Ville Platte Rotary Club Meeting July 27, 2021 The Ville Platte Rotary Club heard from Barney Bridges, a star baseball player at McNeese State University who went on to play in the major leagues for the Houston Colt 45's. Bridges is a native of Ville Platte. After being let go by Houston Bridges went back and completed his studies at McNeese. After getting his degree, Bridges went to work at Shell Oil and later for Citgo for 34 years. His heart was in baseball. He competed in Men's Fast Pitch Softball in the national finals. He said one of his highlights was when ABC's Wide World of Sports did a feature on his championship team and got to shake hands with TV Host Curt Gowdy. His father, Ray Bridges, was the manager of the popular semi pro team, the Ville Platte Pirates. Bridges said his advice to ball players that education should be their number one priority since only two percent of college players make it to the pros. He was the guest speaker of Rotarian Larry Lachney. In other business, Rotarian Wayne Vidrine announced that Katherine Fontenot, a student at McNeese University was one of two winners of the Rotary Club $1250 Scholarship. Club President Jimmy LeBlanc announced that the four newest members of the club: Audie Phillips, Mitch Pellorin , Frank and Rhonda Butler.