D-D Breaux is more than the LSU gymnastics coach.
According to associate head coach Jay Clark, Breaux has to function as the CEO of a small corporation. And her next order of business is getting her program into 15 million homes across the South.
Enter “Inside LSU Gymnastics,” the weekly television broadcast meant to expose viewers to the inner-workings of the LSU gymnastics program. The half-hour show airs at 4 p.m. every Wednesday on Comcast Sports South (CSS) and serves as a crucial recruiting and marketing tool for the program.
“You’re very limited in how you can get information out there and how you can create the image that you want your recruits to see, and one of the ways we can do that is through television,” Clark said. “… If we can do that and package it right, then we think it helps us down the line to attract a greater number of student-athletes.”
Breaux said she recognized the need for a show for many years, but she never got the backing from the Athletic Department. However, Clark brought years of experience with a television program from his time coaching at Georgia, providing what Breaux called the spark for the project.
As fortune would have it, Justin Webb, who produced the gymnastics show with Clark at Georgia, was administering a training session to broadcast students at LSU in August. Webb reached out to Breaux and Clark about the possibility of a weekly program, and the trio hammered out the logistics behind producing the show.
“We went over some formats and what kind of people would be necessary at LSU to make it happen,” said Webb, the executive producer of the show. “They were able to put all that together by November, and by then we were pretty much committed to making a TV show.”
Webb oversees the project and aids TigerTV in production from his home in Atlanta, Ga. The students who produce “Inside LSU Gymnastics” are on paid internships, for which Breaux and Clark raised money.
After raising all the necessary funds and garnering sponsorships for the broadcast, Breaux and Clark brought their plan to Senior Associate Athletic Director Herb Vincent for clearance.
“Our coaches’ shows are produced by LSU Sports Properties,” Vincent said. “We have a contract for our multimedia rights agreement with CBS Collegiate Sports Properties, who produce our coaches’ shows. They wanted to make sure that they weren’t doing anything that conflicted with sponsors and production rights.”
Breaux and co-host Mike Smith, “the Voice of LSU Gymnastics,” take to the set and film the main part of the show immediately after each meet is over, with back-and-forth editing between Webb and TigerTV continuing until the following Tuesday.
Though Breaux acknowledged filming was difficult after the loss at Alabama, she said filming in the moment created a realistic sense of collegiate gymnastics.
“People need to see the highs and the lows,” Clark said. “When you try to create an image of a perfect utopia, people see through that.”
The bulk of “Inside LSU Gymnastics” is a recap of the previous week’s meet, but the final segment of the show features different aspects of the gymnastics program that Breaux wants to bring to light. The features have already been scheduled, and they include pieces on ex-standouts and current gymnasts.
Clark harped on the cycle of success the broadcast will create, and his focus was filling up the PMAC for home meets and cultivating a greater understanding of LSU for prospective student-athletes.
“You’ve got to attract the right level of talent in order to win,” Clark said. “Part of doing that is creating an environment that is attractive to those kids, and part of doing that is getting out in the community and building your fan base and helping create an environment that is attractive to everyone.”
Breaux said she wants the show to vault LSU gymnastics into the national spotlight, and she is looking for the sport to catch on much like LSU baseball did when Skip Bertman was manager.
“When Skip Bertman started, there were 50 people that would go sit in the stands for a baseball game,” Breaux said. “That didn’t happen because Skip is lucky; that happened because he had a vision, and he embraced it and enthusiastically moved forward with his vision.”
