SLS 17RS-558 ORIGINAL
2017 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 59
BY SENATOR PERRY AND REPRESENTATI VE HENSGENS
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Randall Bertrand, head coach of the girls' basketball
team at Gueydan High School, upon the occasion of being named Louisiana Class 1A Coach
of the Year for the 2016-2017 season.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To commend Randall Bertrand, coach of the girls' basketball team at Gueydan High School,
3 upon the occasion of being named Louisiana Class 1A Coach of the Year in girls'
4 basketball for the 2016-2017 season.
5 WHEREAS, Randall Bertrand is the coach of girls' basketball team at Gueydan High
6 School in Gueydan, Louisiana, a small town in the heart of Acadiana; and
7 WHEREAS, Coach Bertrand led his Honey Bears girls' basketball team to the Class
8 1A State Championship in 2017 and was selected both Vermilion Parish Coach of the Year
9 and Louisiana High School Athletic Association Class 1A State Coach of the Year for the
10 2016-2017 school year; and
11 WHEREAS, Randall Bertrand remarked that the question he was asked most
12 frequently at the state championship tournament, known as "Marsh Madness", was "Where's
13 Gueydan?"; and
14 WHEREAS, Coach Bertrand was confident of his team's abilities and especially their
15 dominating defensive play, which held their opponent, the Lady Canes from North Central
16 High School in Lebeau, Louisiana, to twenty-nine percent shooting in the first half and
17 seventeen percent in the second half of the championship game; and
18 WHEREAS, Coach Bertrand has been a history teacher and girls' basketball coach
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SLS 17RS-558 ORIGINAL
1 at Gueydan High School for the past eight years and he has taught for a total of eleven years
2 in Acadia and Vermilion parishes; and
3 WHEREAS, after graduating from Indian Bayou High School in Vermilion Parish
4 in 1983, Randall Bertrand married and settled down to raise his family in Acadia Parish and
5 he worked in the petrochemical industry in Calcasieu Parish for thirteen years; and
6 WHEREAS, Coach Bertrand initially dreamt of becoming a basketball referee,
7 having played basketball in high school, and he refereed for eleven years at the elementary,
8 junior high, and high school levels as a hobby; and
9 WHEREAS, while Coach Bertrand's children attended Morse Elementary in Acadia
10 Parish, he volunteered to coach both the girls' and boys' basketball teams at the school and
11 he also established the Midland Lil Dribblers Organization to recruit parents to assist with
12 coaching teams of various ages and served as president of the group for eight years; and
13 WHEREAS, while coaching as a volunteer, Randall Bertrand realized that teaching
14 and coaching basketball was his dream career and he enrolled in Louisiana State University
15 at Eunice, Louisiana at the age of thirty-six to begin working toward that dream; and
16 WHEREAS, Coach Bertrand worked full-time at a local vitamin production facility
17 in Acadia Parish while in school in Eunice and upon completion of his studies at LSU-E, he
18 transferred to McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he earned a
19 bachelor of science degree in physical education with a minor in history; and
20 WHEREAS, as a coach, teacher, father, and husband, Randall Bertrand has set a high
21 bar for his own achievement in each of these roles, serving as an example of working hard
22 to become who he wanted to be in life, while fulfilling his responsibility to provide for his
23 family; and
24 WHEREAS, Coach Bertrand brought his passion and commitment to his role of
25 coach to lead the young women of the Gueydan Honey Bears to achieve their full potential
26 as a basketball team, while teaching them the life skills and the attitude to live a life filled
27 with their best effort everyday and in every endeavor.
28 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
29 commend Randall Bertrand, coach of the girls' basketball team at Gueydan High School,
30 upon the occasion of being named Louisiana Class 1A Coach of the Year in girls' basketball
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SLS 17RS-558 ORIGINAL
1 for the 2016-2017 season.
2 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
3 Coach Randall Bertrand.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Mary Dozier O'Brien.
DIGEST
SCR 59 Original 2017 Regular Session Perry
Commends Randall Bertrand upon the occasion of being named Louisiana Class 1A Coach
of the Year in girls' basketball for the 2016-2017 season.
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