The Southeast Texas Coaches Association culminated their yearly coaching clinic with a banquet honoring the Coaches of the Year in each sport for the 2021-22 school year (listed below) as well as inducting four coaches into the SETCA Hall of Honor.
Longtime West Orange-Stark Coach/AD Cornel Thompson, and former LCM AD/Hd football coach and WOS Assistant Randy Crouch were inducted. Also inducted posthumously, longtime Silsbee and Vidor native Pat Day, and longtime Silsbee Coach Terrance Robert Culley.
Thompson recited names, numbers and plays of an incredible 51 year career in education. A few numbers that are highlighted include eight trips to the State Championship with two wins as Defensive Coordinator and another two as Head Coach. He retired with the Mustangs holding the state record for best winning percentage in the state at just over 80% and even more impressive the Mustangs have more shutouts (119) than losses (103) from 1977-2021. Thompson, who has been married 35 years to wife Frances, also gave young coaches some advice, “If you want to have success in coaching and at home, get your spouse involved in what you do.”
Crouch gave an impressive speech about how he grew up in Sulphur and played college ball at Louisiana Tech, yet football players and coaches from Southeast Texas always seemed to cross his path. Then as a coach, the relationships he made, and being at the right place at the right time, carried him from one position to another. “God had a plan,” he said. He got out of coaching at one point and was working in the insurance business when he got a call from David Williams who was the AD/HFC at LCM in 1994 and he would spend the next 26 years in SETX. Crouch moved back to Ruston with his wife DeWanna after retiring in 2020.
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