Melvin out at H.L. Bourgeois

For a while, it looked like all 11 prep football coaches in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes would be back for 2018 – the rare year where there is absolutely no turnover locally in the football coaching ranks.

But this past week things changed and one local program will be looking for a new coach at an awkward time – right in the middle of spring football practices.

H.L. Bourgeois High School announced this past week that Carey Melvin had resigned from his post, ending a three-year run for the coach, who landed in his position after time as the defensive coordinator at Thibodaux High.

Melvin was 10-21 with the Braves and the team was just 1-9 last season.

But Melvin did lead the Braves to their first playoff season in many years in 2016 – the peak of his tenure with the team.

Details around the resignation are sparse at best. Melvin confirmed that he resigned late last week, but offered just a few words about the situation. When asked to take a phone call, he said he couldn’t at this time.

“(It’s) to pursue other opportunities,” Melvin said in a short text message.

Braves’ athletic director Andrew Caillouet didn’t offer much more in the way of an explanation. He confirmed that Melvin had resigned, but said in a text message that “that’s all I know.”

Regardless of how things may have ended, there’s no questioning that Melvin did a nice job changing the culture at H.L. Bourgeois.

In his first season with the Braves, the team went 5-5, which, at the time, was a significant upgrade from the struggles that the team had endured under several coaches in the team’s immediate past.

After the 5-5 season, Melvin said he worked hard with the Braves’ players on the practice field and in the weight room in an effort to get the team bigger, faster and stronger to chase a postseason berth.

The Braves’ job is a difficult one. The team has athletes, yes.

But H.L. Bourgeois is also stuck in the middle of a brutally tough Class 5A football district that features nothing but powerhouses, including 2017 State Runner-Up Hahnville, annual powerhouse Destrehan and local powers like Thibodaux, Terrebonne and Central Lafourche.

The work the team did paid off in 2016, because the Braves finally did break the ice, punching a ticket to the Class 5A Playoffs.

The memorable moment from that season for fans in Gray came in Week 10.

After a brutal non-district grind and then the usual murderer’s row in district, the Braves had to beat rival Terrebonne to make the playoffs. The game was wild, but the Braves did, scoring a 44-37 victory to punch their ticket into the field of 32.

The team made the playoffs and lost to West Monroe in the opening round.

But the Braves lost a sizable senior group after that 2016 season and they weren’t able to find the same magic in 2017.

Melvin told The Times in several preseason interviews that the team was young and inexperienced, but he hoped that they’d peak at the right time and play their best in district play.

But it never materialized.

The Braves started 0-2, then got their only win of the season – a 40-34 triumph over Ellender in week 3.

After that game, H.L. Bourgeois was seriously deficient offensively, scoring more than 10 points in just one more game in the season, while being held to fewer than 7 points five times.

Melvin worked with the team throughout the offseason and it appeared that he was going to begin his fourth season in 2018.

But after a few days of spring practices, something changed and the coach has decided that it’s time to go in a different direction.

Assistant coach Ryan Fournier will be the Braves’ interim coach for spring practices while principal Matthew Hodson and Caillouet attempt to find a full-time replacement.

It is not known if Fournier will be attempting to pursue the job full-time.

Melvin will stay with the school until the end of the school year.

Ideally, the search would be accelerated because of how late in the year the resignation came.

TERREBONNE HIGH GETS NEW BASKETBALL COACH

While one school is starting a search for a coach, another search got completed this past week for a vacant boys’ basketball coaching job.

Terrebonne High School announced late last week that it has hired Richard Jones to be its new boys’ basketball coach.

Jones will attempt to bring stability to a program that’s been in flux since longtime coach Derek Szush left the Tigers to take the same job at Assumption.

After Szush left, the Tigers hired Demetrius Price, who never coached a game for the team. Veteran local coach Hank Washington worked the bench the remainder of the season while staff member Tammy Martin was officially the head coach per LHSAA rules which mandate that the head coach must be a teacher in the school system.

But Jones is going to hope to bring an end to the merry go-round.

He has roots at Terrebonne. He was an assistant under Szush – a time when the Tigers made the postseason and won 20-plus games.

Last year, he also enjoyed postseason success as an assistant coach, working under Nick Cenac with the South Terrebonne girls.

For more on Jones and his plans with the Terrebonne job, check out next week’s edition of The Times.

Carey Melvin

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