Kirk Crochet always credited his community for its support in helping make the Loreauville High football program a winner in his 27 seasons at the school, so it’s no surprise that he views his election to the state high school Hall of Fame as a community honor.

Crochet and former Hanson wrestler Patrick Luke are among the eight former athletes, coaches and administrators elected to the Hall of Fame this month. Induction ceremonies are scheduled for Jan. 28 in Baton Rouge.

“It’s a very humbling feeling when you see who is in the Hall of Fame, the type of people who are in there already,” said Crochet. “I’m viewing it as a community award because I couldn’t win one football game alone, much less 201. It took players, assistant coaches, fans and support groups and administration and just an entire community to attain what we did.”

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Crochet is one of only three coaches in the Teche Area, and the only one who spent his career in Iberia Parish, to coach his prep teams to 200 wins, finishing with a career mark of 201-122 with 20 playoff appearances before his retirement following the 2006 season.

The other two �” Crochet’s longtime friend Carroll Delahoussaye of St. Martinville (246-92-1 in 28 years) and Hanson’s legendary Dick McCloskey (39 years, 286-141-6) �” already are in the Hall of Fame. McCloskey was elected in 1982 and Delahoussaye in 1999. Former NISH coaches Faize Mahfouz and Fay “T-Model” Thurman were inducted in 1979 and 2002, respectively.

“I guess the only two goals that I didn’t reach were that I wanted to coach in college and wanted to win the state championship in high school, and that didn’t happen,” said Crochet, who began his career as an assistant coach at Central Catholic.

He also spent four years as an assistant at Morgan City High and one at St. Martinville before being named head coach at his alma mater in 1978,

“I guess i knew that it would be a career,” said Crochet. “I never knew I would end up at my alma mater for that long, but that was my goal. I wanted to coach there.”

Crochet said he misses the excitement of coaching on Friday nights, though his job with scoreboards company Daktronics allows him to attend games.

“I miss the highs a lot, but not the lows,” said Crochet. “I guess I’m not ready to get back in yet. I’m not ready to face the lows.

“I try to see as many teams as I can. I try to go to whatever game I feel like going to. It’s been nice to see the different kind of styles of play, different size schools.”

Football is something that people can identify with, he said.

“When you win the whole community’s happy and you try to keep them that way,” said Crochet. “I just think that it seems like nothing else does it like football. I definitely felt like we had a real good situation, good facilities and tremendous community support. Some (Class) 5A games I go to I don’t see as many fans as Loreauville.”

Joining Crochet and Luke in this year’s class are former LaGrange principal Jimmy Anderson; former LHSAA assistant commissioner Douglas “Mac” Chauvin; former Redemptorist, Catholic High (Baton Rouge), Belaire, Tara and East Ascension football coach John Barrett Murphy; former St. Aloysius and Brother Martin cross country coach John “Jack” Schommer; former Tallulah, Farmerville and Downsville basketball coach Larry Stegal; and longtime AAU, Biddy Basketball, junior high and high school basketball referee Ben Mahaffey.