DUNWOODY: Teen follows seven sibs to Eagle rank

He’s the last of the “Ducote Eagle Eight,” a lineage that began two decades ago.

Jeff Ducote, an 18-year-old senior at Marist School, was officially recognized Saturday as an Eagle Scout, following in the footsteps of brothers Rich, Brian, Gary, Justin, Greg, Mark and Brent.

“He looked up to his older brothers and knew he had to get it done,” said Mark Ducote, now a student at Georgia Tech.

The Ducotes all earned scouting’s highest rank while at Troop 434 at All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody.

Their father, Richard Ducote, helped start the troop in 1986, then quickly handed off to Jerry Travers, who remains scoutmaster today.

“With so many boys, we just wanted to keep them focused and on the right path,” the father said. “They learn to be leaders at a very young age.”

Richard and Teresa Ducote’s two oldest sons, Rich and Brian, were among the troop’s first five Scouts and reached the organization’s highest rung after four years. Their siblings followed, earning their Eagles in 1994, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005 and this year.

That’s where it ends. The Sandy Springs family’s ninth child is a girl, Katelyn.

Finding eight Eagle Scout brothers in one troop requires a confluence of rare circumstances.

The family has to be large, and nearly all its offspring male, and they have to stay put for a long time. Each brother has to buy into scouting’s tenets, which haven’t changed in 100 years —- to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

“There’s always been a Ducote in front of our troop,” said assistant scoutmaster Andrew Torgrimson during the ceremony, conducted in front of a fireplace blaze at the church’s lodge-like “Scout hut.” “We can’t tell the history of Troop 434 without talking about the Ducotes.”

During the ceremony, Travers recounted Jeff Ducote’s “trail to the Eagle” —- a hike, a rafting trip, a knot-tying mistake.

Candles were lit for each value important to Scouts. Richard Ducote put the blue Eagle Scout kerchief around his son’s neck. His mother pinned him with a medal. A card from the White House was read.

Jeff Ducote hopes to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., like three of his brothers.

Scouting “gave me an experience I’ll never forget,” he said as the ceremony drew to a close. “It helped me grow from a boy to a young man.”