It is an award given annually to the best high school athletic trainer in the state.

Randi Kaye Devillier worked as an athletic trainer for the past three years at Eunice High and reaped the benefit of her labor as the winner of the 2010 Earl “Bubba” Porche Award.

Porche was the head athletic trainer at Tulane University from 1947 until his death in 1985. This award is given in his memory to the trainer that encompasses his belief in hard work, dependability and a dedication to athletic training. He valued honesty and loyalty in his trainers and believed in always staying “a step ahead”.

“It was a lot of work and a lot of long hours,” Devillier said of her time as a Bobcat trainer. “A trainer is the last person to leave the field after a football game.

“It was an important job but we were behind the scenes,” she said as a part of an eight-member EHS athletic trainer staff. “It all paid off in the long run.”

Devillier was nominated by Louisiana Athletic Trainer Association member Chad Cother.

Cother gave a speech at the award ceremony held on June 4 in Baton Rouge, where he quoted the Eunice High coaches who called Devillier “one of the best trainers at Eunice High in the past 15 years.”

“I am pleased with what I accomplished in high school,” Devillier said. “What I was in my junior and senior years was not what I was like when I first got there in my freshman and sophomore years.

“It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year that I started working hard,” she said. “I wish I had started working hard when I started high school.”

Devillier, a 2010 EHS graduate, is the daughter of Blaine and Kim Devillier.

Devillier is second EHS athletic trainer to earn this award in the past 20 years. Megan Crawford won the award in 2001.

“The thing that made her special was her willingness to work,” Eunice High athletic director Paul Trosclair said of Devillier.

“It looks like a glorious position being on the sidelines but when you get down to it all - it is a lot of work,” he said.

“She was one of the ones who did extra work and had a good attitude about doing it.”

Devillier, who also played softball for EHS, plans to begin college at LSU Eunice and then transfer to LSU to continue her study to be a veterinarian.

“Being a trainer taught me responsibility and how to work hard,” she said. “It also helped me learn things in the medical background which will help with the animals.”