When it comes to athletes unable to make summer workouts, coach Guillot shares: "The kids know what's expected. And they lay it on the line for us. So we are certainly going to try and work with them also." - Coach Guillot
“One of the reasons we pack our stadium is because the kids in the school, teachers, and community like our football players because they’re not a bunch of jerks. They are well-rounded, nice, hard working kids.” – Coach Guillot
Kenny Guillot
Head Football Coach
Parkview Baptist High School
Lousiana Football 3A
State Champions
2001 & 2007
W.C.: What are some of the special things you have done to win a state championship?
K.G.: My son-in-law, Jay Mayet, is a certified athletic trainer and strength and conditioning specialist. He does an awesome job with our off-season training program, and I believe it is the strength of our program. He played for me at McNeese. My offensive coordinator, Scott Dieterich, runs the triple option. They both have been with me for all nine years. Then one of my players, David Simoneaux, played on the 2001 state championship team, went to college and played football, then came back and coached the 2007 state championship team. We have had other kids come back and coach with us. So our success is somewhat inbred. The coaches know our system and keep it going. We are not blessed with players that have great speed, such as a 4.4 or 4.5 forty. I tell the College coaches our kids are going to be 4.6 or 4.65 type kids but they will run that in the first quarter and the last quarter! Our linemen will hit you just as hard in the fourth quarter as they will in the first quarter. That is what we try to preach to our players. It is all about how you practice, we have to be disciplined, responsible, and committed; it’s the whole shooting match. Fortunately, the players and parents have bought into our program. Our Backers Club is made up of men and women, moms and dads. I’ve had ladies come up to me and thank me for letting them be part of the program. But our keys to success are the continuity of our staff and our work ethic. We were behind in seven games this past season and won them all. In one game we were down 25 to 7 and came back and won. We even came back in the state championship game. The kids believe in themselves, each other, and the coaches. We had a coach come from West Virginia to put in the 3-3-5 Defense for us, and it has suited us well. Jays defense last year had maybe two guys over 200 pounds. The rest were Linebacker – Strong Safety – Rover type guys. Our biggest defensive back was 152 pounds. The Slot-back weighs 152 pounds and he was the MVP of our state championship game. Our kids play hard and they’re fun to watch.
W.C.: You’ve only been head coach nine years and you won a state championship in 2001?
K.G.: I have coached high school football for 11 years in Baton Rouge, six years at Nicholls State, then three years at McNeese. I got fired at McNeese and was out of coaching for nine years. My son-in-law was the coach and athletic trainer here at Parkview when the head coach resigned. I knew the Superintendent and he asked me if I would be the head coach. I told him if he doesn’t mind an ex-Catholic Methodist coaching Baptist kids, then its fine with me! Ha-ha! But I told him that if he was serious to give me a call. Then the company I was working for was sold. So I think it was a God thing because he definitely closed one door and opened another. The year before I arrived the three teams Parkview beat were a combined 1 and 30. But our first year we made it to the second round of the playoffs. The kids just started buying into what we were doing. The following year, we were 11 – 2, and we lost to a team in our district that went to the state championship game. We lost to that team by a missed field goal. A sports-writer asked me if I thought we could win the state championship and I told him I hadn’t thought about it. But the next year, we won it!
The only goal we set at the beginning of the year is to go as deep in the playoffs as we can. At the end of this season, I told the juniors and seniors that they know what it takes to win a state championship. So, if they want do it again, it is up to them. I said, “You know what to do, now go out and do it.” That is the challenge I gave to the kids and we have a chance to be pretty good. If we have success early we may make another run at it.
W.C.: To have assistant coaches and former players stick with you so long you must be doing something special. Can you give us an example of something you do almost daily to make it so wonderful for people?
K.G.: This will sound corny, and I don’t like talking about myself. But I love people, and I am a people pleaser. After a JV football game I’m the guy out there picking-up the yard markers, putting away the chains, cleaning up the field. I don’t ask my assistant coaches to stay for the parent club meeting. They have young kids and they should go on home. I try to give Jay and Scott as much freedom as they need, Jay calls the defense and Scott calls the offense, and I manage the game. My coaches enjoy getting to do their thing and I don’t micromanage them. If I’m going to hire a coach I won’t hire a coach Jay and Scott don’t want. And we have had good guys on our staff. Guys like Bob McConnell from Louisiana State.
This Saturday, we have a work day in which 60 to 75 parents will come to clean and paint the locker room. Every Thursday we have a huddle club meeting. I tell kids we don’t talk about playing time on Thursdays at the huddle. We have a devotional, the parents will cook something for us, if it is a home game we will paint the field, if it is an away game the parents make travel arrangements. We have a father-son breakfast – I don’t believe in guest speakers for the breakfast. We do that on Thursdays. Often they will talk to the kids about being saved or an interesting time in their life being an athlete. During homecoming week we have a mother’s son breakfast, and we give the mothers a corsage. The last game of the year we have a senior family breakfast. We just go to a local restaurant and have the players and their guest show up at 6:30 in the morning and everybody’s free to leave when they want, I bless the food, then we just eat and talk. Kids have to be at school by 8:00am.
We had a player involved in auto accident and he had his leg amputated below the knee. He started 15 games for us as a sophomore. We had a golf tournament and we raised around $40,000 for him.
We have a true community. We only have 500 kids in our high school, but we sell 3000 tickets. So the community supports our program. We don’t give scholarships and we play in a public league. We have competed against a lot of great athletes and our kids compete hard.
I do not have a mandatory summer weightlifting program. But the kids still come. Now I do check role every day; but if I tell a kid he’s got to make 25 workouts, and he’s a great baseball player and he’s out with the team playing baseball during the summer, I’m not going to punish him. Or we have a kid whose grandmother is sick and he’s got to go help his grandfather and miss some work-outs, I’m not going to punish him. I try to stay away from those kinds of things; I have enough controversy in my life, Ha-ha. You know, I’m a grandpa and I want my grandkids to come visit me in the summertime. My motto with our players is: “When you are in town, you work out”. We don’t split up workouts during the day. We just have all the kids come in at 8:00am and leave by 10:30 or 11:00. Sometimes a kid will tell me he has to work, and then I tell him, “You’re right, you have to work.” I’m not going to fight those battles. The kids know what’s expected. And they lay it on the line for us. So we are certainly going to try and work with them also.
So these are some of the reasons why the kids love our program and buy into it and keep coming back. We had three kids at Louisiana State University last year, one of them graduated and two of them are starting now, Darry Beckwith a 6-1 232lb linebacker and Lyle Hitt a 6-2 289 lb right guard. Clay Spencer, 6-5 281 lb – just went out there as an offensive lineman. We have another commitment, Carnell Ainsworth, who will be up there after this year. And those kids that got scholarships come and work out with us and they talk to our kids at the football camp. The great thing is they’re such good kids spiritually and have great character. They are a lot of fun to be around.
I tell a kid, I don’t want a bunch of dumb jocks. We had a defensive lineman of who played for Louisiana Tech, who was in the play Beauty and the Beast. We had another guy in a lead role for another musical. One of the reasons we pack our stadium is because the kids in the school, teachers, and community like our football players because they’re not a bunch of jerks. They are well-rounded, nice, hard working kids.
Coach Guillot led Parkview Baptist High School to a 15 – 0 record in 2001 and 2007. Outside 2001 and 2007, Parkview has been to the semi finals once and the quarterfinals six out of the nine years he has coached.
Interview: August, 2008