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People SearchFind an individual who either played a sport or was a member of a support group. Search by last name by clicking on the first letter of the person's last name.
Mr. Donnie Perron
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Home Phone: -- Area duo honored – LHSAA inducts Donnie Perron Larry Young Jr. • lyoung@gannett.com • January 27, 2011 Former Port Barre football coach and athletic director Donnie Perron was inducted into the LHSAA Hall of Fame at an induction banquet held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Baton Rouge Wednesday night. Coach Donnie Perron from Port Barre High School gets a ride from his team after defeating Riverside High School 23-8 in the state football playoff and earned a trip to the Superdome. (Brad Kemp/bkemp@theadvertiser.com) Perron’s head coaching career spans 29 seasons, with a 257-93 overall win-loss record, 13 district championships, one state runner-up and one state championship. His head coaching stops include stints at Port Sulphur and Port Barre. “It’s not just an induction for myself but an induction for the city of Port Barre,” Perron said. “They made it a very enjoyable profession that never seemed like work. I was at a very good place for a very long time with good athletes and coaches and a community that supported us a lot. Those things made it possible.” Over the years, Perron inspired many former players that later returned to Port Barre to follow in his footsteps. Several former pupils he coached through high school, Mac Mistric and Andy Aymond, are now head coaches at the school. Aymond, the Red Devils current basketball coach, learned lessons from Perron he now passes down to Red Devil basketball players. “I can remember being a little kid in third or fourth grade and the talk was always you couldn’t wait to be a Red Devil,” Aymond said. “You wanted to play football for coach Perron at Port Barre. That’s how much he meant to the town and the program. That was a big deal.” During his time as a player at Port Barre, Aymond said it wasn’t the wins or losses he remembered most, but the attention to detail Perron taught. “Obviously, you look at coach Perron and you see what he achieved … numerous district championships, state runner-up and a state championship, but to me the thing that describes coach Perron is that he is the most organized man I have ever met in my life,” Aymond said. “Everything was detailed. We always had a plan and we knew what to expect.” Mistric, who met Perron his sophomore year at Port Barre, Perron’s first year as the Red Devils head coach, attended Wednesday’s induction ceremony. “We’ve had a very, very fun ride up to this point,” said Mistric, who later returned after college to work with Perron in 1987 and has been there since. “Us, as a coaching staff at Port Barre are excited for coach Perron. It’s definitely a well deserved honor.” Indeed. Perron is arguably the most successful football coach in St. Landry Parish history. Perron guided the Red Devils to a 12-1 mark, district championship and a quarter final round appearance against Farmerville in 2001. He then led the Red Devils to the 2002 Class 2A state championship, beating Iota 26-7 in the state title game. Port Barre finished 14-0 that season, winning its second district championship in as many seasons. “That season was an exceptional year,” Perron said. “We had some outstanding players that were very unselfish and played hard together. But what I’ll remember most is all the relationships with the players and coaches and the success we had. Not just in football, but all the sports.” To date, Perron is the only coach in school history to guide Port Barre to a state football championship. Even more impressive, in eight of Perron’s last nine seasons at Port Barre (from 1996-99 and 2001-04) the Red Devils won the district title. “It’s a very humbling honor and I’m pleased, but I hope the community and former players and coaches feel that they’re part of it because they are very much the reason for my induction,” Perron said. Athletic Network Footnote: Click here for Donnie Perron’s Athletic Network profile http://athleticnetwork.net/site.php?pageID=55&profID=9571 * * * * * * * * * * LHSAA: Perron, Koenig, Conway among Hall of Famers Daily Advertiser, November 30, 2010 Special to the Advertiser BATON ROUGE — Two former coaches from the Acadiana area and a famous athlete who competed at UL at the collegiate level are on the list of honorees to be inducted into the the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame on Jan. 26 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Conference Center. Donnie Perron, a former state championship football coach at Port Barre, and former Delcambre coach Dahrie Koenig will be recognized, while eventual Olympian and UL All-American Hollis Conway of Shreveport’s Fair Park High will be recognized. The other honorees will be basketball star Alana Beard, multisport standout Dan Childress, track and field Olympian Hollis Conway, basketball pioneer Gayle Hatch and competitor-coach Frances Lyles. Perron’s coaching career began in 1971 at Port Sulphur, but he is best known for the 26 years he spent as football coach at Port Barre, winning a Class 2A state title in 2002 and recording a runner-up finish in 1999. During his career, Perron tallied a record of 257-93 for a .793 winning percentage. His teams won 14 district football titles. Perron also coached Port Sulphur to a state track title in 1974. Koenig was a successful volleyball, track, cross country and girls basketball coach for Delcambre starting in the early 1970s. She helped start all three girls programs at the school and spent 28 years as head volleyball coach, winning a state title in 1984 and posting two runner-up finishes. In track, Koenig coached state-meet qualifiers for 26 straight years and had four state runner-up finishers. She coached the DHS girls basketball team to a district title in 1981. Beard, a WNBA standout with the Washington Mystics, is among the youngest inductees selected to join the Louisiana High School Athletic Association-Louisiana High School Coaches Association honor group. During her four-year career at Shreveport’s Southwood High, Beard played on four Class 5A state championship teams. She posted a career average of 17.7 points per game and is Southwood’s all-time leader in scoring and steals. Beard scored a tournament-record 48 points in the 2000 title game. Childress competed in football, baseball and track for Ruston High from 1980-83 and led the Bearcats to the Class 4A state football title in 1982 while playing for his father, Hall of Famer Chick Childress. Along the way, Childress set school records for attempts (475), completions (278), yardage (3,350) and touchdowns (29). In baseball, he was an outfielder and had a three-year batting average of .356, including a .401 mark as a senior. He was a district track champion in the javelin. Conway prepped at Shreveport’s Fair Park High and went on to become one of the nation’s most recognized track athletes, earning silver and bronze Olympic medals in the high jump. At Fair Park, Conway excelled in all three jumps, winning individual state titles in both the high jump and triple jump in indoor and outdoor track in 1985. He set four state-meet records in winning the 1985 high jump, ultimately jumping 7 feet, 2 inches. Hatch is perhaps best known as an Olympic weightlifting coach who led the U.S. team in the 2004 Olympics. Long before that, Hatch was a basketball standout who netted high school all-America honors during a four-year career at Catholic High-Baton Rouge that ended in 1957. As senior in 1956-57, Hatch averaged 34.5 points and 22.5 rebounds per game in the playoffs and was the state’s top scorer. He also lettered three years in both football and track. Lyles played for Hall of Fame coach Edna “Tiny” Tarbutton during the golden era of Baskin High girls basketball in the late 1940s and went onto coach at Bastrop, Crowville and Mangham. As a player, Lyles averaged 16 points per game, earned all-state honors twice and was part of teams that combined for a 135-0 record through 1949-50. Lyles coached Bastrop to a state runner-up finish in girls basketball and compiled a 185-91 record at Mangham from 1976-87. She also won three state titles in girls track. * * * * * * * * * * FIRST & 10: Q&A with a prep sports personality – Donnie Perron Daily Advertiser October 6, 2010 St. Landry Parish athletic director Donnie Perron was head football coach and AD at Port Barre High from 1978-2004. He won 257 games in his career and led the Red Devils to 13 district titles, 18 playoffs appearances, one state title and one state runnerup. 1. What’s the biggest difference between coaching one school and being AD for six schools? In coaching, you put your heart and soul, it takes time and effort, you’re totally sold to that one school. As parish AD, you have an interest in all of them. We have 10 middle schools and six high schools. You spend a lot of time trying to offer help for them in terms of supplies, equipment and guidance. 2. How do you decide which game you attend on Friday nights? I kind of just try to alternate. Every week go to a different one. Sometimes I look at the matchup, if it’s a good matchup that might have a lot of bearing on district. Sometimes, I’ll go to two, if they’re within driving distance of each other. 3. What’s the best thing about not being a coach? It’s a lot more relaxing. You don’t have to worry about 60-70 kids and 8-10 coaches and grades of the kids, the discipline part. It’s a lot more relaxing in terms of being on the high school level. You deal a lot with the parents and you’re always concerned with their grades and behavior. It’s nonstop. That’s not even considering the on-the-field coaching. The preparation takes an enormous amount of time. You’re always working ahead and trying to get an edge. 4. What’s the one thing you miss about being a coach? I miss the actual Friday nights, the playing and preparation. When you’re not coaching, you get away from the kids, you don’t have that relationship. You don’t get to communicate with them, see what’s going on with their lives. But you really miss the preparation. To me, the most exciting week is the week after that last game, when you see where you’re going. That’s the most exciting week besides the finals. 5. How do you spend your weekends now that you’re not breaking down film and preparing for an opponent? I watch more football on TV than I ever did. When I was coaching, I’d never watch pro ball, maybe a little bit of the Saints. On Saturdays if I’m not going to a game, I’ll watch them. And on Sundays, I spend a lot more time watching pro games than I did when I was coaching. 6. What did that first trip to the Dome feel like? It was something special. It’s something that you wish every coach and player could experience. As good as you think it is going to be, it’s even better, it’s even better. It’s a lot of excitement for the community. It’s just really a treat. That’s what you work for and to get there is really something special. The second trip was just as special, probably more so because we won it. 7. Did you ever think it would take as long as it did to get there? Sometimes you think it will never happen. You think you’re good, but then you get knocked out. You really never know, especially with the way the brackets were set 20 years ago. You could be the sixth best team, but have the top three teams on your side because of the way the brackets fell that year. I never felt confident that we could do it, yet I never felt like we would never do it. Every year was a little different, you always want to be positive. You always feel like you had a good chance. 8. Besides that state title game, which other game kind of sticks out during your career? I guess I’ll always remember that first playoff season in 1984 and we played E.D. White. That was the turning point of our program. They were ranked No. 2 in the state and we had never won a playoff game in the history. There’s a lot of good memories, those two wins over E.D. White, the semifinal games to get us to the Dome. The one we fell short against Oak Grove in the semifinals, that’s a memorable one for a different reason. There were a lot more good memories than bad. 9. Was the parish AD job a matter of perfect timing? I think it happened at a good time. If it had come open any other time, I probably wouldn’t have attempted to get it. Having been at Port Barre so many years and having done what your goal is, which is to win it. It was good, I was happy that Mac got a chance, especially with his son Dustin being a freshman at the time. There was a lot of good reasons to take advantage of that opportunity. 10. Putting you on the spot here, but who’s the most exciting player you’ve coached? You have different players that can do certain things well. Marvin White might have been the hardest hitter we had. Daniel Francis could do some things better than others. But I would have to say William Davis. He could do so many things well and was an exciting player to watch.
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