It was a Knight to remember for Episcopal, who swept the LHSAA Class 2A State Outdoor Championships on Friday night. The boys' team, led by senior William Foster Lambert in the distance events, scored 96 points. The girls', led by sophomores Neva Lambert and Ada Mere in the distance events, scored 84 points.
It was a special night for one Knight in particular--Espiscopal girls' head coach Bill Jones, who is retiring after 43 years of coaching in the Baton Rouge area.
"It never gets old...I'll tell you that," Jones, who led his teams to state track and field championships at three different schools, said about his final state championship.
The first two decades of his coaching career, Jones was at Donaldsonville where he was Louisiana Sports Writer's Association Coach of the Year in 1997 when his boys' team won the Class 3A State Championship with 62 points.
That Donaldsonville team would defend their title and win state again in 1998.
Former Bossier High School head coach, Jim Gatlin, remembers Coach Jones and those Donaldsonville teams. His Bearkats finished as the state runner-up in both 1997 and 1998.
"You always knew that Donaldsonville was the team to beat," Gatlin said. "They were always going to be well-coached. And they were always strong in the field events--especially the throws. We always had to keep an eye on what they were doing in the field events so we knew what we had to do on the track."
Gatlin's Bearkats were finally able to get over the hump in 1999 and win program's first state championship.
Hall of Fame journalist Robin Fambrough, who covered Jones' led teams in both football and track, was always impressed with the consistency of Jones' team and how he got the most out of his athletes.
"Just the consistency," Fambrough said on what impressed her the most over Jones' career. "He was always able to shape his athletes into what they needed to be. He knew how to place them according to their strengths, which is what a coach is supposed to do. His athletes always seemed to be even keel. He handled situations as they arose. He could build them up...whatever needed to be done, he would do it. In track, you have stars, but with his teams it was always the sum of the parts."
Fambrough also mentioned Jones' head football coaching experience and how it played to Jones' ability to delegate tasks.
"The schools where he coached, collaboration was important," Fambrough said. " He always seemed to do that well throughout his career."
Jones moved from Donaldsonville to Dutchtown where in 2012 his team won the Class 5A state championship by scoring 86 points--25 points more than Catholic, who had won the championship the previous four years and the Bears would go on to claim the next five.
In 2014, Jones' Dutchtown team finished as the runner-up to Catholic.
Jones became the head girls' coach at Episcopal in 2018 and has been a part of 11 state championships with the Knights.
"I've loved working with Claney (Duplechin)," Jones said referring to Episcopal's Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame boys coach. "I'm certainly going to miss that."
In retirement, Jones is looking forward to travelling with his wife.
