Some elite athletes have come out of the Teche Area over the years, and one who fits in that category has a chance to do something that few others have done in the world of college sports.

When Jared Mitchell puts on his LSU baseball uniform today at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb., he has the chance to accomplish a rare feat — winning a national championship in two college sports.

Mitchell was a receiver for the 2007 LSU football team that won the 2008 BCS Championship Game. The baseball Tigers play Texas in a best-of-three series beginning tonight for the College World Series title.

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Now many fine multiple-sport athletes who got their starts as kids in the Teche Area. Kelvin Price comes to mind. The former New Iberia Senior High standout competed in both track and basketball in college, first for USL and then for UNC Charlotte. Price is now a professional boxer.

Early Doucet of St. Martinville also played for LSU’s 2007 championship team that beat Ohio State 38-24 in the BCS Championship Game on Jan. 8, 2008, and was probably a good enough basketball player to have played for the LSU basketball team had he chosen to do so. Doucet was a third-round draft pick by the Arizona Cardinals in 2008, playing for the Cards in Super Bowl XLII in January.

A number of other athletes from the area have been both football and track standouts, Marcus Clavelle of NISH at Arkansas and Johnny Hector of NISH at Texas A&M, to name just two.

And there have been plenty of successful pro athletes from the area, such as Mark Roman of NISH, now with the San Francisco 49ers; Leonard Marshall of Franklin, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the New York Giants; New Iberia’s Kerry Joseph, a former NFL safety and current Canadian Football League quarterback who led the Saskatchewan Roughriders to the 2007 Grey Cup championship; and jockeys Eddie Delahoussaye, winner of five Triple Crown races, and Calvin Borel, winner of three Triple Crown races (so far).

But how many athletes can say they played roles in helping teams win collegiate national championships in two different sports?

Mitchell, a former Westgate High standout drafted in the first round by the Chicago White Sox earlier this month, and teammate Chad Jones, also on the 2007 BCS title squad, could join Bennie Brazell (2003 BCS and 2002/2004 NCAA track), as the only athletes in LSU history to have won team titles in two sports.

Rare air indeed.

CHRIS LANDRY is sports editor of The Daily Iberian.