Former HHS football player gets ring after 25 years

‘92 champion ring returned thanks to social media

A former Hahnville High School football player recently received a big helping hand through social media, as the 1992 football state championship he earned with the Tigers was returned to him after it went missing for 25 years.

The ring, which belongs to former HHS offensive lineman Phillip Peyregne, was found in a Lafayette hotel in 2010 by Heidi Meche of Church Point, who was visiting friends there when she came across the ring.

“I thought it would have belonged to the people who had the room before,” Meche said. “To me, it wasn’t a big thing but (the hotel) wouldn’t give me any information. I understood, but I didn’t think it would be that hard to find somebody either.”

Still, Meche, who had her own athletic background in high school, knew this ring likely had special meaning to its owner.

“A Superdome ring?” Meche said. “I cherished my trophies and my awards growing up. To earn a championship ring … that’s not something you can just go and do right over again.

That’s a really good high school memory.”

But her early efforts to find the ring’s owner turned up nothing.

“Every now and then, I’d get on, post on Facebook, look around,” Meche said. “I just really didn’t have any luck.”

But she pushed the matter a bit more recently, this time going to the Hahnville High School website to search for anything that might give her a lead. Eventually she found a post from 1992 linking her to two different Tiger alums. One of those, Shelby Boyle — who now lives in Kileen, Texas — made some quick headway. Boyle himself played football for Hahnville, while his brother was part of the Tigers’ 2003 championship team. Boyle’s son, Zion, is currently a sophomore at Hahnville who plays football.

“He told me he might be able to help,” Meche said. “He reposted it, and from there it was crazy.”

Boyle took to Facebook to ask if anyone could identify the ring’s owner — that post was eventually shared 165 times, and it wasn’t long before Peyregne’s cousin, Elaine Dufrene, surfaced to respond. Boyle got Elaine in contact with Meche, and soon the ring was on its way.

“She said (Peyregne) was really excited about it,” Meche said. “She was kind of shocked about the whole thing.”In truth, Peyregne (who respectfully declined comment for the story), has by now had the ring in his possession for longer than he did in the first place. Meche said Dufrene relayed the story of how her cousin lost possession of the ring: after some team members passed their rings around their class the day after receiving them, Peyregne’s ring never made it back to him.

Now, after 25 years, it finally has.

“I assumed someone just lost it,” Meche said. “It feels really good to get it back to him.”