Transcripts, please: Coach O, Will Wade speak back-to-back today at LHSCA clinic
Whatever the fees are to attend the Louisiana High School Coaches Association clinic in Baton Rouge, today makes it worthwhile.
Let’s hope somebody will produce transcripts when two of LSU’s four hot-button coaches, Ed Orgeron and Will Wade, speak to the assembly.
Who should get top billing?
The former head football coach, who was the tonesetter for the Tigers’ awesome 2019 national championship season, now back in the fold as Lane Kiffin’s Ambassador of Kwan and Minister of the Boot?
Or the former head basketball coach, who embraces the “American Gangster” nickname he earned in his first stop in TigerTown, and now at the behest of Gov. Jeff Landry, is back in the same job but with vastly different recruiting guidelines?
The answer: neither. Not Coach O. Not General Wade.
It’s another LSU coach, one who isn’t a headline name but will bring an incredibly inspiring story. That’s Katie Guillory, assistant strength and conditioning coach for gymnastics, formerly captain of the Tiger softball team that reached the 2012 Women’s College World Series. Last Independence Day, a jet ski accident resulted in the loss of her left leg below the knee.
Less than a month later, she was back to work, telling her athletes:
“I am still your coach, and I will coach my butt off from a wheelchair as long as I need to. I will coach my butt off from crutches or a walker as long as I need to. I will coach my butt off from any prosthetic, whether it’s on or off at the time. I’m still going to coach you the hardest I know how, and that’s not going to change,” she said.
Guillory, a Carencro native, has already set her sights on participating in the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles as both a coach and an athlete. She’s involved in strength and conditioning programming for the United States national wheelchair handball team. Meanwhile, she’s planning to compete in the long jump.
“No excuses,” she said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Good news for Coach O. Although he’s the next speaker, the convention will take a lunch break following Guillory’s keynote talk.
Orgeron, then Wade. Both forced out of their head coaching jobs, now back basking in the purple and gold glow.
The gravel-voiced Cajun is one of college football’s most renowned recruiters this century. He brought in talent that won national championship at USC and LSU.
He’s recruited every corner of his home state. Long before Kiffin brought him back on staff a couple months ago, Orgeron was a fixture on the sidelines, in the hallways and in the suites at the Prep Classic state football championships in the Superdome last December. It wasn’t him posturing for a job – he truly loves Louisiana high school football.
At this stage, Wade isn’t giving state high school hoops any apparent interest. He is head to toes in the transfer market, full throttle toward an immediate transformation of the snakebit LSU program that hasn’t been a factor in the SEC since he was shown the door.
The most recent accounts say Wade’s new LSU team will have four international players, four transfers, a player who signed NBA contracts but never played, and just one unheralded Florida high school player make up the core of the 2026-27 roster.
Wade knows the Louisiana landscape. Along with his five prior seasons at LSU, he was in Lake Charles for a couple campaigns, taking the McNeese Cowboys from McLeast to Southland Conference kingpins – but without any consequential in-state talent.
Wade, like Orgeron, has a charming personality, a quick wit and a twinkle in his eyes. His speech to a ballroom full of Louisiana high school coaches will be interesting, to say the least.
They’d like to see some of their guys playing in the P-Mac. What can Wade tell them today to make that seem possible?
Nobody’s asking for a Louisiana-heavy roster. But it’s not like this state doesn’t turn out some top-shelf high school basketball players.
Will Wade make bringing any of them on board a priority at some point? Today would be a fine time for him to say so.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com