Alex Milazzo is an outdoorsman. He likes to fish, hunt and venture out to any of the numerous lakes across Louisiana.
But he always puts an emphasis on doing it safely. That means wearing a life jacket whenever he goes out on his trips to the water.
"(Water safety) hits home for me because I've got a little nephew and my parents have a pool at their house, everywhere in Louisiana has a lake, has a pond," Milazzo said.
This is why Milazzo — along with his LSU baseball teammates Will Hellmers, Brady Neal, Josh Pearson and Tommy White — have teamed up with the Riley John's Blue Boot Foundation to help raise awareness around the importance of water safety.
"It's a great cause," Neal said. "Anytime I can do something like that, (there's) no doubt."
During last weekend's series against Auburn, all five players wore custom-made cleats in support of the organization. Last season, Dylan Crews, Cade Beloso and Gavin Dugas did the same.
The Tigers (29-17, 7-14 Southeastern Conference) will need to have their hitting shoes on this weekend. Fighting for a spot in the SEC tournament and a berth in the NCAA regionals, they host the nation's No. 1 team, hot-hitting Texas A&M (39-6, 15-6), in a three-game series that begins at 7 p.m. Friday.
LSU's connection with the foundation started in 2020 when co-founder Darby Bourgeois initially reached out to Dugas. A board member of the foundation had a son playing on Dugas' old travel baseball program, LBA Naturals, and was able to connect with the LSU infielder through one of the coaches at LBA.
Once Dugas was on board, he started involving his teammates in helping raise awareness about the organization. Not only do they wear the cleats, LSU players have also attended the annual Blue Boot Rodeo fishing tournament in Grand Isle to sign autographs for fans.
Neal plans on attending the rodeo in July with some of his teammates. In years past, former LSU infielder Cade Doughty and former left-handed pitcher Hunter Kiel have been at the rodeo.
This summer will be the foundations sixth annual rodeo. Last year's event had 188 volunteers.
"I think having them at our rodeo is very helpful, that's showing that their support for water safety is as important as baseball," Nicole Bourgeois, Darby's wife and a co-founder of the Blue Boot Foundation, said.
The foundation started in 2019, less than a year after Nicole and Darby's son Riley accidentally drowned in their neighbors swimming pool just before his second birthday.
"There was a four-sided fence. After the kids got out of the swimming pool, we did not make sure, the adults, that the pool gate was closed," Nicole said. "And so unbeknownst to us, he snuck into the swimming pool."
Their unimaginable loss created a desire within the couple to prevent what happened to them to ever happen again. But, unfortunately, that hasn't been the case.
According to the Center for Disease Control, drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1-4. For children ages 5-14, it is the second leading cause of death or injury.
On average, 4,000 people drown unintentionally every year in the United States, per the CDC. That's roughly 11 drownings per day.
"Swimming is just such a critical skill for life survival anyway," Nicole said. "(So) why aren't we teaching all these young kids about water safety more vigilantly?"
Besides holding the rodeo, the Blue Boot Foundation has also distributed over 1,800 life jackets to kids under its Life Jacket for Life program.
In 2022, it also helped pass the Riley Bourgeois Act through the Louisiana state legislature, requiring all kids in the state from Kindergarten through 12th grade to receive water safety instruction as part of their curriculum.
"We recently formed an education outreach team, because it was getting a lot that the schools were asking us to go and teach about water safety education, which I don't ever want to tell anyone no," Nicole said. "And so we've formed a volunteer outreach (team) of 10 people (where) we send out the text and say, 'Hey, can you go to the school this day or this school that day?' "
The foundation has also helped sign up kids for swimming lessons and adults for CPR training through its partnership with the nonprofit organization Children’s Water Safety Awareness.
"Our close knit community of being south of I-10, everyone was looking for something to do and wanted to support a cause," Nicole said. "My husband knows everybody."
Running the foundation isn't Darby and Nichole's only job. Nicole is a physician assistant full time while Darby is an operations manager that supplies rigs offshore.
Combined with the responsibility of raising three boys, all of whom play baseball, they can use all the help they can get in spreading the word about their organization.
"If it weren't for our volunteers and the effort that they put in to help us, I mean, I don't know where we would be to be honest with you," Darby said.
That's where Milazzo, Neal, White, Hellmers and Pearson become critical partners, not just as role models but as advocates for the foundation's cause.
"This is all about bringing drowning awareness not only to Louisiana but throughout the nation," Milazzo said. "So we wear these cleats over the weekend and just help spread the message and get as much support as possible and get as many people asking about what is the Blue Boot Foundation."