Our Lady of Lourdes Cougar Athletic Center

Cougar Athletic Center Timeline

A generous gift from Our Lady of Lourdes and the Our Lady of Lourdes medical community has allowed us to launch the Our Lady of Lourdes Cougar Athletic Center.  The 22,000 square foot athletic facility will impact every sport, every athlete, and every student in the school. The building will be located on the practice field between the school and Cougar Stadium and will include a 6,000 square foot weight room, a 2,600 square foot activity room, locker rooms, dressing areas, restrooms with showers, a training room, storage, and equipment space, and coaches’ offices, for all outdoor sports.

In addition, lockers rooms for all indoor sports and outdoor sports will be renovated and new locker rooms will be built where those are lacking. Cougar Stadium will be the home to a new visitor concession and restrooms as well as the lacrosse and soccer locker rooms.

On February 7, 2023 we celebrated another historic day in the lifetime of our school with the groundbreaking of the Our Lady of Lourdes Cougar Athletic Center. We were honored to have Bishop Deshotel celebrate the Liturgy of the Word with us and blessed to have so many of our stakeholders present for the event. 

Understanding the Need

In 1982, St. Thomas More began its athletic legacy with nine teams and 2700 square feet of athletic facilities designed to support 200 student athletes. Through the years the baseball and softball fields were added and eventually the football stadium, track and field, and a second gymnasium. Today, the STM Athletic Department is thriving and represents over 50% of the student body and supports 16 sports teams. However, as athletics has grown in success and participation, facilities have only increased by 900 square feet in almost 40 years!

The current weight room has a 48-person capacity, which means, not all teams can access the weight room or train as a team. With only 315 athletic lockers, many student athletes have no place to store their equipment, books or personal items. Individual teams lack equipment storage; coaches lack meeting rooms, and overlapping sports seasons put added pressure on facilities initially designed for 200 but now support 450 all-star, all-state athletes.

Regional and National Success

St. Thomas More is one of 50 private schools across the country to receive education’s highest honor — the U.S. Department of Education’s 2020 National Blue-Ribbon School of Excellence title. This award affirms our commitment to excellence through a rigorous, technology-infused academic curriculum, a robust spiritual development and service program, and countless opportunities for students to get involved in extracurriculars and athletics. Our athletic program ranks #1 in Louisiana with 51 District Championships, seven State Runners-up, and 15 State Championships.

We have achieved our goals through the support of our stakeholders and the hard work and dedication of our outstanding faculty and staff and their ability to connect with and support our students both inside and outside of the classroom setting.