for me, I went to all of one semester of college and then spent my life working my way up the ladder. My career has gone well so far, I believe, but it’s easy to wonder what might have happened if I had started with a college degree.
Vicky won’t have to wonder about that and now that makes two of my three homeschool daughters who have college degrees. When I look at Vicky, I see a sweet, funny, loving young girl who has grown up to be a responsible, caring human being. That’s what really matters as she heads into this big world, and for that, I’d say she couldn’t do much more to make her mom and I proud of her.

Kevin Chiri can be reached by e-mail at kevinchiri@gmail.com.

The Coslett’s left the store and got into their white 2006 Chevy Silveraldo truck before a city police officer arrived and approached them.
When Clint Coslett saw the police arriving, he tried to flee and nearly hit the officer with his car, heading off on a high-speed chase down Gause Boulevard to Military Road, and ultimately to Highway 190 East (Shortcut Hwy.)
Seuzeneau said that during the chase the Coslett’s were throwing suspected methamphetamine and marijuana out of the vehicle before off-duty SPD officer Michael Giardina heard about the pursuit on his police radio, and helped apprehend the Coslett’s by throwing spike stripes on the road in front of them on Short Cut Hwy.
The suspects fled into the woods, but were quickly apprehended. Police officers were able to recover the methamphetamine and marijuana from the road.
Both suspects were charged with aggravated flight from an officer, resisting an officer by flight, theft of goods under $500 and obstruction of justice. Clint Coslett was also charged with aggravated assault on a police officer by use of a vehicle, and possession of marijuana.

SLIDELL – Erin Phillips is making sure no one ever forgets about her sweet little boy.
Walking into the Slidell home of Darryl and Erin Phillips, the walls are covered with pictures—large pictures—of Ayden, Caleb and Kaelyn.
Erin is a photographer in Slidell, but more importantly to her, the mother of three little children who she has captured in precious, beautiful moments on almost every wall of their modest home.
Like any parents, Erin and Darryl love seeing pictures of their children, even if the photos can be bittersweet to look at since Ayden is no longer running through the house with Caleb and Kaelyn.
Ayden Phillips died in a drowning accident on June 16, 2011, several months before his 4th birthday, leaving the still very young Slidell parents to grasp with the situation every mother and father hope to never face—how to go on with life after the loss of a child.
“The pictures are so important,” Erin said, wiping away tears as she talked about Ayden. “You have to have pictures to remember. You don’t realize the value of photos until you suddenly face our situation.”
But Darryl and Erin, now two years after the death of Ayden, are following the well-known Bible verse in Romans 8:28, finding a way to allow God to make some good from such a tragic event.
In the weeks following the accident, as they talked and cried together, trying to make sense of what happened, they decided there had to be a way to answer the question of “why?”
“We were eating out, talking about it again, and believing God would somehow make some good out of this,” Darryl said. “That’s when we decided to help other couples who faced a similar situation. We wanted to help them in the areas we had faced the most difficulty.”
Darryl said that in the days following Ayden’s death, the hardship was compounded by funeral costs and medical bills that began arriving. So they decided to start a foundation—“Ayden’s Foundation of Hope”—to help others who go through the loss of a child, and need assistance.
“We were stunned that it cost about $8,000 to have the funeral, and then we had almost $20,000 in medical bills, even with the health insurance I had,” Darryl said.
Ayden’s Foundation of Hope was born, with the first event held a year ago, and the second event scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, May 24 and 25. (See separate story for details of how to support the two-day fundraiser.)
Darryl and Erin never imagined they would be one of those couples facing such a tragic situation after they were married quickly out of high school.
Erin, the daughter of Pastor Mike Harrigan of Slidell’s Community Baptist Church, met Darryl when both started working at Cici’s Pizza in Slidell. Erin was not allowed to date until she finished high school, and Darryl admitted he was a shy young man who had few dates of his own in high school. The couple began to see each other at church or home settings, and within a year, were in love and talking about marriage.
“My father was in the Navy and I knew I would join the service right out of high school,” Darryl said. “But we wanted to get married, so we did that before I left for basic training.”
The couple was reunited over six months later as Darryl was stationed in Germany, where they had their first son on June 21, 2005—Caleb. A little over two years later, Ayden was born on September 5, 2007.
“Even though we were young and living alone in Germany for four years, it helped us grow closer since we had no other family there,” Erin said.
They returned to the U.S. and Darryl changed his mind about a career in the military when his dream job as an air traffic controller was offered in Jackson, Miss., getting them back near their home.
With Pastor Mike’s church set to hold an anniversary celebration in mid-June of 2011, the couple came to Slidell on Wednesday, the 15th and spent Thursday, the 16th, at Pastor Mike’s house, where there was an above ground swimming pool in the backyard.
“The boys loved swimming and were in the pool all day. Early in the evening, they asked if they could swim again, but then got out to follow ‘Pops,’ as he was going to start his burn pile in the back yard,” Darryl said.
The boys were with Pastor Mike as Darryl and Erin were inside with 8-week-old Kaelyn. As he led the boys to the front yard to get firewood, Ayden somehow slipped away on the second trip to the front. Unknown to anyone, he had climbed the stairs to the pool and apparently fallen in.
“Pops rushed in the house and asked if any of us had seen Ayden,” Erin said. “I was so incredibly cautious with the kids and always had a fear of them getting into the street, so we looked there first.”
As family members rushed around, Pastor Mike’s wife went to check the pool, a place nobody imagined Ayden could have gotten to, since Erin said they were insistent about taking the ladder down, which was the only way the children could get that high and climb in.
“But for some reason this time, the ladder wasn’t taken down,” she said. “Grandma screamed that Ayden was in the water.”
Erin, then Darryl, jumped into the pool and Darryl began using his military CPR training to try and save his son before paramedics showed up and took over. By the time Ayden was at the hospital, a heartbeat had been restored.
“When we got to the hospital, we thought he was going to make it,” Erin said. “We had hope again. I remember thinking that God was going to use this as a miracle about the way he saved our son. I was so sure of that.”
But as hours went by, the parents began to realize there may not be a miraculous ending to their story. The doctor heading Ayden’s care finally told them Ayden was brain-dead, and Erin and Darryl were hit with the gut-wrenching news no parent ever wants to hear.
“We had the entire church at the hospital, and we surrounded Ayden with prayer, singing his favorite church songs and reading Scripture,” Darryl recalled. “But they told us the trauma from the brain injury, from not getting oxygen, was what caused his death.”
For days and weeks to follow, the couple struggled to find a way to begin living again.
“It’s the worst thing ever, that’s the only way I can describe how you feel,” Erin said. “And the only way I think we made it through is that the Lord has to totally carry you at that time. God’s grace holds you up, and we have hope now because we know we will see him again one day.”
When they announced plans for the Foundation, they were immediately deluged with several thousand dollars from family and friends, and now two years later, have seen incredible good come out of the tragedy.
When they started the first fundraiser, a friend of a family member said he would head a fishing tournament, since Ayden loved to fish. Combined with a dinner and auction on Friday night, then the tournament on Saturday, the first fundraiser brought in $18,000.
Darryl and Erin are now busy helping other families who have gone through similar tragedies, and to date, the Foundation has helped over 100 couples who have lost children.
“When we are contacted by anyone, we send a package that includes a bracelet, books of encouragement that were a huge help to us, and a check,” he said. “Every situation is different, but we know how much the money is needed at that time, so we do as much as we can.”
Thinking about Ayden today, Erin quickly tears up again.
“He was such a sweet little boy,” she said. “Caleb is loud and stubborn, like me. But Ayden laughed so much and was so gentle. He loved his sister so much.”
To support the fundraiser, contact Darryl at 601-832-9175 or Erin at 601-832-9174. All proceeds go to Ayden’s Foundation of Hope.

SLIDELL – St. Tammany Parish Council Chairman Jerry Binder is reacting strongly to criticism from Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany President Rick Franzo, who blasted council members for not agreeing yet to sign a recall petition against Coroner Dr. Peter Galvan.
CCST began its six-month drive on Saturday, seeking over 53,000 signatures from registered voters in St. Tammany, which would give parish residents the decision about whether they want Galvan to remain in office or not.
Galvan has come under fire in media reports for the past five months for alleged credit card use, deemed excessive by some. He and his staff have also received large raises in recent years, particularly Galvan, who is now paying himself nearly $200,000 a year as the parish coroner.

The watchdog group that formed in St. Tammany over two years ago led the way in recent months to begin a recall against Galvan. During that time, the St. Tammany Parish Council voted 13-1 asking Galvan to resign his position, and Parish President Pat Brister also publicly asked the coroner to step down. Additionally, State Rep. Tim Burns is leading a bill through the Louisiana Legislature, changing the authority for spending in the Coroner’s Office to the Parish Council.
Since the negative publicity began, the Parish Council has been the most vocal public body in addressing the allegations against Galvan, even though nothing criminal has been uncovered yet.
The council voted to ask both the Louisiana legislative auditor and the state attorney general to perform a comprehensive investigation in the Coroner’s Office, which began over a month ago.
However, when the recall effort was getting ready to start last week, Franzo stated his interest to see the Parish Council members show their support by being among the first to sign. He even set up a special day for public officials to sign last Thursday, May 16.
On that day, only Council Members Jake Groby, Reed Falconer, Maureen O’Brien and Richard Tanner showed up to sign the petition, leading Franzo to publicly criticize any council members who have not signed, or indicated they would sign.
Franzo said he has e-mail promises from Council Members Marty Dean and Marty Gould, both saying they plan to sign the petition, while no other Parish Council members have responded about their intent, other than Gene Bellisario, who said he would not sign.
On Tuesday, the CCST leader said he saw the lack of response or support by council member as “insincere” in terms of their earlier vote asking for the resignation.
“It is most disturbing to see 13 Parish Council members vote for his resignation, and so far, I only have four signed, and two others who said they will sign,” Franzo said. “That tells me the others voted for the resignation without sincerity.”
Binder was informed of Franzo’s statement and responded strongly, saying it was not Franzo’s place to criticize any of their decisions, especially this early in the process.
“Mr. Franzo fails to recognize that we don’t have to be led by the nose, or pressured by him, to make our own decision on this matter,” Binder said. “He wants to set a timeline on when we will decide about signing this petition, but we have six months to make that decision.”
Binder said that he, along with several other council members, are waiting for the results from the legislative auditor and attorney general before making a decision about signing the petition.
“Some of us want to see the results of the investigations,” he said. “It would be a lot easier if we didn’t have to go through the recall process, assuming something came out of the investigation.”
But Binder didn’t stop with simply reacting to the comments by Franzo on this issue. He said some of the CCST leaders have pushed a little too far in their efforts to be a watchdog group, and in demanding action and specific decisions by some public officials in St. Tammany.
“I was among the four member committee who offered the resolution for Mr. Galvan’s resignation, and asked the legislative auditor for a forensic investigation,” Binder said. “It is easy to sit on the sidelines, as Mr. Franzo and some of his group have done, and not have to press ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on particular issues.
“There are a lot of people who see their group as bullying public officials to make certain decisions and we are not going to respond to that,” he said. “The decision to ask for a resignation, and the decision to sign the recall petition, are up to each individual council member and we do not need Mr. Franzo telling us when we need to do that.”

SLIDELL – Dr. Peter Galvan may not be the only St. Tammany public official who could be affected by a recall effort that began on Saturday in the parish.
Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany (CCST) President Rick Franzo said he was “extremely pleased” with the overall turnout on Saturday for the first public signature drive, however, he was disappointed by the number of Parish Council members who previously voted for Galvan to resign, but have not responded to e-mail questions about whether they will sign the petition.
CCST kicked off its recall petition drive last week, in its attempt to allow voters of the parish to decide if they want Galvan to remain as the parish coroner.
Galvan has been under fire for the past five months after allegations of improper spending in his parish department, as well as hefty pay increases for himself and top staff members.
The first weekend of the petition drive was held on Saturday, following a special Thursday signing opportunity for public officials.
At the petition drive kickoff last Thursday, Parish Council members Jake Groby, Reed Falconer, Maureen O’Brien and Richard Tanner all showed up to sign. Franzo said he also has e-mail promises from Council Members Marty Dean and Marty Gould, who said they plan to sign the petition.
But to date, despite more than one e-mail to council members, only Councilman Gene Bellisario has responded and said he would not sign the petition.
The Parish Council voted 13-1 last month, asking Galvan to resign his position after months of questions involving his spending practices, as well as his own pay increases.
Parish President Pat Brister joined the council the same night, and also said she thought it was time for Galvan to resign—not because he had been proven guilty, but because the uproar of media reports had made it too difficult to effectively head the parish Coroner’s Office.
The recall petition drive now started by CCST faces a six-month deadline of Nov. 15, and needs to get a minimum of 53,000 signatures, out of the 165,000 registered voters in the parish.
But as the drive began this past weekend, Franzo was thrilled by the many signatures they gathered, and new volunteers who signed up to assist in the drive, while expressing serious criticism of the Parish Council members who have not signed, or indicated they would sign.
“It is most disturbing to see 13 Parish Council members vote for his resignation, and so far, I only have four signed, and two others who said they will sign,” Franzo said. “That tells me the others voted for the resignation without sincerity.”
Bellisario explained his decision to not sign the petition by saying he does not believe public officials should be a part of a recall effort.
“I completely support the right of the public to sign this petition, and last night at my district meeting, I encouraged them to do so,” he said. “But as a public official, I do not think I should sign it.”
Franzo said he is certain the position public officials take, including state lawmakers down to local officials, will be used in the next election.
“For those who do not sign this petition, I believe it will hurt them when re-election comes up,” Franzo said. “And for that matter, our group will make sure it’s a political issue.”
Among the four Parish Council members who signed the petition last Thursday, most noted their signature was not a statement of guilt or innocence of Galvan, but simply an opportunity to allow the public to decide.
“The people who think the petition is deciding to remove him from office do not understand what this is about,” Groby said, as the first person to sign. “The recall petition is only allowing people to decide, and at this point considering what has happened, I think the people should have a right to decide if he should remain in office or not.
Falconer, while also not passing final judgment on Galvan, said he believes the coroner needs to step down, only because the amount of negative publicity has made it too difficult for the office to run efficiently.
“There must be a tremendous cloud over the people in that office every day,” Falconer said. “And that is why I think the coroner needs to step down now. It’s time to move on and start over in that department.”
CCST has spent several months securing volunteers and other organizations to help them with the petition drive.
“We signed people up for CCST as well as getting them to sign the petition,” he said. “We have a good plan to achieve this goal and I believe we can do it. I’d be very surprised if we don’t get the numbers we need, which is more like 60,000 to 65,000, just to be sure we have enough.”
The recall effort has been bolstered by a big Facebook response, and Franzo said CCST will debut its website on Friday, which will continually update locations where petition stations will be available.
“We will start door-to-door soon, and will rotate our petition stations so everyone will have a chance,” he said. “The most amazing thing we’ve seen so far is how much support we have for this. We had a police officer from Madisonville come all the way to Slidell on Saturday, saying he wanted to be one of the first to sign.”
Franzo said the organization has decided to not report numbers of signatures since they believe it could be harmful to the effort.

SLIDELL — Nick Houston is an excellent tap dancer.
But you would never know it by the way he tackles on the football field. Houston was contacted by Delta State after his senior season. After a visit and some talking, Houston signed a scholarship with the Cleveland, Mississippi school to play football.
“I sent my highlight tape to a few schools, and then Delta State called me one day. They thought I was a good tackler and had good awareness,”?Houston said.
Houston is an actor who has been performing in plays at the Slidell Little Theatre since he was in seventh grade and is also trained in tap dancing. He wants to major in theater in arts because of his background, but until he has a degree in hand, Houston will be playing college football.
Delta State is one hour north of Jackson, Ms. It’s a Division-II school that won the national championship in 2011.
“Even though the school is out in the middle of nowhere, I think it’s good becasue it’ll help me to focus more. The whole town is about football, so that’s cool,”?Houston said.
The 18-year-old said it wasn’t until his junior year that he started becoming athletic. In fact, after his freshman year he wanted to quit, but decided to give it another shot as a sophomore.
Houston’s dad played college football, but fractured his neck so he had to stop, and his second uncle played for the Oilers and Redskins in the NFL.

“I’m nervous about being so far away from home. It’s going to be a mixture of emotions, but this isn’t something I would pass up doing,”?Houston said.

SLIDELL — Jordan Cornish is only 16 years old, but he just made one of the biggest decisions of his life.
The 6-foot-5 basketball player from Slidell verbally committed to the Tennessee Volunteers basketball team over other schools like Oklahoma, Purdue, Vanderbilt, VCU, Texas A&M and the University of Houston.
Cornish is a junior at Brother Martin High School, and was first contacted by Tennessee as a freshman. But Cornish truly got his start in the Slidell Youth Basketball Association and Biddy Leagues that were coached by guys like Ricky Suprean and Chris Jean.
“Jordan was raw as raw could be, but you could see he had tremendous athletic talent,” Suprean said, who has been coaching in the SYBA for over 20 years.
Cornish started playing in the SYBA when he was nine years old. His team went 17-0, and Cornish, who was already 5-foot-8 played point guard.
“We would have people come up to us and say, ‘How old is that tall kid?’ I’d tell them, ‘He’s nine years old and he’s our point guard,’” Suprean said.
Getting that experience as a point guard is what has helped Cornish stand out as a 6-5 guard.
At 10 years old, Cornish and his team went 38-0 on the season. Then at age 11, Cornish played in a 12-year-old tournament in Slidell, and his team upset New Orleans, and another Slidell team, but then lost to Kenner. It was Cornish’s first loss in 57 games.
“That was a great team. He was 6-feet tall and a point guard at 11 years old playing against 12 year olds,” Suprean said.
Clearly, Cornish was special from the rest. He said he chose Tennessee over the other schools because of the tradition the Volunteers have.
“Coach was always straight forward with me, and when I go up, I’ll have a shot at playing right away. I couldn’t pass that up,” Cornish said.
The teenager said he remembers playing in the SYBA league very well.
“Ricky (Suprean) and Chris (Jean) got me into it, and I really liked it,” Cornish said. “Those guys are great. They start us off young, and got me the proper training that I needed. Once I stopped playing with them, I just kept going forward.”
Suprean said Cornish is a very unique player.
“What makes him so special is that he will pass to everybody. He gets everybody involved, and he’s a tremendous defensive player. He works harder than anybody on the court. The kid was off the charts from the beginning, and all the kids loved being around him,” Suprean said. “He never had a swellhead.”

When Cornish was 10 years old, he met Chris Duhon, who is a Salmen High School graduate and NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers. Suprean said Duhon and Cornish were eye-to-eye.

“I kept thinking, ‘This kid is 10 years old, and Chris is an NBA player. They’re the same height,’” Suprean said.
Cornish is an only child and the first in his family to play at a Division-I school. He is currently playing in the middle of the Nike EYBL season with Nike Team Louisiana and is averaging 10.7 points per game against some of the top competition in the country.