The state of Louisiana has launched a new digital platform to connect entrepreneurs and small business owners with resources to help them start and grow their businesses.
 
Louisiana Business Hub brings order to the often chaotic search for information, networking and resources that are the lifeblood of every small business. Visitors to the site gain access to a searchable database of resource providers around the state offering a wide range of services from business planning, entrepreneurial training and business counseling to sales and marketing, human resources and more.
 
Louisiana Economic Development will manage the website, which also feature a statewide events calendar containing information about conferences, webinars and other events of interest to entrepreneurs at every stage of small business ownership.
 
“LED is proud to champion this statewide network that will help Louisiana entrepreneurs access the resources that they need to build and grow their small businesses,” LED Secretary Don Pierson said. “Louisiana is home to thousands of small businesses that are the heart and soul of our state’s economy. LED, with the support and collaboration of our local and regional partners, strives to provide founders with the tools and resources their businesses need to reach their full potential. This new platform can empower them to take the next step, whether it’s applying for a loan or preparing to expand into new markets.”
 
Louisiana Business Hub is organized regionally, with separate landing pages for each of the eight economic regions in the state, with a lead organization for each region. The Northeast, Northwest, and Capital regions will be the first regions fully populated with resources.

Launch Network, led by the Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program in Shreveport, is supporting efforts in the Northeast and Northwest regions. OneSource, led by Nexus LA in Baton Rouge, will drive efforts in the Capital region. Lafayette Economic Development Authority and One Acadiana are working with LED to fully launch the Acadiana region later in the year. LED will collaborate with other lead organizations for future launches in the Bayou, Central, Southeast and Southwest regions.
 
“The Louisiana Business Hub will be the support network our business community has been waiting for, and this is just the beginning,” Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program Executive Director Dave Smith said. “If you are a non-profit organization that provides a service to a business at any stage in their journey, you should join our movement.”
 
Louisiana Business Hub is built on the SourceLink platform, a nationally recognized program specializing in online community tools. Since inception, SourceLink has assisted almost 200 entrepreneurship and community development initiatives define and reach their unique goals for success.
 
“This collaboration signifies a new era of entrepreneurship in Greater Baton Rouge and we are excited to be one of the first regional hubs to offer this service,” said Na’Tisha Natt, Nexus LA director of marketing and engagement. “OneSource will make it much easier for entrepreneurs to identify and take advantage of the tools, information and resources they need to start and scale their businesses.”

About LED
Louisiana Economic Development is responsible for strengthening the state’s business environment and creating a more vibrant economy. It is the only state agency in the U.S. accredited by the International Economic Development Council, boasting award-winning programs like LED FastStart, rated the No. 1 customized workforce training program in the U.S. 13 years in a row. In 2022, LED attracted 53 new economic development projects representing 18,137 new direct, indirect and retained jobs and $20.7 billion in new capital investment. Explore how LED cultivates jobs and economic opportunity for the people of Louisiana and employers of all sizes at OpportunityLouisiana.com.

Because people ask ….

Sixteen years ago, a young man had an idea for an outdoors program. At the time, he was doing Natchitoches Central football as color analyst with Chris Boyd, who did the play-by-play. Chris was an outstanding sports broadcaster and a great mentor to this young man, who learned a lot under his tutelage.

During this time, NCHS football was not successful and, on this night, they were at West Monroe (Louisiana’s top high school football program those days). It was 42-0 at the half, and during a commercial break the young man pitched his outdoors show idea to Chris, who thought it was a great idea and encouraged him to pursue it.

After getting a full endorsement from Chris, the enthusiastic young man decided to move forward. Several people tried to discourage him and said it would never work. Their point was, no one wants to listen to hunting and fishing. But he disagreed and asked himself, ‘What do people in our region like to do?’ The answer: they hunt and fish!

Bound and determined to make this work, he immediately started reaching out to businesses that he felt would benefit from such a program. Any business related to the hunting or fishing world was on his radar, and in most cases, there was a personal connection.

One reason the young man believed he could make such a program work was due to the great list of contacts he had related to the bass fishing world, both from a business standpoint and personal relationships he had with professional anglers. He made these connections due to the level of tournament fishing he was competing on in the FLW Tour and B.A.S.S. Opens.

Formatting a show would be the easy part. Gaining sponsors would be more difficult since only a handful of people had tried producing this type of program. A few had tried, but all had failed.    

Two weeks later the Hook’N Up & Track’N Down Show was born in February 2007. With sponsors on board and an broadcast agreement reached, the HUTD Show was now a go. That’s right, the young outdoorsman with dreams of a good outdoors show was yours truly.

Over the course of sixteen years, the show as gained a national following. We’ve interviewed the greatest names in the bass fishing world — Kevin Van Dam, Skeet Reese, Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, Ray Scott, Mark Zona, and Rick Clunn, to name a few. By having the top professional anglers in the country appear, the HUTD Show obtained instant credibility. 

Today, the Hook’N Up & Track’N Down Show continues to set the bar for great outdoors entertainment as we talk hunting and fishing on a weekly basis. But the success of the program would not have been possible without two other guys — my co-hosts, radio legend Gary McCoy and H&W Team Trail Tournament Director and duck hunting guide Mike Echols.

They say successful people surround themselves with people better than themselves. This is definitely true in my case, as these two guys brought not only a wealth of knowledge of the outdoors but offered great personalities as well. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed going down the path of the HUTD Show and how the program got started. You can catch the program on our web site: www.hutdshow.com. It’s proof that if you believe in something strong enough, you can make it happen.

Until next time, good luck, good fishing and don’t forget your sunscreen!

Contact Steve at sgraf26@gmail.com

An anonymous donor contributed $100,000 to the Northwestern State University Foundation to create a scholarship honoring a former business professor and his wife.  

The H.N. and Inez C. Towry Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to a female undergraduate in the amount of $5,000 per year for four years through graduation.  The student must maintain a grade point average of 3.5 or higher and seek a degree in business or education.  

Towry was a much-loved professor in NSU’s School of Business.  A native of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corp right after Pearl Harbor and served in the Pacific Theatre. Soon after returning from the war, he moved his young family to Louisiana, where they remained for 50 years as he served on NSU’s faculty. The Towrys were very active in the First Presbyterian Church in Natchitoches. Mr. Towry spent the last years of his life in Atlanta, Georgia, and passed away on Nov. 24, 2022, days before a 100^th birthday celebration was planned in his honor. He was predeceased by his wife Inez and nine siblings.  

Drake Owens, executive director of the NSU Foundation, said he was contacted by the anonymous donor who wished to honor the memory of Mr. and Mrs. Towry and asked him to develop the scholarship for an undergraduate in business or education, with preference for a female student. The donor requested that the family to be involved in developing criteria for the scholarship,  

“I can’t tell you how much this means to Northwestern State University, having a scholarship of this size, especially in business and education, two areas that we are very proud of,” Owens said.  

Several members of the Towry family visited NSU for the scholarship announcement March 16.  

“We have a lot of really special memories of growing up in Natchitoches,” said daughter Debra Towry, a 1972 NSU graduate. “All of us have memories of being together at home with Mom and Dad.”   

Debra said her mother, who was also an educator, was a character and a powerful personality.   

“We have a very strong connection to Northwestern,” she said. “We graduated from Natchitoches Elementary on the Northwestern campus, with our daddy teaching here. There are a lot of strong positive memories.”  

Daughter Kristy Towry Lee, a 1981 NSU graduate, said NSU feels like home.

“We all went to Warren Easton.  Daddy’s office was in Caldwell Hall, which burned down.  This was our playground.  We would go at Christmastime to the Student Union where they would paint all the windows.  I lived in Varnado when it was coed in the 80s.  Our daddy is so connected to this place,” Lee said. “This scholarship couldn’t be more meaningful to us as a way for us to reconnect to our childhood, our family and Northwestern as our home.”   

“It’s nice to know that Mama and Daddy will be remembered forever,” said daughter Carolyn Towry Mayeaux, a 1972 graduate of NSU.   

“Listening to these stories drives home the impact that Northwestern has had on so many lives,” said NSU President Dr. Marcus Jones. “We are grateful to the donor who generously provided this scholarship and that the Towry family was able to share their memories of Northwestern.”  

Pictured: The family of H.N. and Inez Towry visited Northwestern State for the announcement of a scholarship in their parents’ names, funded by an anonymous donor. From left are Stacy Fontenot, Jerry Mayeaux, Carolyn Mayeaux, Antonio Carletti, Debra Towry holding a picture of her parents, Kristy Towry Lee and Cameron Lee. 

Spring is in the air!, and so is love and so is pollen — in the air, in your hair, your eyes, your nose, on your car.

You take the bad with the good when the payoff is spring.

Before we meet again it’ll be Officially Spring, so says The 2023 Old Farmer’s Almanac. Monday at 4:24 p.m. (Saw that on Facebook too, so it must be true, right?)

That moment in time marks the spring equinox, which I have never had the patience to study enough to see what it really means in terms of the Earth’s tilt and what not and this and that and to and fro.

I do know “equinox” comes from two Latin words that mean “equal” and “night.” The day and night are basically the same length. And after that, our hemisphere starts tilting toward the sun which means the days are longer and it’s about to get hot up in here.

But you don’t need an almanac to tell you spring is coming. You hear a ball pop into a mitt or you start filling out your NCAA March Madness bracket, and you know what’s up.

Or, you just look outside, through the yellow pollen mist, and there’s springtime, waving back.

A month ago, a warmish February morning, six robins and two cardinals were in the backyard, scouting. They’ve been there since.

The willows are greening, bulbs shooting and blooming. Little pictures of springtime.

Like me, you’ve probably already mowed once, which is mainly mowing clover, and leaving a little of that for the bees since they don’t have much else to enjoy right now. My yard looks like a drunk person mowed it. With thinning shears.

Speaking of lame brain, it was three years ago this week that the world shut down, semi-thwarting the man-made things that complement spring. It was 2020 and Friday the 13^th (which was Monday of this week) when college basketball tournaments and then baseball games were cancelled, and then Monday the 16^th (tomorrow, Thursday, is the 16^th) is when schools quit and all sports quit and Weird Spring started.  

(Somebody messed up!)

Thank goodness THAT’s over. At least I think it is …

And, speaking of loopy, those birds in the back yard might have had one too many, and I’ll tell you why.

There is a window-sized mirror along the fence, placed there before we moved in, I suppose for decoration. It’s confused at least one of the robins. She keeps flying into its reflection of grass and water and leaves, landing at its bottom, and trying again. Dozens of times. Flying into the mirror.

It happens almost every day, and maybe it’s the same robin and maybe they are all giving it a whirl, trying to figure it out, trying to fly right into springtime.

Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu or Twitter @MamaLuvsManning

Sabine Medical Center has entered a collaborative partnership with Vantage Health Plan. For more information contact Cortney Vinson at 318-439-0277 or email cortney.vinson@ahmgt.com OR Lacey Malmay at 318-947-0021 or email laceym@sabinemedicalcenter.net. If you are currently enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, you will be allowed to make this one time change by the enrollment date deadline March 31, 2023.

Join us for the Mardi Gras Futurity and Louisiana Downs Futurity at Louisiana Downs on Saturday, March 25, 2023

Three scholarships will be awarded through a LIVE drawing in the Louisiana Downs winner’s circle on Saturday, March 25th, immediately following the 4th race.

Applicants must register in person beginning at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 25, 2023.

Registration will close promptly after the third race.

ENTRANTS MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN

• For more information on the scholarship eligibility or the rules, please see the attached flyer or visit LQHBA.COM

COMPLIMENTS OF ROSE-NEATH FUNERAL HOME – MANY, LOUISIANA

SABINE PARISH SOFTBALL SCORES

Monday, March 6, 2023

Converse – 15 (6-2)

Hicks – 4 (5-2)

Florien – 3 (6-3)

Minden – 1 (5-5)

Negreet – 18 (7-2)

Lakeview – 1 (0-1)

Negreet – 19 (8-2)

Lakeview – 2 (0-2)

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Converse – 8 (7-2)

Hornbeck – 3 (1-4)

Evans – 15 (3-4) (1-0)

Ebarb – 0 (0-2) (0-1)

Simpson – 22 (1-5) (1-0)

Pleasant Hill – 2 (0-5) (0-1)

Logansport – 6 (11-2)

Zwolle – 3 (6-2)

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Converse – 11 (8-2)

Loyola Prep – 2 (4-6)

Simpson – 19 (2-5) (2-0)

Ebarb – 12 (0-3) (0-2)

Florien – 3 (7-3)

Pitkin – 0 (9-3)

Logansport – 8 (13-2)

Negreet – 5 (8-3)

Hornbeck – 16 (2-4) (1-0)

Pleasant Hill – 2 (0-6) (0-2)

CONVERSE HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Converse – 20 (9-2)

C E Bryd – 10 (0-12)

Converse – 7 (10-2)

Captain Shreve – 2 (7-3)

Negreet – 23 (9-3)

Ebarb – 3 (0-4)

Negreet – 16 (10-3)

C E Bryd – 1 (0-13)

Zwolle – 6 (7-2)

Hornbeck – 0 (2-5)

Haughton – 8 (5-6)

Zwolle – 6 (7-3)

OUACHITA PARISH HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT

Friday, March 10, 2023

Many – 13 (7-6)

Mangham – 0 (5-7)

Florien – 8 (8-3)

Ouachita Christian – 0 (8-6)

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Sterlington – 12 (15-2)

Many – 4 (7-7)

Many – 4 (8-7)

Neville – 1 (7-6)

Florien – 7 (9-3)

Ouachita Parish – 1 (5-11)

Claiborne Christian – 14 (11-3)

Florien – 6 (9-4)

SOFTALL DISTRICT STANDINGS
DISTRICT 3 – 2A
District – Overall
Mansfield 1-0 4-3
Red River 1-0 3-5
Many 0-0 8-7
Winnfield 0-0 6-6
Jonesboro-Hodge 0-1 2-6
Lakeview 0-1 0-6

DISTRICT 3 – B
District – Overall
Converse 0-0 10-2
Negreet 0-0 10-3
Florien 0-0 9-4
Zwolle 0-0 7-3
Stanley 0-0 5-9


DISTRICT 3 – C

District – Overall
Evans 1-0 3-4
Simpson 2-0 2-5
Hornbeck 1-0 2-6
Ebarb 0-2 0-5
Pleasant Hill 0-2 0-6

HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL POWER RATINGS – 3-13-2023

DIVISION III

Overall
District

# School Power Wins Losses Wins Losses Ranking

12 MANY 20 8 7 0 0

DIVISION V

3 CONVERSE 25.25 10 2 0 0
4 FLORIEN 25.25 9 4 0 0
10 ZWOLLE 22.2 7 3 0 0
14 NEGREET 21.07 10 3 0 0
37 EBARB 11 0 5 0 2
39 PLEASANT HILL 7.66 0 6 0 2

COMPLIMENTS OF ROSE-NEATH FUNERAL HOME – MANY, LOUISIANA

SABINE PARISH BASEBALL SCORES

Monday, March 6, 2023

Northwood-Lena – 16 (3-0)

Ebarb – 0 (2-5)

Simpson – 20 (4-7)

Florien – 0 (1-5)

Hornbeck – 9 (1-2)

Negreet – 2 (1-2)

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Converse – 4 (8-1) (1-0)

Zwolle – 3 (3-7) (0-1)

Stanley – 20 (4-7) (1-0)

Florien – 0 (1-5) (0-1)

Oak Hill – 8 (5-4)

Negreet – 6 (1-3)

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Ebarb – 10 (3-5)

Huntington – 9 (1-7)

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Many – 3 (7-5)

Southwood – 2 (2-7)

Many – 10 (8-5)

Southwood 0 5 (2-8)

CONVERSE HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Converse – 3 (8-1)

Many – 2 (6-5)

Many – 10 (6-4)

Stanley – 0 (4-8)

Oak Hill – 11 (6-4)

Negreet – 2 (3-8)

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Converse – 3 (9-1)

Logansport  – 2 (5-5)

Stanley – 9 (6-8)

Zwolle – 0 (3-9)

PICKERING HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Pickering – 10 (6-3)

Ebarb – 0 (3-6)

Ebarb – 10 (4-6)

Evans – 5 (2-6)

EAST BEAUREGARD HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT

Thursday, March 9, 2023

East Beauregard – 18 (4-2)

Florien – 3 (1-6)

Friday, March 10, 2023

Lake Charles College Prep – 24 (2-5)

Florien – 0 (1-7)

HICKS HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Negreet – 9 (2-3)

Simpson – 5 (3-6)

BASEBALL DISTRICT STANDINGS

DISTRICT 3 – 2A
District – Overall
Many 0-0 8-5
Mansfield 0-0 2-2
Winnfield 0-0 5-6
Red River 0-0 4-5
Jonesboro-Hodge 0-0 2-5
Lakeview 0-0 0-7-1

DISTRICT 3 – B
District – Overall
Converse 1-0 10-1
Stanley 1-0 6-8
Negreet 0-0 2-3
Zwolle 0-1 3-9
Florien 0-1 1-7


DISTRICT 3 – C

District – Overall
Hornbeck 0-0 3-2
Ebarb 0-0 4-6
Simpson 0-0 3-6
Evans 0-0 2-6
Pleasant Hill 0-0 0-0

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL POWER RATINGS – 2/27/2023

DIVISION III

Overall District
# School Power Wins Losses Wins Losses
Ranking

9 MANY 18.92 8 5 0 0

DIVISION V – DISTRICT 3-B

3 CONVERSE 26.36 10 1 1 0
18 EBARB 16.35 4 6 0 0
31 NEGREET 12.8 2 3 0 0
32 ZWOLLE 12.45 3 9 0 1
40 FLORIEN 7.62 1 7 0 1
42 PLEASANT HILL 0 0 0 0 0

For the 7th year in a row, it has been our honor and privilege to be a supporter of the Dylan Kyle Poche Memorial Bass Tournament to be held at Cypress Bend on Toledo Bend on March 25, 2023. Pictured with Burt and Shelly Poche are BOMFS’ Gina Banks, Reba Phelps and Jennifer Campbell.

At the Harrington Law Firm, we spend a great deal of our time fighting with insurance companies in order to compensate our clients for legitimate damages resulting from car, big truck, and motorcycle wrecks.

Because of that, it may seem a bit odd that we are recommending to our clients and other drivers to buy more insurance. On its face, it may look as if we are trying to help out the very same companies that we are fighting. What we are actually doing is urging all drivers to protect themselves and their families by purchasing Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage as part of their automobile policy.

It probably won’t come as a surprise to many reading this to learn that statistics show that over 1 in 10 drivers on our Louisiana highways are driving with absolutely no insurance coverage. Of the drivers who do have insurance in non-commercial vehicles, more than half have “minimum limits” liability coverage. (Under Louisiana Law, non-commercial drivers are required to carry a minimum of $15,000/$30,000 in liability coverage.)

What this means is that when someone has minimum limits coverage and the driver negligently causes an accident resulting in injuries and damages to another person, the most that the insurance company will have to pay is $15,000 for a single injured party and a cumulative total of $30,000 for all injuries and damages to all parties, no matter how many there are and no matter how much the injuries and damages are.

These limits include damages for pain and suffering, medical bills, lost income, disability, etc., etc.

In other words, if a person sustains serious injuries in an automobile accident as a result of another person’s negligence with huge medical bills, loss of income, etc., and if that person only had minimal limits insurance the most that claimant will be able to collect is $15,000.

Of course, even worse, if the driver negligently causing the accident has no insurance, then there is no one to collect from and party or parties are, simply put, out of luck!

One might think you could simply sue the person who caused the accident individually and make them pay. While that is true that person would be individually liable for the damages he or she caused, our experience at the Harrington Law Office is that in situations where the driver causing the accident is uninsured or has minimum limits, it would be extremely rare that they would have the personal financial assets or income to compensate the injured party. Even if you sued them personally and got a judgment, in most cases they could simply file bankruptcy and get out of it.

So as Louisiana drivers, how can we protect ourselves and our families against these potentially devastating results? The answer is simple. Make Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage a part of your automobile policy.

Louisiana Law requires that when a person purchases a policy of automobile insurance, Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage will be a part of the policy unless the purchaser rejects that coverage. In other words, when you buy car insurance, you must sign or initial your application rejecting that type of coverage, or you will automatically have it.

Unfortunately, because of high insurance costs, many people simply tell their agents they want the cheapest coverage possible and end up rejecting Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage. Thereby, they are leaving themselves vulnerable to those Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists who are traveling our highways.

PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOU FAMILY AGAINST THOSE DRIVERS! Make certain that your automobile policy includes Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage! It is relatively inexpensive and could help you avoid a catastrophic financial loss should you or someone you love be injured or damaged by an Uninsured/Underinsured driver. Also, do not try to save a few dollars by purchasing “Economic Only” Uninsured/Underinsured coverage. This would only compensate the injured party for medical bills and lost income but not for pain and suffering, which often can be substantial.

Again, the difference in cost between regular Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist and “Economic Only – UM,” is fairly insignificant.

In conclusion, while it may seem strange for us, Personal Injury Attorneys, to recommend that you help the insurance companies by buying more insurance, what we are really doing is recommending that you protect yourselves, and the only way to do so is making sure that you have Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage.

The main office of the Harrington Law Firm is located at 459 Jefferson Street in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and partners, Rodney and Eddie Harrington represent clients all over Louisiana in all types of injury cases including automobile accidents, slip and fall, and medical malpractice. They also handle bankruptcy and debt negotiation, Social Security claims, and successions. For a free appointment, call 318-352-5900.

In a neighborhood rivalry, Title Town won.

Zwolle High School now houses a state-record 16 LHSAA boys’ basketball championship trophies after the Hawks shackled the Indians of Anacoco Friday evening in the Division V Non-Select state final of Marsh Madness at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.

Zwolle won 40-25, going on top early and taking control in the third quarter, stretching a 16-11 halftime lead to 29-15 entering the final quarter. Anacoco pulled within 31-21 early in the fourth but got no closer.

It is the Hawks’ first state championship since 2017 and the seventh in 19 seasons under coach Bradley McLaren, who has led Zwolle to 12 state finals. The 16 boys’ basketball state championships tie Southern Lab for the most in LHSAA history.

After some intense, down-to-the-last-minute meetings in the regular season, another dramatic battle was expected between the teams, just 40 miles apart. It was a defensive struggle and did not lack for intensity. But Zwolle’s defense combined with an off-night for Anacoco to produce a convincing margin of victory for the happy Hawks and their big crowd of great fans.

Zwolle (33-2) didn’t shoot well, just 34 percent overall, but tried only six 3-pointers (making one). The Hawks had a huge 38-22 rebounding advantage and sank 15 of 22 free throws to just 3 of 6 for Anacoco (36-6), who sent Zwolle to the line repeatedly trying to rally in the latter part of the game. The Indians were a miserable 0-for-19 on 3-pointers.

Senior Kenneth Montgomery was voted the Most Outstanding Player after he led Zwolle with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Preston Sanders was close behind at 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Montgomery pushed the Hawks into their first significant lead to start the third quarter, sinking two free throws and then nailing the game’s only 3-pointer for a 21-11 Zwolle lead with 4:50 left before halftime. Zwolle ran off six more points in a row to open the margin to 27-11, and ultimately outscored Anacoco 13-4 in the eight-minute period to take command with the 14-point spread.

When second-seeded Anacoco rallied to draw within 10 in the fourth quarter, the Hawks got a couple of free throws before Sanders hit a sensational driving layup in transition and completed the three-point play with a free throw that reestablished a solid lead, 36-21.

The Hawks outscored the Indians 24-14 overall after plowing to the 16-11 halftime lead.

Zwolle was the No. 1 seed in the tournament bracket and got a first-round bye. The Hawks blasted Quitman 86-61 in Round Two, then topped Choudrant 58-46 in the quarterfinals. They got not one, but two clutch 3-pointers to force, and extend, overtime in Monday night’s double-OT 81-72 win over Gibsland-Coleman.

Friday night in the finals, they left no doubt.

NATCHITOCHES – After engineering a 13-win turnaround for the Northwestern State men’s basketball team, head coach Corey Gipson has resigned from his position to accept the head coaching position at Austin Peay.

Gipson will be introduced as the Governors’ new coach Tuesday.

In his lone season at Northwestern State, Gipson led the Demons to their most wins in a single season in a decade and their most Southland Conference wins in a season since 2014-15. Gipson took Northwestern State to its first Southland Conference Tournament championship game since 2013 and the Demons’ second-place finish in the SLC regular season was its best since the 2012-13 season.

“Corey Gipson did a tremendous job during his time here at Northwestern State,” NSU Director of Athletics Kevin Bostian said. “From the hours of off-the-court community service to the on-court product, his program was deeply tied to the university and the city of Natchitoches. Together, they brought national recognition to Northwestern State while succeeding in the game of basketball and outside of it. While it is difficult to lose good coaches, Austin Peay’s interest speaks highly of the work Corey and his staff did during their time here.”

Under Gipson, Northwestern State collected its first regular-season victory against an Associated Press Top 25 team, defeating then-No. 15 TCU, 64-63, in Fort Worth, Texas, on Nov. 14. Northwestern State’s 8-2 start to the season was the best 10-game mark for the program since moving to the Division I level in the 1976-77 season and its best since the 1952-53 season.

In the past week, Gipson has been named a finalist for the Ben Jobe Award, honoring the nation’s top Division I minority coach, the Hugh Durham Award for the nation’s top mid-major coach and the Joe B. Hall Award, which honors the top first-time head coach in Division I.

An Austin Peay alumnus, Gipson helped tutor the Southland Conference Player and Newcomer of the Year DeMarcus Sharp, who is a finalist for the Lou Henson Player of the Year that is given to the nation’s top mid-major player.

“The year-to-year improvement shown by coach Gipson and his program elevated the perception of our program,” Bostian said. “I wish he, April, and their family all the best in the immediate and more distant future and thank them for what they did for Northwestern State and the Natchitoches community.”

A national search for Gipson’s replacement has begun.

PHOTO: Chris Reich/NSU Photographic Services

Don’t blame Corey Gipson one bit. Thank him for his remarkable season – not plural — as Northwestern State’s men’s basketball coach.

Accept the new paradigm in college sports. You may detest the transfer portal, not to mention Name, Image and Likeness payments to athletes. But those are defining standards these days.

Coaching moves after brief stays were happening before the portal or NIL. They felt like the portal and resulted from the motivation behind the NIL. There’s lots of money in reach climbing the ladder in college sports. Now the players can access it, too.

Sources indicate by moving to Austin Peay, Gipson will nearly double his $160,000 base salary at NSU as the Governors open a new arena. Those are undeniable and understandable incentives. It’s his alma mater, where he played in Austin Peay’s glory days. Can’t deny that appeal, although it’s a nice sidebar, not the primary motivation.

Speculation that has swirled for weeks about Gipson’s upward mobility crystalized over the weekend, with reputable national basketball observers and others reported he was heading to Austin Peay after one season in Natchitoches. APSU made it official with a Tweet posting its announcement Sunday night.

Gipson spent 356 days as the Demons’ coach. Don’t let that upset you.

He accomplished a bunch, built around a core of three outstanding players – DeMarcus Sharp, Ja’Monta Black and Isaac Haney – who loyally followed him to Natchitoches from Missouri State, where Gipson was an assistant coach for seven seasons. He boldly signed Hansel Enmanuel, whose journey from the amputation of his left arm when he was six had already earned global notice and a huge social media following.

The patient development of Enmanuel into a player able to start and play significant minutes as the season ended is a fabulous achievement for all involved, especially Gipson. The mind-blowing exposure Northwestern got in conventional and social media pathways was justifiably phenomenal, and the young man proved he was not a “dog and pony show,” Gipson said after the Southland Conference Tournament championship game.

Gipson continued the long tradition of community service established by his predecessor, Mike McConathy, who received a prestigious National Association of Basketball Coaches’ “Guardians of the Game” award in 2012 for community outreach though educational initiatives off campus.  Gipson, staff and coaches did a wonderful job coming in blind and quickly getting involved across the community with good causes, and making new inroads. They were quite justified in talking about it, although the impression that it was new to NSU basketball was way off-base.

NSU President Dr. Marcus Jones and athletics director Kevin Bostian surely knew Gipson’s departure became inevitable in the last 2-4 days as the coach visited Austin Peay and contract terms were wrapping. There were plenty of rumors floating about a hefty pay hike Jones supposedly proposed for Gipson, but it seemed implausible. Adding tens of thousands of dollars would have shattered the salary structure not only in the athletic department but across campus, at a time when the university is laying off employees and making tough budget decisions in the wake of an enrollment free-fall not entirely unique to NSU – although it’s not just because of COVID, despite what the party line has been.

You can bank on the fact that Bostian and Kyle Bowlsby, who is the one-man search firm that identified both Bostian and Gipson for NSU last year, already have a list of potential successors and those are being vetted, at least.

There probably have been some conditional conversations with a handful of candidates in case the job opened. Don’t expect there to be much of a gap in hiring the new guy. It’s the way the business gets done nowadays, and that’s necessary because every competitor is already building next year’s team.

Speaking of that – don’t be surprised if there’s a total roster rebuild. It’s as reasonable as the Academy Awards running way long that Black, Enmanuel, Haney, Sharp and some other 2022-23 Demons will be at Austin Peay in the fall.

Fair, and feasible with the portal. The mindset that players choose a school primarily because of the institution and its community is secondary to recruits or transfers being totally invested in their coach – and available dollars from scholarships and financial aid and if any exists (there’s only a trickle at NSU), NIL money.

Bottom line: the landscape is very different than what St. Denis saw. It’s not much like what Demon fans enjoyed when nearby prep stars Clifton Lee and Jermaine Wallace, then Will Mosley, James Hulbin, Jalan West and Zeek Woodley wowed us with their feats in some best of times for Demon basketball.

Hopefully Bostian, Bowlsby and Jones can pick another winner, and this time, he’ll stay for a bit longer. It’s happened before at Northwestern.

Baseball coach Jim Wells got the Alabama job in 1994. Tynes Hildbrand hired Dave Van Horn, who has become one of the game’s icons at Arkansas. When he left in December 1997, Greg Burke hired John Cohen, who is now Auburn’s AD after a long, highly successful career at Mississippi State and Kentucky. Cohen left in 2001, and Burke brought back Wells’ assistant Mitch Gaspard, who also became head coach at Alabama.

Here’s hoping for some of that magic.

Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com