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.