Don Shows

Donald Harrison Shows, known as Don Shows (born 1940), is a champion high school and college football coach who since 1989 has directed the West Monroe High School Rebels in West Monroe, Louisiana. On June 25, 2011, Shows will be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, located in Natchitoches. The nominees are chosen by a 30-member committee of the Louisiana Sportswriters Association. The 2011 nominees will bring the number thus far honored to 285.^[1]

Background

Shows was reared in Ruston in Lincoln Parish, where he graduated in 1958 from Ruston High School and played football under coach Hoss Garrett: "We ran the Notre Dame Box. I played tailback, which is essentially the same as a quarterback in the 'gun.' I also ran track and played baseball. I won four state championships in track." As a child, Shows actually preferred baseball and basketball to football, and he still watches other sports competitions besides football. He attended Louisiana Tech University in Ruston from 1958–1963 and graduated with teacher certification in science and physical education. He is married to the former Daune Ducote, originally from Alexandria, Louisiana. The couple has four children, Stephanie, Kim, Casey, and Haley. Shows is also an active hunter and fisherman.^[2]

Coaching assignments

Prior to his long tenure at West Monroe in Ouachita Parish, Shows coached the Jonesboro-Hodge High School Tigers in Jonesboro, Louisiana, to the 1977 state championship. That competition, against John Curtis Christian High School in River Ridge in Jefferson Parish, was the last game played at the old Tulane University Stadium in New Orleans.^[2]

Since his arrival at West Monroe, Shows has led the Rebels to sixteen district, seven state, and two national championships. The Rebels also secured six state runner-up designations. Before Shows took over the Rebels, the team had mostly losing seasons for many previous years.^[2][3]

Shows also formerly coached at Farmerville in Union Parish, Alexandria in Rapides Parish and Pineville High School in Pineville in Rapides Parish. In 1985, he was a 45-year-old graduate assistant at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, then known as Northeast Louisiana State University, where he coached the linebackers for the Northeast Louisiana Indians, since the Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks. In 1988, as offensive line coach, he helped to propel the Demons of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches to a conference championship. He coached several Division 1 college players, several of whom went on to play at Louisiana State University in Baton Rogue.^[2]

Favorite football moment

Shows describes his favorite football moment from 1997, "when we [West Monroe] were playing Shaw (of Marrero) for the championship. We were facing 4th and goal, down 19-14 with about a minute and a half left in the game, and Rodney Reed made a great adjustment on his block, Lane LaBorde made the right read, and Willis Britton followed Reed into the end zone for the win! Beating Carencro (Lafayette Parish) in the 1996 state championship was incredible! And beating St. Augustine (in New Orleans) in 1993 was awesome because no one thought we could, but we proved a lot of people wrong that day!"^[2] West Monroe had been expected to finish last in 1996 in District 2-5A that year but instead went undefeated in district for the first time.^[2]

Legacy

In January 2010, Shows received the A.O. Evans Award for community service from the West Monroe-West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce. The award is named for the first West Monroe chamber president.^[3] Greg Hilburn, staff writer for the Monroe News Star writes that Shows "took over a moribund West Monroe football program in 1989. The school had been to the playoffs only twice in forty years before his arrival as head coach."^[3] In a previous interview with the News Star, Shows said that upon his arrival the West Monroe program was "at a point in time where it was going to fold up ... or it was going to turn around. Personally, I don't think anybody really cared one way or the other, because they didn't think you could win here."^[3] The Rebels last won a state championship on December 12, 2009, when they beat Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, 30-0, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.^[3]

Mayor Dave Norris of West Monroe noted that the West Monroe High School football program "lagged until Don came along. And the success of the football program has clearly bled into other segments of our city. It's a point of pride in our city and a reason for us to come together . . . "^[3]

Shows' state championships were in 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, and 2009. He was runner-up once at Jonesboro-Hodge and at West Monroe in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2008, and 2010.^[1][4] On December 11, 2010, Shows' West Monroe Rebels lost 21-14 to the Acadiana High School Rams of Lafayette Parish in the Class 5-A title game at the Superdome.^[4]

Shows sustained a "severe concussion" on November 23, 2012, when at least one football player collided with him on the sideline during a quarterfinal game, which his West Monroe Rebels won. He was taken to the intensive care unit at St. Francis Medical Center in West Monroe. A week earlier, Shows left his Rebels team second-round home game because of hypertension but remained on the field for the Don Shows field dedication ceremony that evening at Rebel Stadium. He was hospitalized on November 16 but returned to coach two days later.^[5]

References