After starting from scratch, Strother built Florien into basketball dynasty
By RAYMOND PARTSCH III, Special to the LSWA
If not for a determined crop-dusting principal, Dewain Strother would have likely spent decades working in lumber mills, instead of becoming one of the winningest girls high school basketball coaches in United States history.
Despite being an all-district guard at Plainview High School for Louisiana High School Athletic Association Hall of Famer O.D. West and helping the Hornets claim the state championship in 1965, Strother had no intentions of going to college.
Raised in the Rapides Parish woods west of Glenmora, Strother firmly believed he was done with schooling upon graduation. Thankfully, Plainview principal Mike Irving had other plans.
“I had been in school for 12 years. That was long enough,” recalled Strother.
During his senior year, Strother wanted to take shop class, but the school had him in English 4. So Irving made him a deal. He could take shop class, but if he messed up, then back to English he would go.
“I left school without permission one day,” Strother said. “I think they were watching me under a magnifying glass. I was put back in that English class. (Irving) then helped register me for Northwestern State, flew me up there in his little four-seat Cessna plane to take a test, and that is how I got up there.”
That would set into motion a storied career, as Strother would lead Florien High School to six state championships, five runner-up finishes, and 21 semifinal appearances. His 1,235 victories are the most by any girls basketball coach in state history, and the second most in the nation.
“It ain’t about me,” Strother said. “It’s about those girls on the floor. They put the work in. They bought into what they needed to do. All the players who have gone through my program are successful. Nurses, police officers, teachers. I am amazed. I am just amazed. They are successful in society.”
Many will be in the audience watching Strother in the spotlight Saturday evening, June 27, culminating three days of activities celebrating him and the rest of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame’s 12-person Class of 2026. For participation opportunities and more information, visit LaSportsHall.com or call 318-238-4255.
“It is well deserved,” said former longtime NSU women’s coach James Smith. “I have been hollering for a long time. It is really hard to believe. He can go back to the first game he coached. He still has a scorebook. He still has every book. That’s amazing to me. He is a special coach and a good guy. He gave himself to Florien and girls basketball for a long time.”
Like many young boys in rural Rapides Parish during the 1950s and 60s, Strother fell in love with basketball.
“I always loved the game of basketball,” Strother said. “At home, when we finished our chores, I would go outside and play basketball until mama hollered about supper.”
That love would carry over as he would go to play for West at Plainview, first as a bench player and then as the starting point guard. The lessons that he would utilize in his own coaching career are rooted in the time spent in the small gymnasium at Plainview.
“He basically made sure that we were well-behaved kids, and made the grades, and in the gym, he made sure we were fundamentally sound,” said Strother.
Those lessons were also done in a condensed amount of time, due to the school’s rural location.
“We didn’t practice after school,” Strother said. “We had 30 minutes during gym to work on fundamentals. We didn’t have any way to get home if we practiced after school.”
His on-court career came to a close upon graduation in 1968, but thanks to his principal, he would return to the hardwood in a different capacity, but not before one more detour.
In 1970, Strother married and stepped away from his studies at NSU to provide for his family. It didn’t take long to realize the plywood mill wasn’t for him after all.
“I realized that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in the mill,” Strother said. “My late wife, Charlotte, got a job at Ft. Polk, and her pay took care of everything. She said, ‘Go back and finish school.’ With her support, I went back.”
After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in 1974, Strother would be hired as an elementary physical ed teacher at Florien, located roughly 40 miles southwest of Natchitoches. He would keep books for the boys team before being asked to begin the girls basketball program in the early 1980s.
It didn’t take long for Strother to mold the Black Cats into one of the state’s best programs. In his second season, the team won the district championship, and then in 1986, they advanced to the semifinals, losing to Starks. Then came a state runner-up finish in 1987 to Starks.
The girls at Florien had bought into his style of “90-foot basketball.”
“The girls saw what we were doing,” Strother said. “It was exciting. The goal for the next year was to get back to state. We went back and made it to the finals. That started everything for us.”
“He was very intense at the time,” said Florien coach Angela Anthony, who played for Strother. “Kids nowadays could not have played for him. We had a good time, but we took care of business. All the girls were 100 percent bought in, and our parents were bought in.”
The seeds had been planted for one of the greatest runs in girls’ basketball history in Louisiana.
Florien claimed its first state championship under Strother in 1989 by rolling Chatham, but the next year lost the title game to Sabine Parish rival Zwolle, 47-35. That championship loss would be the last one for more than a calendar year.
In 1990-91, Florien went 48-0, defeated Holden for the state crown, and was ranked No. 13 in the nation — the perfect season.
Florien would repeat in 1992 by beating Pitkin for the state title, then win the title again in 1993 over Zwolle, and defeat Doyle for the crown in 1994.
In six years, Florien went to six consecutive title games, hoisting the title trophy five times.
“It was amazing,” said Strother’s daughter, Jessica Caroline, who played for her dad. “Florien, it was on the map. Everybody knew about Florien. Everybody knew Dad. Everybody still knows Dad. They will say, ‘he is so amazing, and I wish we had a coach like him.'”
“They always had great players,” James Smith said. “Dewain’s kids were well coached. You weren’t getting kids who were raw and had to teach them everything. They were disciplined and fundamentally sound. They had so many games and practices, and it showed. They just wanted to win. No one intimidated them.”
The key to Strother’s coaching success was humility, as the coach never stopped trying to learn and improve.
“After my first year as head coach, I thought I knew basketball, but I didn’t,” Strother recalled. “You have to find out who the five best players are playing together, not the five best overall. That summer, I went to Bobby Knight’s coaching clinic. I wrote in pad after pad of notes.”
Strother added, “Anytime I got a chance, I went to clinics. Jody Conradt, Dean Smith, Jim Calhoun, and Geno Auriemma. I have seen all of them and listened to them. I educated myself on the game and never looked back.”
“He was always wanting to learn something new,” daughter Caroline said. “The coaches these days are not like they used to be. Even through all of his fussing or screaming on the floor, he was still teaching us something. You don’t get that nowadays.”
Strother retired after the 2022-23 season following a storied career filled with a gym full of accomplishments and even more memories. The legendary coach imagined spending his days playing golf, but that first year, he didn’t play at all due to knee replacement surgery. It didn’t take long for him to have the coaching itch.
This past year, Strother returned to Florien to help his former player, turned assistant coach and then head coach. The Black Cats won 18 games and earned a playoff berth.
“He came back with a vengeance,” Anthony said. “He had rested up for two years, and he was raring to go. They (our girls) got something they weren’t expecting to get.”
“I truly enjoyed it,” Strother said. “My whole demeanor had changed because I felt useful again. It is great to be back.”
Strother is back where he was destined to be — on the hardwood of a small high school gymnasium.