by: Vincent Cacioppo // GeauxPreps.com Managing Editor

Ed Daniels, a legendary figure in New Orleans sports broadcasting, has passed away, leaving behind a permanent mark on the Louisiana high school sports community. With a career spanning over 40 years, Daniels became a familiar face to countless Louisiana high school sports fans. His journey began at WDSU-TV, but it was at WGNO-TV where he truly made his mark, serving as the station’s first and only sports director for 33 years.

While many sports departments focused on professional and college sports, Daniels was a tireless advocate for Louisiana high school athletics. He was the driving force behind the popular “Friday Night Football” show, which brought the excitement of high school sports into the homes of viewers. The show’s success led to the creation of two other programs: “Friday Night Sports,” covering winter events, and “Friday Night Fastball,” which highlighted baseball, softball, and other spring sports.

Daniels’ commitment to high school sports extended beyond television. In 2011, he along with others launched the Allstate Sugar Bowl National Prep Classic basketball tournament. What began as a 16-team boys’ tournament evolved into a premier event with five different brackets for boys and girls. This success inspired similar events in baseball and 7-on-7 football, with a new volleyball event set to debut this fall.

Daniels’ contributions to high school athletics were recognized by his alma mater, Archbishop Rummel High School, which inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013. He was also honored by De La Salle High School with a place in its athletic hall of fame.

LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine praised Daniels as a pioneer in high school sports recognition and promotion, noting that his “Friday Night Football” show was among the most-watched programs in Louisiana. Bonine added, “Ed was a professional… a true reporter who loved what he did when covering not only high school but college and professional sports across our great state. He will be missed, but his legendary career will never be forgotten.”

Ed was as genuine as they come. I’m incredibly thankful to have known him. He was a constant professional, and extremely courteous, but most of all, he was a kind and compassionate soul who touched the lives of everyone he met.

There’s a quote by Nick Saban that has always stuck with me, “People aren’t going to remember what you say, they’re going to remember how you made them feel.”

Ed Daniels embodied this sentiment, leaving a legacy not just in his words coming through your television, but in the way he made everyone around him feel truly valued.

Ed Daniels’ legacy as a champion for high school athletics will endure, even as the community mourns his loss.

The Council for A Better Louisiana , or CABL, says the state is making progress on less than half of the thirty-five indicators for wellbeing, and trending slightly downwards from last year. CABL president Barry Erwin says one problem area is health and wellness: “In terms of life expectancy, low birth weight babies, infant mortality, food insecurity… [we’re] just not moving in the right direction on those things.”

CABL monitored Louisiana’s progress in five areas: economy, which showed a decline; health and wellbeing, which also declined; infrastructure, which largely improved; environment and energy, which was a mixed bag; and education, which Erwin says improved a lot.

“For third grade reading, for mastery for economically-disadvantaged kids, for education attainment, we’re moving in the right direction,” he explains. “Not where we need to be, but at least in the right direction.”

Sixteen indicators are trending downwards, compared to thirteen last year, and 7 were down for 2 years in a row. Plus, only sixteen are trending upwards compared to eighteen last year. Erwin says the best way to improve these numbers is to create policy to address problem areas like the economy and healthcare.

“What this shows is that on some [indicators] that are really very important, we are not going in the right direction, and we need to kind of reverse gear,” he says.

The complete report can be found on CABL’s website or by clicking here.

PEARLINGTON, Ms. (WVUE) – Residents in a small Mississippi community believe their town is dying a slow death as a major artery connecting Louisiana and Mississippi remains closed for more than two years, and the state in charge of the closed road says it’s seeking potential takers for historic yet unnavigable bridges.

Highway 90, which serves as an eastbound exit from New Orleans to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, has been shuttered since May 2022 when inspections found four bridges to be structurally unsafe for drivers.

Pearlington, Mississippi sits on the edge of the state line, along the thoroughfare where cars used to pass from the other side of the water on a daily basis.

“Pearlington is a small town of about 1,000 families, and it is reducing every day,” said Michael Mavenyengwa, owner of the Pearlington Rocket Express.

His business used to function as a gas station and convenience store, but he said he hasn’t been able to afford to keep the pumps running.

“Due to that closure, we have experienced a major loss of business. We have lost maybe 50 to 75 percent of our business,” Mavenyengwa said. “The income we are having, the problems we are having, cannot sustain maintaining the pumps and paying all the bills we need to pay.”

“My business is dying.”

He said Pearlington has many older residents who would often take 90 to the hospital in Slidell.

When accidents on I-10 cause backups or closures of the highway, there is no other way to reach Louisiana or vice versa without traveling to Picayune, Mississippi.

“We feel like we are Americans like everybody else and pay taxes, and we are here trying to survive. It’s where we want to live,” Mavenyengwa said. “We need help here. Because 5 years, 10 years or 2028, maybe this town will be extinct.”

Louisiana is in charge of the bridges, and state and local leaders have often called for an expedited replacement.

But the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) said the replacement would cost over $300 million, and the state currently has a backlog of road repairs and infrastructure upgrades totaling more than $18 billion.

The state said it is seeking proposals for the removal of four bridges, all built in the 1930s: West Pearl River Bridge, West Middle Pearl River Bridge, Middle Pearl River Bridge, and East Middle Pearl River Bridge.

Each would cost approximately $520,000 to demolish, which the state will eventually have to do if an entity can’t be found to remove and repurpose the bridges.

“We need to get these bridges removed from our waterways,” said Daniel Gitlin with DOTD. “If they’re not going to be fixed, if they can’t be reconditioned, we cannot just leave them out there in the water, these are protected environmental waters.”

Gitlin said DOTD is currently in the environmental studies phase of the bridge replacement project.

Latest estimates put the replacement of the bridges sometime in 2028, but it’s unclear whether the state remains on that timeline still.

“This may be an opportunity for local governments, maybe St. Tammany, or some of the cities down there, to say, ‘Hey, we would like to relocate this to a public park,’” Gitlin said. “The state will not only give the bridges away, but they will pay for the cost of basically what it would take.”

MORE

DOTD closes multiple bridges in the New Orleans region

Pearl River bridge closures choking traffic, businesses east of New Orleans

For Pearlington residents, a fix may be awhile away. Gitlin said patch repairs to the bridges, which are more than 90 years old, would only extend their lifespan by a year or two.

Marine traffic has to be considered in the replacement, and so the ideal scenario would be one long spanning bridge over the water, he said.

But it comes down to securing the funding to do so.

“When you’re talking about state funding and you’re talking about groups like the transportation committees in Baton Rouge, they’re going to be looking at the long-term effect of how we spend our money and what we can do for the community,” Gitlin said.

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