When it comes to the state softball tournament in Sulphur, Jeremy Duplantis doesn’t mince words.
“Sulphur’s an addicting thing,” Duplantis said. “I’m not addicted to many things, but I am with Sulphur.”
Duplantis has coached teams to Sulphur in three of the past four seasons, this year at Hahnville and two at Vandebilt Catholic. In each of those three seasons, Duplantis’ team made the state final – two of those cementing themselves as state champions.
Sunday’s 6-5 Hahnville victory over Live Oak cemented him on an elite list of head coaches to guide two different schools to a state softball championship.
He arrived at Hahnville with the confidence of someone who had done it before. That confidence soon became reflected in his players, who he told when he arrived that the championship win was coming.
They believed him – and ultimately made him a prophet.
“I just knew that with this group, it was going to happen in the future,” Duplantis said.
On paper, Hahnville didn’t enter the season or postseason among the favorites for that distinction. The starting lineup was built of majority underclassmen. By regular season’s end, the Tigers earned a No. 8 seed and defeated several of the state’s top teams along the way – the very talented but also very young roster seemed primed to be a popular choice to strongly contend for the 2027 championship.
Duplantis’ Tigers, however, weren’t interested in waiting for their crown.
“I knew we’d be competitive,” Duplantis said. “Even though they’re young, we have a lot of talent. You always aim to play on that last day of the year, no matter what. In my mind, we did it a year or so early … I wasn’t so sure it would be happen this quick, but hey, it did. And we’re going to start working to get there again next year.”
Duplantis led Vandebilt Catholic to the Division II select softball championship in 2024, following a 2023 season where he and the Terriers finished as state runner-up. He served as head coach of the Vandebilt program after being hired in May of 2021. Prior to that, he was the head softball coach at H.L. Bourgeois.
Initially a baseball coach at H.L. Bourgeois, he was approached with the idea of jumping over to the softball side. At first, he was hesitant, but he gave it a shot – and he says it was one of the best decisions he could have made.
“I fell in love with it,” Duplantis said. “I like the fast pace of it, I like the way you can engineer a little bit more at third base with the quick game and small ball. And coaching girls, when you get them to buy in, they’ll go through a wall for you. I’ve been lucky to have teams where I feel like the girls will do anything to help our team win.”
His first season with H.L. Bourgeois, and the subsequent offseason, was about building a foundation.
“That first year at Bourgeois wasn’t very good,” said Duplantis, who served as Braves softball coach for four years. “We didn’t make the playoffs. We won maybe 11 games that season. I got in a little late – I didn’t start with them until December.”
Once he had a full offseason to work with his team and install his program, things began to turn.
“We got into the weight room all summer and worked … we made it to the playoffs, which was a big deal at the time for us,” Duplantis said. “I was learning as I went. Going from baseball to softball, there were a lot of things I didn’t understand – so going to coaches clinics, talking to people who have been around the game a long time and trying to pick up on things every single year was something I made a point of doing.”
The move to Vandebilt Catholic was a big jump – the Terriers program has a strong tradition, with 16 state championships in its history.
Even so, Vandebilt had not been to the state tournament in Sulphur since 2014. Duplantis was determined to end that drought. He did that in year two.
“Going to Vandebilt Catholic was one of the best things for my career … they had some talent, and they had some girls who wanted to work,” said Duplantis. “We had a lot of young kids who were good ballplayers.”
Duplantis noted the 2024 championship team had a few seniors, but a large component of the team was comprised of 8th, 9th and 10th graders – not dissimilar to his current Hahnville roster.
But he knew one day he would return to the public school system, after accruing 13 years as an educator already in Louisiana. When the Hahnville job opened, he said he recognized that it would be the right fit.
The Lady Tigers, he said, bought in – and the rest is history.
“When I got here, I told the girls that we will win – you’ve got to trust the process, you’ve got to work hard and you’ve got to believe that you can do it,” said Duplantis.
