The Captain Shreve Enterprise- Shreveport, Louisiana Captain Shreve High School Price 50¢ Page2 THE COACH Excellence is evident thrDugiJDut his cfJreer 1977 is the eleventh year in the exis­ After graduation from Fair Park, tence of Captain Shreve High School. Hedges attended college at LSU in It is also the eleventh year Lee Hedges Baton Rouge, where he starred on both has been head coach of the Shreve foot­ the baseball and football teams. He ball team and his record over the past lettered in both sports and is currently ten years speaks for itself: one state third ranked on the all-time minutes champion, for district champions, played list at the Baton Rouge school. eight playoff teams and an overall record of 155-67-1 0. While on the football team at LSU , Coach Hedges became one of only two Where did it all begin? Shreveport players-Byrd's David A coaching career. Where does a Woodley is the other-to ever play coaching career start? How does a quarterback for the "fighting" Tigers. coach become a coach? It all started for Hedges also played on one bowl team Lee He.dges on the athletic fields of while at LSU , the 1949 Tiger squad Fair Park High School. which lost the Sugar Bowl to the nation­ al champions, the Oklahoma Sooners, · ·· The ideals, the values, the philoso­ 35-0. phies that Hedges would carry through­ out his coaching career were formed at In The Minor league Fair Park High School while he was starring in the Indians' athletic pro­ Football, then as now was Lee gram. Hedges was a four year letter­ Hedges' main sport, but he still loved to man in three sports: baseball, basket­ play baseball and he spent two years, ball and football. In his senior year he 1952-53, playing minor league base­ made what was then called the "All­ ball for the New York Yankees organiza­ North Louisiana Team" as second team tion on a Class C team at Baton Rouge. halfback. Hedges spent the biggest part of From this you gather that Lee 1954-55 serving his country in the Hedges was a good high school athlete armed forces, but he returned in the fall with loads of God-given natural ability, of 1955 to begin his coaching career as but that really wasn't the case as long­ assistant football and head baseball time personal friend , and Captain coach at his old alma mater, Fair Park "The tvill to excell nnd Shreve Principal Stanley Powell ex­ High School. tile tvill to min, tlley en• plains, "Lee Hedges was an outstanding dure. Tiley are nuJre hn· high school athlete as we all know and In the fall of 1956, Lee Hedges re­ as his athletic achievements at Fair ceived his first head coaching job as he portnnt tllan tile events Park clearly point out. Lee, however, moved across town from Fair Park to that occusion tlletn.' was not one of those athletes blessed Byrd to become head mentor of the with tremendous physical abilities or yellow Jackets, a perennial football Vince Lombardi natural-God given talent, but he has one powerhouse. The Jackets did not lose of those intangibles that always make their touch under the tutaledge of Lee the difference. What Lee had was the Hedges as they compiled four straight incredible desire to be better than what winning seasons under him from 1956 The wind of change moved across he was; so he put forth a special effort, through 1959. The best of these seasons Lee Hedges life again in both 1966 and worked extra hard and became the out­ was 1958 when Hedges took the Yellow 1967. In ' 66 he moved from the high standing athlete that he was then, and Jackets all the way to the state finals, school ranks to the college ranks as the excellent coach he is today." only to lose 14-7. an assistant coach on Joe Aillet's staff at Louisiana Tech University. Then in 1960 brought another change in Lee '67 Hedges moved back into a high Hedges' coaching career as Caddo school coaching job, taking over the Parish opened a new high school, reigns of the then newly-opened Cap­ Woodlawn. Hedges moved in as the tain Shreve High School. Breakdown first head coach in Knight history. Dur­ ing his five years at Woodlawn, 1960- Captain Shreve has been open 1948 Graduate of Fair Park 1965, Hedges instilled a winning foot­ eleven years now , yet in the short space ball 1953 LSU 's Fighting Tigers tradition that has helped Woodlawn of ten years , Lee Hedges has built the football teams 1952-53 Minor League Baseball at Baton be annual playoff con­ Gator football program into one of the tenders Rouge almost since the school's in­ most respected in the state. ception. 1955 Assistant coach at Fair Park 1956-59 Head coach at Byrd Eight playoff teams, four district Hedges' best year at Wood lawn 1960-65 Head coach at Woodlawn cham pions and that g real undefeated came in 1965 when with Terry Brad­ 1966 Assistant 1973 state championship team-and all coach at La. Tech shaw calling signals at the quarterback 1967- head coach at Captain Shreve of this in just ten years. As long as Lee slot, the Knights rolled all the way to Hedges is on hand the future of Captain the state championship game where Shreve football will be very bright. they lost a heartbreaker, 12-7. VERY BRIGHT INDEED! THE COACH Page~ On Friday night, October 14, 1977, the Captain Sh~eve Gators downed the Minden Crimson Tide, 14-0. It was the The record Gators third straight victory, and their third straight district victory, giving them a 3-0 district slate for the '77 season , but it meant more than that­ belongs much more than that to Coach Lee Hedges. That win , for the only head football coach Captain Shreve High School has to Hedges ever known, was number 155 in the coaching career of Hedges and it made him the winningest high school football By Donald Garrett coach in Shreveport-Bossier history. Hedges' overall record now stands at Captain Shreve High School really 155 victories, 67 losses and 10 ties, for doesn't realize just what it has in a winning percentage of about .690. Hedges. He is without a doubt the finest Coach Hedges' 155th victory moved him high school football coach in North one up on his own former high school . Louisiana, probably in the whole state. coach , F.H. Prendergast, whom Hedges Maybe last years ' Gator football player, played under while attending Fair Teddy Casten , puts everything in the Park High School. Prendergast com­ proper perspective for us when he piled a 154-78-13 record for a .655 win­ says, "Coach Hedges is an incredible ning percentage during his 23 years as man. He is respected by everyone he head mentor for the Indians. comes in contact with . It is incredible There you have it. What more can Lee Hedges is a very humble man, that he can be so successful year in and be said that hasn ' t already been said as he unconciously shows in his follow­ year out with both good and bad materi­ about Lee Hedges, except maybe this: ing statement about becoming the win­ al. It just goes to show you what type of WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY defines ningest coach . coach he really is . Coach Hedges is so " incredible" as "beyond belief." And Hedges Reflects far ahead of the rest of the field of high that ' s it, that ' s the key to what Lee "The win brings back many memo­ school coaches , that it is incredible. Hedges has meant to this community, ries for me. I wasn ' t trying to keep up Overall, all I can say is that I have what he has meant to the four high with how many I had won. It was a good gained tremendously by having Lee schools , Fair Park, Byrd , Woodlawn and effort by all our guys. I hate to get sort Hedges as a coach and as a friend. Captain Shreve, at which he has work­ of sentimental about it, as I wasn't Captain Shreve has something special ed , and what he has meant to the I iteral­ aware prior to reading about it in the going for them that should not be over­ ly thousands of lives that he has touched paper." looked . Coach Lee Hedges is a gem and in his coaching . Junior Lee Hedges is I cannot comme Tennis goes nd him enough. " truly an 1-N-C-R-E-D-1-B-L-E man! all the way Football is not the only sport which Lee Hedges coaches well. For in 1977, Coach Hedges coached the Gator tennis team to state titles in girls' doubles, boys 'doubles, girls' singles, and mixed doubles. Asked why Shreve has had such suc­ cessful tennis teams, Coach Hedges replied , "We have excellent players at Shreve. They have played tennis from around ten years of age and are coached by excellent tennis professionals at local clubs. " When asked how much he enjoys coaching tennis, which he has been coaching for 17 years, Hedges answer­ ed, " I enjoy it very much. It is different from football in that I can play it to a certain degree." How long and how often has Coach Hedges played tennis? " I have been playing tennis for about 16 years. During the summer I play about three times a week, but I don't play very often during football season." Page4 THE COACH be.