Fini

The Jefferson Invitational, a tournament started by former Ehret coach Dean Tessitore in 2012, was changed to the Billy Duplessis Invitational after Tessitore's coach at John Ehret high school.

Coach Billy Duplessis flanked on his left by Stuart Hart and on his right by Eliot Guerin, members of Duplessis' 1979 John Ehret Division II State Championship team.

Coach Felix Duplessis coached John Ehret High School from its founding in 1978 until his retirement from high school coaching in 1986.  He presided over the Patriots' only state championship in Division II in 1979. 

At John Ehret Coach Duplessis coached seven Division II state champions, 26 state placers and two state champions who went on to win national championships (Bryan Hawkins - 1985 NAIA champion at the University of Southern Colorado and Dax Charles, NCAA Division II champion for Colorado State University at Pueblo.

Prior to 1978 Coach Duplessis led teams at Livaudais Middle School in Terrytown (early and middle 1970s) and Barbe Middle School in Lafayette (late 1960s).  In 1990 he returned to coaching at Gretna Middle school, and in the 2000s, Coach Duplessis ran middle school programs on the Westbank of the greater New Orleans area.  He officially retired from coaching in 2015.

In college he wrestled for Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado.

A team from Brother Martin won the first Billy Duplessis Invitational.  This is not really news as a Crusader teams has won the event since 2012, but this one was close, as the Crusaders only outscored the runner-up Tigers of Hahnville by 10.5 points.  (The Crusaders only won by 12.5 points over Rummel in 2017, but before that the margins of victory were much bigger.)

In this event, one less wrestler might have meant something.  Brother Martin had a full team while Hahnville only had 13 wrestlers.  Hahnville averaged 14.75 points per wrestler and adding that to their total would have eclipsed the Crusaders by four points.  Yet, one only wrestles whomever shows up, which is what the Crusaders did, and nothing can be taken away from their title.

1st: Brother Martin	2nd: Hahnville

(Left) Outstanding Wrestler Vincent Bruno; (center) Shaw placers Beau Rutley (3rd). Justin Gaubert (1st), Armando Amaya (1st) and Aston Surrency (1st)

Oddly, the Crusader had no individual champions.  Mason Eisensohn, Dylan Moser, Ross Mayer, Ben Wilson and Nasus Moore placed second for Brother Martin.  Hahnville had four champions in Allen Mire, Shannon Summers, Logan Brimmer and D'Quinn Butler.  Eli Chatham placed second for the Tigers.

Other winners were Bonnabel's Sergio Maldonado, who is 11-0 since moving to 106 pounds after the Spartan Invitational, Vincent Bruno of Mandeville, Isaac Suarez, Chris Montalbano and Jacob Ramirez of Rummel, Ashton Surrency, Justin Gaubert and Armando Amaya of Shaw and Jeff Fisackerly and Patrick Barze of Host John Ehret.

Mandeville's Vincent Bruno was voted the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler.  Bruno scored a fall in eight seconds in the first round, scored a 12-2 major decision in the semifinals and a 10-2 major decision in the finals.

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