By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

NEW ORLEANS — April Hagadone never imagined she’d be perched in front of her television set viewing one of her former players play Olympic volleyball matches with the Eiffel Tower as a scenic backdrop.

But must-see TV this week for Hagadone, now athletic director for Mount Carmel Academy in New Orleans after 16 years as head volleyball coach for the private all-girls Catholic school, is watching Kristen Nuss introduce herself to the world as the best pound-for-pound female beach volleyball player on the planet.

Nuss and Taryn Kloth, who went 36-0 in 2021 as seniors when they led the LSU Sandy Tigs beach volleyball team to the NCAA Final Four, are repeating in Paris as U.S. Olympians what they’ve done since turning professional just weeks after concluding their college careers.

Nuss and Kloth, the No. 2 rated beach duo in the world known to their growing fan base as “TKN” and winners of eight pro tournaments, are 2-0 after a pair of straight-set wins over Canada and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medal-winning duo from Australia.

“You can see the world falling in love with these two,” said Hagadone, now the Mt. Carmel athletic director. “They’re like sisters.”

The 6-4 Kloth, a South Dakota native who transferred to LSU in 2020 after playing two seasons for Creighton, quickly discovered two things becoming Nuss’ partner.

The New Orleans native, the winningest beach player in NCAA history with 139 career victories, rarely loses and always improves her partner’s game.

And she’s built a career in the most non-traditional ways, measuring a stumpy 5 feet, 6 inches and insisting on training in Louisiana instead of California beaches where almost everyone is tall, tan and blonde like Kloth.

“I like my 5-6,” said Nuss, inspired by the determination of her late grandfather Ralph “Putsy” Caballero who debuted in 1944 at age 16 as the youngest player in Philadelphia Phillies’ history.

“When I’m walking with Taryn, people look at Taryn and say `You must play volleyball.’ People don’t expect me to play beach volleyball. That’s why I’ll forever play with a chip on my shoulder.”

Nuss’ game is as physical (because of her acrobatic diving digs of opponents’ kill shots) as it is cerebral (dissecting in mid-air at the net where she can find an open space to tap a touch return over taller players for a point).

“She can see the court so beautifully,” Hagadone said. “She’s always been capable of making something out of nothing when you thought maybe a play was over.”

LSU head coach Russell Brock used to repeatedly replay video of some of Nuss’ most impossible plays, attempting to understand how she got it done.

“Kristen was created to play beach volleyball,” said Brock, who started LSU’s beach program in 2014.

He didn’t know she existed until Pete Nuss, one of Kristen’s three older brothers, sent a text to his occasional beach volleyball partner Brock that suggested “You should take a look at my little sister.”

Brock didn’t have to do much investigative work to discover he stumbled onto a hidden gem.

“Kristen played in seven state championship games in three sports in high school and won five of them,” Hagadone said. “She won three in volleyball and two in basketball.

“She was just a competitor who wanted to win all the time. She was the kid you always wanted to shoot the game-winning free throw. She had that something you can’t teach.”

Because Nuss was always in-season playing one of three sports for Mt. Carmel – soccer was the other – she never got a chance to play in club volleyball tournaments that would have exposed her to college recruiters.

So, Nuss and Megan Davenport, a friend, began playing beach volleyball as high school sophomores. They entered a local doubles tournament and were badly beaten.

“But I fell in love with beach from the first time I played it because you have to do everything,” Nuss said. “You have to be able to pass, set, hit, serve play defense. If I had played indoor (volleyball) for a Division 1 school, I would have strictly been a defender.”

Nuss credits LSU volunteer assistant coach Drew Hamilton for “teaching me everything I know about beach volleyball,” she said.

Kloth learned her sand volleyball education from Hamilton and Nuss, who initially made Kloth nervous when they became playing partners in 2020 after COVID shut down the college season.

“I was just starting to learn beach and I freaked out because Kristen was playing on a whole other level,” Kloth said. “I relaxed when I realized she makes everything simple.”

Like Nuss choosing for her and Kloth to live and train in the off-season in Baton Rouge rather than the California beach volleyball mecca.

It made sense and cents to Nuss to train where their coach lives, where the cost of living is considerably cheaper and where they can give back to the community.

Every December through the Kenner Community Center, Nuss and Kloth organize a beach volleyball tournament called “Santa in the Sand” at the Coconut Beach complex in Kenner to raise funds to pay for Christmas gifts for needy families. Last December, Nuss and Kloth raised $20,575.

“Kristen has never changed as a person,” said Hagadone, who’ll be tuned in Thursday for Team TKN’s next Olympic match vs. China at 3 p.m. CT. “She’s so humble and has always been a giving teammate. I’m so proud of her, watching her grow and seeing how much fun she’s having out there.”

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

For the past few years, it was looking like Louisiana’s turkey hunters would have to reluctantly put away their shotguns and turkey calls and go back to doing what we were doing a couple of decades ago. It seemed the only outdoors springtime activity would be fishing.

All the statistics pointed to a steady decline in turkey populations, back like it was when only a handful of diehards, like Blue Parkman, Pete Brister and L.W. Hamner went out morning after morning hoping they might find a turkey track or actually hear a gobble.

Then something happened. According to a press release by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Louisiana’s turkey hunters enjoyed the best year by far from a harvest standpoint in 2024. They reported taking 3,695 birds during the recently completed hunting season.

This year, for the first time since the harvest reporting was mandated in 2009, turkey hunters reported taking more than 3,000 birds. In fact, the past three seasons were the best ever reported since harvest data was compiled. Last year, an astounding 2,833 birds were taken but for the 2024 season, the take was 30.4 percent higher than that.

What happened? Why did the harvest data take a jump in the right direction over the past three years? In 2018, the LDWF staff recommended that the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission push back the opening date for turkey season to give gobblers and hens more time to take care of the business of breeding and putting more baby turkeys on the ground.

Cody Cedatol is Turkey Program Manager for LDWF and he believes that giving turkeys more time to do what they naturally do in spring before hunters take to the woods played a big role in the improvement of the number of gobblers being taken.

“This clearly indicates increasing turkey populations in many areas of the state and provides additional evidence that the season change is working,” said Cedatol. “Many hunters indicated increased encounters with jakes (juvenile turkeys), which is an indicator of good reproduction. Similar reports were noted in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.”

Jason Lupardis, a native Kentuckian, has been named CEO of an up and coming organization, Turkeys for Tomorrow, that has the goal of trying to pinpoint problems nationwide having to do with the overall decline in wild turkey populations around the country.

We visited with Lupardis recently to ask about Turkeys for Tomorrow and get his take on what he sees as some of the main problems and why he believes Louisiana has beat the odds, in a manner of speaking, by having such good results over the past 2-3 years while other states continue to struggle.

“Reports from brood surveys of Louisiana turkeys have shown a higher poult-to-hen ratio which means that there has been good production of young turkeys. That is partly due,” said Lupardis, “to the pushing back opening day to allow gobblers and hens to breed.”

To find out how Turkeys for Tomorrow works, visit turkeysfortomorrow.org.

He also noted a new regulation Louisiana will implement beginning the 2025 season that will protect young gobblers. “The new regulation means only youth hunters may take one jake per season. For remaining hunters, only mature gobblers may be taken and jakes will be off limits. A mature gobbler is described as an adult with tail feathers the same length, beard longer than 6 inches and spurs at least ½ inch long,” he said.

It is troubling to realize that in so many areas, Louisiana is at or near the bottom in rank. However, when it comes to wild turkeys, our state because of more restrictive regulations, is setting standards that hopefully will see our wild turkey population continue to thrive. 

Contact Glynn at glynnharris37@gmail.com

Arrests are accusations not convictions. 

July 30

Weapons

Levi Drumgoole, 65, Alexandria — aggravated assault with firearm, felony fugitive, failure to appear, contempt 2 counts, $6,500 bail;

Tito Wilson Jr., 19, Alexandria — illegal possession stolen firearm, resisting, illegal possession stolen things, $10,500 bail;

Other

Shelby Ducote, 28, Deville — theft, $10,000 bail;

Tracy Fowler, 49, Boyce — theft, obstruction evidence tampering, $40,000 bail;

Tokyrie Griffin Jr., 39, Alexandria — domestic abuse battery strangulation, $2,000 bail;

Kenny Henry, 44, Alexandria — theft, criminal damage, criminal trespass, contempt, $2,000 bail;

Neely Williams, 19, Alexandria — battery on officer, resisting with force or violence 2 counts, battery on infirm, $2,000 bail. 

This date: 28 arrests, 13 including one or more contempt counts. 

Arrests are accusations not convictions. 

July 30

Kendrick Anderson Jr., 22, Alexandria — possession with intent 4 counts, speeding 2 counts, improper lane use, running stop sign 2 counts, seat belt violation, no driver’s license, reckless operation, felony flight, $78,900 bail;

Kaylen Johnson, 28, Alexandria — possession with intent, flight, no driver’s license, tint violation, $1,200 bail;

Angela Rabalais, 47, Pineville — possession 3 counts, paraphernalia 2 counts, $5,500 bail;

David Smith Jr., 30, Pineville — possession, contempt, $2,500 bail;

Sunni Tomlin, 48, Alexandria — possession, paraphernalia, unlawful sale of model glue to minor, theft, criminal trespass, contempt 2 counts, $9,500 bail.