From the Light-hearted to the Serious

‘BARBIE’ NAMES HELP DEAL WITH KATRINA’S AFTERMATH

By Ron Cioffi

Their team name is 10S BABs and one of the words in the “BAB” stands for a human body part and can’t be printed here.

"Rapid Fire Barbie" is the nickname of captain Celeste Bardelon.

But the last letter stands “Barbie” and the Women’s 3.0 team from New Orleans, La. each give teammates (or themselves) a “Barbie” nickname.

“We’ve got Red Hot Barbie, Slammin’ Jammin’ Barbie, Hammer Barbie, Control Bossy Barbie and Hard Body Barbie,” said captain Celeste Bordelon, aka “Rapid Fire Barbie.”

“We change nicknames pretty frequently.”

A teammate interjected, “We change them daily, sometimes hourly.”

There’s more than the levity of nicknames and the pleasure of tennis behind this team’s history. As with other players from the Crescent City, dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has been one of their preoccupations.

“The last few years have been difficult and stressful on all of us, whether it was the city or state government and contractors,” Bordelon explained. “That had to do with all aspects of our lives” including their personal and professional lives and their access to tennis courts.

Teammates commended the New Orleans Metropolitan Area Tennis Association and the USTA for their commitment to rebuilding courts. Bordelon is a board member of NOMATA.

“I’m a public school teacher and NOMATA came in and helped up set up a tennis program,” Mary Ann “Emotional Barbie” Boudreaux said. She teaches physical education at Ella Dolhonde Elementary School, where she used volleyball net posts to construct tennis courts for an after-school program. “It introduced many children to tennis who wouldn’t otherwise have had a chance to play.”