LAFAYETTE — Friends and family paid their final respects Monday to Louisiana baseball coach Tony Robichaux at a funeral held at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Lafayette. He was later buried in his home town of Crowley.
Fr. Bryce Sibley of Our Lady of Wisdom Church delivered the Homily. His message compared baseball to life. The shape of the field may be called a diamond, but the route around the bases is circular.
He mentioned that a trip around the bases represents the journey of life. The journey can be far from home (2nd base). There's danger on the base path (getting picked off, leaving the base too early, missing a base). But with every game, the journey all leads to home. Also baseball, like life, has no time constraints. A short game can be just as compelling and fulfilling as a long game.
Sibley tied it together by saying while Robe's journey on earth may be finished, his life fulfilled it's purpose.
Sibley closed by saying this service wasn't for Robe, but instead, "We must persevere for those that remain, and that are on that circular journey."
Robichaux died Wednesday, July 3, days after undergoing a second surgery following a heart attack. Robichaux was 57 years old.
As a baseball coach he won 1,177 games at McNeese on Lousiana Universities. He is each school's all-time winningest coach.