Vermilion Parish has two new basketball coaches

By: William McDaniel
Abbeville High School and North Vermilion High School have both hired new basketball coaches for the 2011-12 school year.

Abbeville High School hired Dean Dronet to coach the girls basketball team.

Abbeville Principal Ivy Landry said he is extremely excited about his new hire.

Dronet has been an assistant coach with the Abbeville girls’ team since January.

He is taking over for interim head girls basketball coach Ward Courville.

The Lady Wildcats had a good season under Courville, with Dronet as an assistant.

Abbeville went 16-9 in the regular season, earning a 10th seed in the playoffs.

The Lady Wildcats beat West Feliciana 63-54 in the Bi-District round before losing 68-51 to seventh-seeded Amite in the Regional round.

Dronet said he expects for the transition to be a smooth one.

“I have some good girls to work with,” he said.

Dronet, 36, is the son of long-time Delcambre head coach Benny Dronet.

“Basketball runs in our blood,” Dronet said.

“I grew up in a gym.”

Dronet said he is extremely excited about the opportunity to take over the head coaching position.

“I just hope the girls can buy into what we’re going to try to do,” he said. “Basketball is a team game and it’s all about the fundamentals.”

Dronet said the team he’s inheriting is talented and fundamentally sound.

He said he expects to hold practices for the Lady Wildcats throughout the summer.

“I expect to go in and open up the gym so that the girls that can make it there will have a place to practice,” he said.

Dronet also said there is a possibility of the Lady Wildcats attending summer basketball camps, though the logistics of that have yet to be worked out.

Dronet is a graduate of McNeese University, where he majored in P.E

His brother, Mark, is the head basketball coach at Kinder High School. He has been there for 10 years.

The North Vermilion Patriots boys basketball team also has a new skipper for next year.

North Vermilion hired Jack Leblanc as its new boys basketball coach.

Leblanc has been an assistant basketball coach at Lafayette High School.

North Vermilion Principal Greg Theriot praised his new hire.

“Number one, he came highly recommended from someone close to the program when it was highly successful: Mr. Casey Delhomme.”

Delhomme was the Patriots head coach in the late 1990’s through the early 2000’s.

Delhomme coached NV in the playoffs when they lost to eventual state champions St. James by six points.

“It was the best game that St. James had all year against anybody,” said Theriot. “Two of those kids play in the NFL now.”

Delhomme is now the assistant girls basketball coach at Lafayette High School.

Theriot said Leblanc is “a large part” of the success the Lafayette High School program has had in basketball.

Leblanc was in his second year at Lafayette High School when the Lions basketball team won the state championship in 2008.

Lafayette beat H.L. Bourgeois from Houma 75-55 in the final to take home the state championship.

Leblanc said that season opened his eyes to the challenges of coaching.

“I definitely saw how much work it takes going in and playing at that level,” he said.

“It definitely gave me a lot of experience to go further in my career.”

He said he is “grateful to Coach Brown” for giving him “the opportunity to be a part of it.”

Leblanc said he is very excited about his new job.

“This is my first head coaching position,” he said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity and I’m just looking forward to getting started.”

Leblanc attended South Lafourche High School, where he played basketball under his father,

He said he is familiar with the NV basketball program.

“I know they made it to the Top-28 a few years back,” he said.

Leblanc has been the assistant boys basketball coach under Clifton Brown for the past five years.

He said Brown and Delhomme were excellent mentors.

“Just working with those two (Brown and Delhomme) I’ve learned a lot,” he said, “and a lot of the things I’ve learned are going to help me.”

Leblanc said Delhomme recommended that he apply for the position at North Vermilion.

“He thought it was a great opportunity and the more I found out about the school and the administration and that community and the athletic department, the more I just became interested,” he said.

Leblanc said today is the first time he’ll meet his new players, and that he is very excited.

Leblanc said that he comes “from a basketball family” in the Lafourche Parish area.

“My grandfather coached high school basketball for over 20 years,” he said. “My dad played a year of college at Nicholls. I’ve been playing basketball since I was five.”

Leblanc takes over a North Vermilion basketball team that went 13-15 last year.

The Patriots started out strong, going 7-3 in their first 10 games.

Unfortunately, the team could not sustain that hot start and ended the season going 1-9 in district play.

Leblanc graduated from UL Lafayette in 2006.

He has a twin brother who coaches basketball at Centenary College in Shreveport.

Leblanc has been a health and P.E. teacher at L.J. Alleman Junior High in Lafayette since he graduated from UL.

He expects to teach in the GED program at North Vermilion in the fall.