There’s a lot of history between family, school with Lafont’s signing with Nicholls

The venue of Paxton Lafont’s signing ceremony to play football for Nicholls at E.D. White High School’s weightroom in Thibodaux was so close to the university’s campus you could almost see it in the distance.

“The relationship with Nicholls is amazing. I’ve been going to their games since I was young. My dad went there, and my family has a lot of history there in general with my Uncle Vic and everything,” said Paxton.

Uncle Vic is Vic Lafont. The elder Lafont is Paxton’s uncle and godfather. He also is the much-older brother and de facto surrogate father to Toby Lafont, Paxton’s father. That also makes Vic a grandfather-type figure to Paxton.

The Lafont family goes back a long way with Nicholls. Vic once served as the Athletic Business Manager at the school and Toby played tight end for the Colonels, so Paxton’s signing sort of brought things into full circle for the clan.

“It’s definitely a surreal moment for me,” said Toby. “The whole time I wanted Paxton to choose where he wanted to go and not go where his dad went. He had a few offers that he had to consider. At the end of the day, he’s going where he feels more comfortable. Right now, the players that he knows on the team made a big difference.

“I’m just happy for him because he’s earned it. He’s worked through adversity and it’s all on him. It’s definitely a better moment for me as a dad than it was for a player back then.”

The unique bond between Vic and Toby began when Vic was in college at Nicholls.

“I came home from college one weekend and my mother said, ‘would you please play with your baby brother. He has nobody to play with, dad’s never here.’” Vic recalled. “I said, ‘sure.’ She said, ‘he wants to play ball.’

“We went in the front yard and started throwing the ball back and forth to each other. We had started throwing to each other ever since then.”

Vic is 20 years older than Toby. The oldest sibling, sister Dolly, is 24 years older than Toby. The sibling closest to Toby in age is sister Angie, who is 10 years older than Toby. With the huge age difference the youngest sibling had no one close to his age to hang around with.

Also, their father, who had made a living as a shrimper, was away from home on the North Sea in the oil industry when Toby was very young. That helped to make Toby look upon Vic as a father figure.

“He thought I was his dad. Dad was gone for three years,” Vic said.

Vic became the Athletic Business Manager at Nicholls. Among his responsibilities were hotel and travel arrangements, planning for meals while the team was on the road, and a variety of tasks that the average person never gets to see.

Toby had a chance to see what went on behind the scenes when Vic decided to have his kid brother tag along during the early and mid-1980s. Young Toby was a constant at Vic’s side like a loyal and enthusiastic puppy.

“I wanted him to know everything I knew, good or bad. That’s why I exposed him to as many things as I possibly could when he was with me. Of course, I didn’t have any children (at the time). I was first married. It was easy for me to say, ‘where’s Toby. Tell him I am going to pick him up and we are going to go,’” Vic remembered.

“Taking me around the sidelines, Nicholls athletics, basketball games, baseball games, and some of his business trips really got me where I’m at today and I really feel that he’s more of a father figure,” said Toby. “Not that my dad wasn’t, but from an availability standpoint, he (Vic) is my true mentor.

“For the home games, he came with me to see what I did behind the scenes,” said Vic. “I took him in a golf cart. We went from east side to west side. He was my little helper.

“I liked watching the games a lot on the sidelines a lot. That was a big thrill for him. He had the benefit of the players giving him some attention, ‘hey, little guy,’ stuff like that.”

Added into the mix is Nolan Dumas. Dumas, who played quarterback for E.D. White and Nicholls, and was also a deep snapper for the Colonels, is Vic’s stepson.

Vic developed a similar relationship with Dumas as he had with Toby.

“I married a girl from Arkansas, it’s her son. He’s, my stepson. We divorced, but he stayed my stepson,” said Vic. “I brought him up.”

That created another chapter in the connection between the extended Lafont family and Nicholls.

“How does a redneck boy from Arkansas come to Thibodaux, Louisiana, play football at a private school like E.D. White, end up captain of the team, quarterback?” Vic reflected. “He got a scholarship to Nicholls and played under Jay Thomas. He ended up being the deep snapper because of his hands.”

Vic is now President/CEO of the South Louisiana Economic Council. His office is on the Nicholls campus.

Paxton represents the next generation. Just as Vic was more to Toby than a brother, he also has become more than an uncle to Paxton.

“He took care of my dad big time growing up,” Paxton said of Uncle Vic. “My dad, there’s almost a 20-year difference between them. My dad definitely needed an older mentor to grow up. Seeing the man that my dad has become today really makes me feel super confident and amazing about how my Uncle Vic, up until now, he’s raised me amazing. He’s my sponsor for confirmation and everything, so he’s always there for me.

“He’s a big, big mentor in my life. He’s a hard worker. He also works by Nicholls. That’s another factor into it as well. He’s a great man and you can obviously tell that through my father.”

“He calls him Uncle Vic and all his friends call him Uncle Vic. Everybody loves Uncle Vic,” said Toby. “So, he’s a true godfather and uncle. I’m around a lot to be (Paxton’s) father, but Vic’s there to be able to tell him the things that maybe I can’t tell him from a father standpoint. Something that he’ll buy in a little bit more.”

“Between my brother, stepson, and now Paxton, I’ve kind of mentored them all the way through. So, it was Toby and I. From there, it went to Nolan. Now I have a godchild that I’m really close to,” said Vic.

From Vic, Toby learned about athletics and business, but he also learned about relationships.

“My brother’s time off was not spent on the golf course or in the fishing boat, he was always with the kids. He knew the value of spending time together because that’s what we did,” said Vic.

It was a lesson well learned, according to Toby.

“My priority was to be with my boys whenever they wanted me around and there wasn’t a day that I came home after work that I said no when they wanted to go throw the football,” said Toby. “Paxton’s always picked up the ball since he was two-and-a-half-years old and he’s been throwing forever with me.

“Being available to my family and my kids was the most important thing to me, and I’ll have plenty of time to go fishing and hunting whenever they’re off to college.”

“He (Toby) spent more time with his boys than he did with his friends, whether it’s fishing or whatever. The satisfaction for me, is he did what I did with him. I like that – spend as much damn time as you can with them. If I wouldn’t have, nobody else would have. There was nobody back home,” said Vic.

All the experiences, Toby said, helped to make him a success in the business world.

“Again, going back to the mentorship and watching my brother and the things that he taught me gave me an upper hand to be successful, albeit still have to work hard,” said Toby, “but he instilled the principles and the values that I needed to be successful and been able to learn of what not to do.

“There was a lot of hey, don’t make these mistakes and then there’s some that Paxson will be able to mentor his children hopefully one day on any mistakes I may have made. It all started with Vic – the perseverance, adversity and working hard and that’s what helped me be successful today. So I owe a lot to him that helped me be a better father and teach the values and principles that I’ve learned from him.”

Legacy is an important facet of the Lafont family, but so too, is the freedom for Paxton to make his own mark.

“A lot of people call it a legacy and following my dad’s legacy, but I kind of want to start my own legacy in a way,” said Paxton. “Like I say all the time, the only thing (the same) from when he when there is the color. The coaches are different. Only the colors and the logo are the same.”

Paxton has the skill set to do just that, according to his high school coach.

“He has progressed so well over his career that if he continues that progression,” said EDW coach Kyle Lasseigne, “I think he’s going to be able to help them really, really early in his career.

“He’s really self-made. learned to run routes. He’s a good route runner. He catches the ball really, really well. Obviously, he’s a game player because he made some big plays for. It kind of put him on the map, I think, and then Nicholls showed some interest.”

Now it’s up to Paxton to make it happen

“At the end of the day, knowing that we all went to Nicholls, that means a lot to him. I’m certain that that had a part to play in it somewhat, but he wanted to make his own path and he will be able to at Nicholls,” Paxton’s father said.