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Athletic greatness comes in all shapes and all sizes.

It doesn't come naturally, but is achieved from hard work, diligence and adversity along the journey.

There's opportunity and there's always struggle.

There is triumph and there is defeat.

And there is always a story behind the glory.

For Danny Broussard, the dream was never big.

He's just a small town boy.

Born and raised in South Leroy, but his career and high school coaching has been nothing short of phenomenal.

Even in the first year, they were, you know, there was a lot of questions, a lot of criticism.

And then right out of the bat, he wins a state championship.

Out of nowhere, Danny is one of only four Louisiana prep coaches to reach the 1000 win milestone in basketball.

He ranks among the top ten nationally for all time wins and number three in America among active coaches.

He's always high, strong, always energetic, and that showed in his team.

And that was a good thing because if your coach's energetic, your team's going to feed off of that energy.

There's a reason that Danny Broussard is a member of the 2025 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame class.

Congratulations.

But before you respond, I want to tell people that in the history of high school basketball in this country, only five coaches, five have more wins than you from a career standpoint.

Number six all time.

That's easy to say.

My goodness, the stories it holds.

It has very truly.

And when you put it in perspective and you think about it, it's like it's kind of mind boggling to be honest with, you know, you go into your career, you never imagine anything even close to that, you know?

Mean I've always been a goal setter.

And when I first started coaching, for some reason, I said, I want to I don't know why.

I said, I want to win 500 games as a high school coach.

Then when you go to that, you like, okay, well, let's go for a thousand.

And so, you know, I've always, you know, been that way and just been, just been really a blessed man to have such a great institution to coach at and some great players.

You know, you have a trademark that not a lot of high school coaches and now even college coaches go by.

And that is you're rarely, if ever, out of a coat and tie when you're on the job.

You know, Lynn, I, started went with Ricky, you know, coaching on the sideline.

And Ricky wore a coat and tie.

So that's what I did.

And I'll tell you a funny story.

I wore my name, my assistant that asked me for that.

But one year we had a tournament and it was an early morning game.

It all 11:00.

Say, hey, coach, how about we wear a coat?

I mean, how about we were just sweats today?

You know, I thought about I'm like, all right, I guess so.

So we go out, we wear sweats.

We proceeded to get beat by 30 points, and I said, don't ever ask me to wear sweats again.

And they never happened.

Now we did wear a Christmas sweater.

That convention went on to wear a Christmas sweater.

We won that game.

So I've kind of said, okay, so I worn a Christmas sweater a couple of times, but every time other than that, it's a coat and tie on a badge.

In 42 seasons at Saint Thomas Moore High School in Lafayette, the Cougars have made it to the playoffs in 35 straight seasons, advancing to the quarterfinals 32 times and 20 appearances in the state final Four.

He has won six state championship boys basketball titles.

See I comparing the deal Brown, because although Danny is more of a tactician, but he and Dale Brown got the most out of their players, any basketball coaches I ever saw?

Yeah.

With these accolades, it's no surprise that in 2025, he was chosen to lead a high school team of McDonald's All-Americans in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

You know, have an opportunity on a national stage to coach the who's who of high school basketball, to bring them together and show that, hey, this small town coach can bring his philosophy.

Get those young men to be together to win.

He has shown through his his tenure, his consistency of winning.

That alone makes him a Hall of Famer.

How were you selected and what was that experience like in New York?

Yeah.

You know, they've been asking for nominations for years.

I've nominated some of our players in the in the 90s and early, but somewhere along the line they decided, hey, listen, how about we get coach's nominations to coach this team?

I guess in the past they would just select, you know, whoever was in charge.

So, my aide, they came through, saw him as a director, once.

I think I won the thousands game.

He's, you know, it comes across his emails.

And so, you know Kim, who was my first assistant coach at SDM, he nominated me and I guess, and, you know, then you had to fill stuff out.

So he now maybe a couple of years back, and you know, never got selected.

It was kind of funny this year, back around November, the I should have filled this form.

You fill it out, you send it in.

You kind of forget about it, you know?

Well, come February, this past unit, I got an email saying you just been selected.

I'm like, wow, what is this really happening?

So, yeah, I was very fortunate that that's how that came about.

Any regrets at all after all those accolades?

The regret is when you look at it right there, I know that you can't see on TV right behind the scenes.

My regret is when I was a young coach, then I spent so much time, you know, I guess the pressure of wanting to win so bad, kind of.

I kind of took time with my family when they.

When my kids were young, you know?

And, that's kind of one of my biggest regrets.

I'll tell you this, Dolan.

I'm not making the same.

I've got two those grandkids I got, I know my girls are looking at me saying, is this the guy that raised us?

You know, like.

But, yeah, I'm, I'm not missing any time with my grandkids.

I'm loving every minute of it.

I just had a brand new one two weeks ago.

So it'll.

Porter came in pictures.

So I got three boys now, and I'm loving every minute of it.

You know, I think one of your best coaching jobs has come recently at the latest state championship, where you had no superstar, right?

You had no people who were gaining attention of college scouts.

Every night you played, your leading scorer was ten points a game.

And yet you challenged that team at Saint Thomas More to be the best defensive team that's ever been.

And they may have come close to doing that play.

And, you know, there's no way to verify this.

But, when you think about the this day and age of the three point line, we gave up 40.2 points a game, 40, 40.2.

Then, it might have been the best in the nation.

I really believe it.

I mean, it's got to be in the top 5 or 10, and, now I do want to correct you.

We we fell one game short.

That was my state runner up team this past year.

We lost the state champion to Saint Paul.

But it's one of the most proud, teams I've ever coached.

And, I mean, yeah, that we had so much, we were challenged so much offensively.

You know, we just didn't have guys that were.

And like you just said, my list was ten.

I had ten, nine, nine, eight and seven.

Those were all five scores.

But golly, we wouldn't let anybody else score in us either.

And, you know, I thought that team then when the beginning of the season, you always kind of evaluate a little bit.

At the beginning, I thought maybe it was a, you know, at 25 win season, you know, and then maybe the state quarters and Division one basketball.

But man, they surpassed all of those expectations.

And just, you know, just kept finding ways to win.

And we want to put 32 wins in a state runner up.

And yeah, it's one of the it's one of my proudest moments as a coach to, to take, you know, I just weren't expected to be there, you know.

And to take him to a state championship game.

Was, was was pretty, pretty exciting.

I'll bet you're the only I know.

You're the only coach in America who has your level of success, who also coached a football team in high school that didn't score a point the whole season.

My first year as Timlin, Jake Byler.

Rest in peace, Jake.

To the guy who gave me the opportunity that gave me a chance and believed in me at 22 years old and, he came to me and said, coach, I need you to I can you do a freshman baseball?

Because I was, you know, I got a baseball guy, freshman baseball first baseman, fashion football.

I said, Jake, coach, I'll do anything you want.

But I said, I never played football.

I said, I think when it's fourth down, you got punt.

That's about my extended, my knowledge.

So, you know Lynn and he was going to give me some help.

But in fairness to him, it's a first year to school for a stadium without a field.

Sure Jake.

Scram.

And the good guys.

We had six guys on that staff.

Can you imagine?

I think now they got 16.

We had six guys and me and Doug Taylor, a baseball coach, were two of those guys.

And little Glenn, again, I was I just had no idea what what, you know, football coaching was all about did the best I could.

You went out and proved that.

Well, yeah.

We went oh.

And eight and like you said.

Oh.

And eight and not, not, not score a point.

What's funny story is the next year when we started, I said, Jake, when we start in freshman football, he goes, coach, we got somebody to do that.

This year, we're good.

You don't have to coach football anymore.

Well, I want to throw another sport in there because you were good at that.

And that is tennis.

Multiple state championships at Saint Thomas.

More than a lot of people know that.

Now it is kind of a well known secret that I coach the tennis team.

So people said I was the best bus driver that tennis team ever had.

You know how many state championships?

Well, I think 13 and 39 in a row with the boys who won nine straight in a row.

A little funny story on that.

I we ordered rings every year for the kids, and I never ordered one.

And so after the ninth one, I ordered a state championship ring.

And so Cliff Lane, my guy said, hey, you know why you win this year?

I said, because we're going to Division One next year with Jesuit and Catholic of Baton Rouge, and this is going to be this is going to be the end of the nine year run.

You were being practical.

Yeah, I just was being realistic.

Through it all.

Broussard has recognized that the game of basketball was a vehicle for growth, using the sport to teach invaluable life lessons, and he has solidified his place as a giant in the game.

To me, Danny Broussard is the love Danny Broussard, and that's what makes him so effective with his plans, with his fans, with everybody he meets, the consistency that he's shown no matter what kind of players he had, super talented players or just an average, talented team.

He always seems to find this solution and a way to win.

This small town boy joins the state's most impactful coaches.

Enshrined in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2025.

You know, as as I get to know you.

And of course, I've known your family, your older brother, Ricky, who was an outstanding coach.

Brant, basketball and baseball.

Right.

And people would tell me, be ready for a 200 watt light bulb.

And you know what?

They're wrong.

You're a search light.

I mean, you're way bigger than a 200 watt light bulb.

You approach everything with energy, energy, energy.

Is that always been an M.O.

for you?

It really always has.

And even as even as a young kid growing up, and I just.

I just been that way.

You know, you remind me when you say that.

Dale Brown, when I, when I talked to Dale Brown, what a legend he is.

And, does he always says that he goes, man, you know, you can hear his voice now.

God, Danny, how do you get how you get that energy, you know?

How do you get that up?

And then it's just, God, give it to me, you know?

And, Yeah, I read it when I was young.

I read a quote that said, nothing is accomplished without, enthusiasm, nothing great.

And, and I've tried to, you know, kind of live that way, like, you know, I, I've just been that way.

I try to put that on our players to, you know, and I think, you know, when you go into a practice setting and you go into games and I just think it it just carries over to the kids, you know?

And, I think it's one of the reasons why I've been I've been kind of successful because of my enthusiasm for, for not just baseball, but for life in general.

You know.