Sports Persons of the Week - Rob Melanson & Paris Guillory

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - This past week two prominent figures in Southwest Louisiana high school basketball were honored with awards, as Iowa High School head coach Rob Melanson won the Louisiana Sports Writers Association 3A Coach of the Year and St. Louis Catholic guard Paris Guillory won 3A Player of the Year.

Coach Melanson has been at Iowa High School for almost a decade now and has compiled over 700 career wins in 30 years of coaching. This past season was possibly his most successful as he helped lead the Yellowjackets to a (27-5) regular season record and a semifinal appearance in the LHSAA Non-Select Division II state tournament.

“I’m not going to lie to you for 30 years I’ve had a lot of success and there was once or twice at Comeaux or in Lacassine I thought, man, it would be nice to win that award, but you wake up and read the newspaper and your names not mentioned and to finally to have it mentioned there, a tear was definitely shed,” said coach Melanson. “You know, it meant it meant a lot to me, I pour everything into it because I want to put everything into it for Iowa High School and for the kids that I coach and I want if I expect the kids to play hard I got to put everything into it, I got to coach the game hard, I can’t let up and this award did mean a lot to me.”

Southwest Louisiana had plenty of players recognized this year as well and for Guillory, she felt like winning player of the year was the perfect closing statement of her high school career.

“It’s definitely a blessing because I’ve worked hard over my whole senior year, and I’ve always wanted to be state MVP like I’m committed to college that’s done, I’ve won all my other awards, this was kind of the final thing I wanted to add to my high school career,” said Guillory. “ I was actually on vacation for spring break when I saw it and I was like oh my gosh like I didn’t think that that was gonna happen, and when I saw it, it caught me by surprise. I was very happy.”

Coming into next season you will be able to catch Guillory on the hardwood as she will begin her college basketball career at Louisiana Tech University.

As for coach Melanson, he will coach an Iowa team that returns three out of their five starters as he will look to help capture a state championship for the Yellowjackets in 2024.

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