Colonels finish as Southland runners-up
May 16, 2018
And now, for Terrebonne
May 16, 2018
Terrebonne High School has its new boys’ basketball coach.
Technically, he’s an outside hire, but those in the Tigers’ locker room will be awfully familiar with their new leader.
Two weeks ago, Terrebonne announced Richard Jones as its new coach. He will replace Henry Washington, who coached the team to 8 wins in 2017-18.
Last year, Jones was an assistant girls’ basketball coach at South Terrebonne, but the year before that, he was at Terrebonne where he worked under then-coach Derek Szush and got the chance to work with several of the team’s 2018-19 seniors.
Jones said he’s ready to get to work with the Tigers, adding that he can’t wait to tackle what he calls one of the most challenging positions in the Houma-Thibodaux area.
“I’m truly honored about the opportunity to lead this group of young men,” Jones said. “I have a great relationship with many of the people affiliated with THS, including administration, faculty, parents and students. I believe this is one of the toughest coaching jobs around, but also the most rewarding. The challenge of turning this program around is what attracted me to it.”
Perhaps Jones’ biggest task will be to bring stability to a Tigers’ program which desperately needs it.
They had that with Szush, who led the team for several years, including a couple bids in the Class 5A State Playoffs.
But Szush left after the 2016-17 season to take the same job at Assumption, which left the job vacant.
Members of the Terrebonne Parish School Board moved quickly and hired then-Ellender assistant coach Demetrius Price without ever officially taking applications for the vacancy.
But that decision didn’t work out.
Price was relieved of his duties at the school before the season ever started and in his absence, Washington coached the team, while Tammy Martin was listed as the head coach on paper to fulfill LHSAA rules regarding having an actual on-staff coach for boys’ basketball.
Washington tried to pick up the pieces, but the Tigers fell victim to a brutally tough Class 5A district, finishing well outside of the playoff chase, which forced the job to come vacant again.
That opened the door for Jones, who will be enjoying his third stint at Terrebonne.
He started his career under Szush in 2010-11, then returned to the school in 2014-15 and was an assistant coach with the girls’ team for two years before returning to the boys in Szush’s final season.
Last year, Jones coached at South Terrebonne, helping lead the Lady Gators to a 20-win season and a spot in the second-round of the Class 4A State Playoffs.
Jones said he wanted to thank all of the coaches he’s worked under in his career – Szush, former Lady Tigers’ girls’ basketball coach Gus Brown and Lady Gators’ coach Nick Cenac – for the opportunities over the years.
He said he plans to take lessons he learned from those guys and utilize them at Terrebonne – with his own flavor, of course.
“It takes a collective amount of hard work and dedication from everyone involved,” Jones said. “I have a plan. I have visions of what we can turn this program into. I hope to change the overall culture, but I won’t be able to do it alone. As long as our players show up with the correct mindset and work hard every day, then we will be heading in the right direction.”
This is a program renovation that could net victories very quickly.
Terrebonne returns countless underclassmen in 2018-19, including Keshawn James, Jakhi Douglas and several other key contributors.
Folks around the program said the Tigers could have as many as 10 senior players next season.
Jones knows a lot of those young men, having coached them when they were sophomores.
He said he wants his senior class to help him lay the foundation for what’s to come.
“I expect this group of young men to become role models,” Jones said. “This opportunity is bigger than basketball for me. In five, 10, 20 years down the road, I hope that I had a positive impact on them. I want them to become high-character athletes. Leadership descends from high-character people. If the chemistry comes together, the winning part will take care of itself.”
In terms of X’s and O’s, Jones said he doesn’t have a set philosophy, adding that he believes part of coaching is the ability to adapt to personnel each year.
“If you stick with the same, exact system each year, you may not be truly tapping into the potential of your players,” Jones said.
But he said the Tigers will have some basic principles which will never change – the building blocks of the program going forward.
“Schematically, I believe in dictating the tempo of the game. I want teams to adjust to what we are doing,” Jones said. “Once you get a team caught up in adjusting to what you’re doing, they start thinking instead of playing and become vulnerable. Our program will be embedded with fundamentals, and we will teach our players to play smart while being aggressive. Everyone wants to score the basketball, but my focal point will be defense. Scoring opportunities are generated through quality defense. I want our players to sit down in their stance, buckle down and guard. I can tell you right now that our most willing and top defender will be a starter.”
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