Former Lady Bengal to head program

She knew her way to Eunice because she has been here before.
Former Lady Bengal basketball player Amanda Clemons has been named LSU Eunice head women's basketball coach to follow in the footsteps of Kathy Barlow, Michael Bari and Yolanda Moore.
“It is very special,” Clemons said of her return to LSUE. “It is like coming back home and I remember how awesome it was here - a unique, special place.”
Clemons will step into a Lady Bengal program coming off a 26-4 season that included their first Miss-Lou Conference Championship and a trip to the Region 23 Tournament.
Clemons, who was a guard at LSU Eunice under the program's first head coach, Kathy Barlow, went on to play at Louisiana College before a high school coaching career that has included being named the Louisiana Class 3A Coach of the Year in 2011.
“I was here from 2001-2004,” Clemons said of her Lady Bengal beginning. “My second year, I broke my foot so I stayed an extra year.”
After a high school career at Pickering High, Clemons then played at LSU Eunice and Louisiana College where she earned a degree in Health and Physical Education.
“I was blessed to play under Coach Barlow here at LSUE and then Tonya McIntosh at LC,” she said. “I was also blessed to coach with Paul Allen Duke, one of best Division III coaches.”
Clemons earned her master's degree while serving as an assistant coach at Mississippi College, where she gained experience in recruiting student-athletes and monitoring academic performance in addition to on-court coaching.
At Avoyelles High, she was named the District Coach of the Year and Parish Coach of the Year in addition to her State Coach of the Year honor in 2010-2011 after leading her team to a state finalists finish in her first season as a head coach (29-2 overall, 13-0 in district).
“I was blessed with talented kids,” she said of the Lady Mustangs. “We lost in the state championship game to St. James (61-49).”
Clemons also coached three seasons at Leesville, including a 24-8 finish in 2012-13.
“I knew since I was 11 that I wanted to be a coach,” she said. “I had a goal that if I wasn’t a college coach by the time I was 30, I would make a career change.
“I hit 31 and I wasn’t coaching on the college level so I resigned my high school position and took a job as probation-parole officer job and went through a 14-week police academy in Baton Rouge.
“It was three days before graduation at the academy that I got a phone call that if I was interested in the job, I needed to come talk to them,” Clemons said. “I couldn’t leave Baton Rouge fast enough, I wanted the opportunity to coach college.”
In her first months as a college head coach, she had to build a team around two returning players and then watch as the Lady Bengal gym floor was redone.
“I am okay with hitting adversity in the face,” she said. “I like challenges, I know we can overcome these obstacles.
Clemons joined the LSUE staff as interim head coach in April and immediately hit the road finding players who wanted to move to Eunice with her.
“It was a challenge but we found kids who just wanted to have a chance,” she said. “They have talent and the heart that we need.
“I hit the road and found kids in Tennessee, Texas and Louisiana,” she said. “We were able to find a lot of talent that was overlooked.”
Two sophomores returning will serve as captains - Meghan Knight (LaSalle) and Taylor Holzmeier (West Monroe) - were both recruited by Bari and played for Moore.
“They will have their third head coach here,” Clemons said. “They are great leaders, they want us to be successful.”
Clemons said the lack of their own gym floor has affected individual workouts, but they will just have to work harder to catch up with the other teams.
“They understand what they have to do to get ready even without a floor,” the coach said. “St. Edmund has been so amazing to us to allow our players to work out over there in the afternoons.”
The coach said Lady Bengal basketball will be exciting for the fans to watch.
“We want to score fast and then run back on defense to keep the other team from being able to set up their offense,” she said. “We have a talented team. We can’t wait for that first game.”