Skip Bertman, athletic director at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge from 2001 - 2008 and athletic director emeritus through 2010, is now working as a vital fundraiser for the university.

Bertman was the special guest speaker at the Zachary Rotary Club's Sept. 8 meeting held at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. Bertman drew the winning names for Rotary's annual LSU Raffle fundraiser.

The winners of the LSU raffle were: Charlie Massey, a Rotarian, who won the grand prize of two LSU football season passes and parking vouchers for the 2011-12 season. The second-place prize of $400 went to Francis Nezianya, a Rotarian, and third-place winner was Chad Belanger who won $200.

Congratulations to all the raffle winners!

Bertman guided LSU to five NCAA baseball titles during his 18-year coaching tenure (1984-2001), and his teams drew huge crowds to Alex Box Stadium as the Tigers led the nation in attendance in each of his final six seasons.

On Thursday, Bertman shared coaching, baseball and football stories and joked with Rotarians and guests who included Zachary High's baseball coach Jesse Cassard and football coach Neil Weiner, among others.

At the conclusion of the program, Bertman was presented with a wood Marucci baseball bat signed by the ZHS baseball team.

Marucci Sports, an American manufacturer of baseball bats based in Baton Rouge, was founded in 2002 by LSU athletic training director Jack Marucci.

The bats are used by baseball superstars Jose Bautista, Edgar Renteria, Carlos Beltrán, José Reyes, David Wright, Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramírez, Todd Helton, Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, Shin-Soo Choo, Chase Utley and Brad Hawpe.

For more on Bertman and his time with Zachary Rotarians, check out the Wednesday, Sept. 14 edition of the Zachary Plainsman-News.