It has been a trying time for Sulphur High head football coach Paul Bourgeois and his family over the last couple of months but one month after having surgery for a benign brain tumor during the first week of June at M.D. Anderson in Houston; he is headed down the road to recovery.

“It was a pretty rough two weeks immediately after the surgery,” Bourgeois said. “In the last week I feel myself getting better and better everyday.”

The discovery of the tumor was quite a shock to the Bourgeois family. At first it was hard to talk about it.

“I was very surprised,” Bourgeois said. “We were doing a lot of tests at that point on me and finding little things wrong. The whole time we did not think that it was something as drastic as this.

“It did have an opportunity to continue causing problems if we had not found it. I think the biggest thing was trying to get used to people asking how you are doing and you have to say brain tumor. To me it sounds like one of the worst things out there. It was hard to say for a long time.”

In a city as close-knit as Sulphur, nothing seems to go unnoticed. Coach Bourgeois said that he was amazed at the phone calls, letters and support that he has received.

“I have been looking back on it and I am really overwhelmed because the letters and phone calls have not only come from all over the state but from other states I coached at,” Bourgeois said. “I had coaches call from Texas and one or two from Arkansas.

“It surprised me. It is a good feeling to know that so many people have come out and offered so much. I talk to my wife all the time and ask her how do we thank everyone for this.”

Close by his side the whole time has been his wife Stephanie and daughter Hope and the rest of the Bourgeois family.

“I would hate to be the person without family that would have to go through with this,” Bourgeois said. “It has been a little tougher than I thought but with all the support and the big family that I have, it makes it feel better to get through.”

In about two weeks Coach Bourgeois will start a six-week radiation treatment that will require him to go to Houston five days a week. Though his treatments will run through fall practice, Bourgeois said it would be hard to stop him from going.

“Practice will be going on and I don’t think I have ever missed a practice for being sick in the six years that I have been here,” Bourgeois said. “It is my love. I am constantly going to try to be here.”

Coach Bourgeois is not one to take things at a slow pace. Being a head coach of a Class 5A football program with over 150 athletes means you are always on the go, making these last couple of months even harder for him, as he has had to take things slower than he would like.

“I want to be well in a week and be right back to coaching but it is going to take a little bit longer,” Bourgeois said. “If I continue to take it slow, it is going to be a long road but I think that is the way this thing needs to be taken care of.

“It has been hard to get used to and I enjoy my job. My job is one that takes a lot of time. I just happen to like that pace and that is what I am used to. It is hard to say ‘No I can’t do this’ or ‘No, I can’t be there'. It is something that I am not used to.”

As, for the Sulphur High football program, Bourgeois is not worried about any interruption in preparing for the 2008 season. He credits the fact that the staff has been the same since going to the Superdome in 2006.

“Thank goodness that we have the staff that we have that has been together since we went to the Superdome (in 2006),” Bourgeois said. “Knowing that makes me feel better that if I am not here I know that things will go well. I have confidence in that they know what to do.

“The team has been doing really good. Some of them have been really concerned and that has been real special to me. They feel confident and it is all running smooth with my condition and I hope that we can carry that through the fall.”

Bourgeois has kept the team informed but said that he keeps it short so as to not distract them from preparing for the upcoming season.

“Right now for us, it is to work well as a team and to pull together,” Bourgeois said.

Note: There will be a mandatory varsity meeting at 4 p.m. at the school on July 30th. First day of practice for varsity only will be 8a.m. on July 31st. Media/Photo day will be August 1st at 9a.m. First day of practice for the freshmen team will be August 4th at 5p.m. at the Sulphur High 9th grade campus.