If you’ve ever driven through St. Helena Parish &045; scratch that, chances are you haven’t driven through St. Helena Parish.

Not unless you were specifically going there.

It’s an area not known for much other than poverty, wooded areas and more poverty. As one of the poorest areas in Louisiana, St. Helena is near the bottom in several categories you don’t want to be at the bottom.

Until now.

Even though the St. Helena Central Hawks were drubbed Friday night at the hands of powerhouse West St. John in the Class 2A state championship, they did something no team had ever done out of St. Helena in making the title game.

In fact, not many before them could even fathom making it to the state championship.

&8220;St. Helena has been everybody’s whooping dog for years,&8221; SHC head coach Alden Foster told Hammond Daily Star reporter Clay McCombs. &8220;For us to make this trip to the Superdome means so much to the people of St. Helena. Words cannot express what this means to this community.&8221;

Foster admitted everything hit home him after his club beat Mamou to clinch a spot in the state championship game. Grown men cried. One gentleman fell to his knees and thanked God for a day he prayed would happen.

The place went nuts because for so long the Hawks struggled to be competitive and were often downright bad. For many years the Hawks played the role of homecoming opponent, often buying time for the start of basketball season where the school was more competitive.

The Hawks languished in mediocrity, a program struggling in a poor school system with many kids from poor and broken homes.

That was because for so long the school was so poor it couldn’t compete with others who had better facilities, equipment, etc. The school system has little money with such a rural tax base, and its test scores and teacher pay annually rank near the bottom as a result.

In college, I staffed a St. Helena home game. Suffice to say the facilities lagged well behind those of their district counterparts, leaving me to wonder why anyone would want to go to school there, much less suit up to get drilled on Friday nights.

But when Foster came aboard in attempt to breathe life into the program, he really didn’t care about what the Hawks didn’t have and didn’t want to hear excuses. Soon players and those in the community starting buying in, and college coaches followed suit.

The Hawks indeed reached the promised land Friday, and you can shove that in the face of that private-schools-have-advantages argument. The Hawks climbed the mountain thanks to something you can’t put a dollar sign on &045; plain ol’ hard work.

And it’s also a message to all those other downtrodden areas &045; schools like Lake Providence, Newellton, Davidson, Pine, Pointe Coupee Central &045; just because you have next to nothing doesn’t mean you can’t make it to the big time.

St. Helena did.

You just have to work hard and believe.

Adam Daigle

is sports editor of The Natchez Democrat. Reach him at (601) 445-3632 or by e-mail at

adam.daigle@natchezdemocrat.com

.