Former Delcambre coach Dahrie Koenig, right, was honored Sunday prior to her upcoming induction into the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame. - Chris Landry / The Daily Iberian

DELCAMBRE — Dahrie Koenig was scared to death when she first set foot in the old gym at Delcambre High School to begin her teaching career, only five days after finishing school at McNeese in January of 1971.

Within two weeks she knew she’d found a new home, and an extended family in the community she called home for the next 36 1/2 years.

The community that adopted her some 40 years ago honored Koenig on Sunday for her selection to the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame. Induction ceremonies will be Jan. 26 in Baton Rouge.

Koenig said the reception she got from the people of Delcambre let her know she was going to stay there.

“It was just so genuine,” said Keonig. “For people who have never lived in a small community, it’s hard to understand.”

Vivian Koenig told the crowd she recalled when her sister chose to go to Delcambre High School. Dahrie Koenig could have taken a position at her alma mater, New Iberia Senior High, when she finished college, but instead chose DHS.

“That was the best decision of her life,” said Vivian Koenig.

Dahrie Koenig let those gathered at the Shrimp Festival Building know exactly how much they’ve meant to her.

“As much as you’re telling me I touched you, you’ve touched me in ways you don’t realize,” she said.

That was especially true in 2000 after retiring from coaching and being named an assistant principal at DHS. Koenig was diagnosed with breast cancer just as the school year was starting, and Vivian Koenig said that without the community’s support and prayers, she doesn’t think her sister would have pulled through that trying time as well as she did.

“I found out two weeks before, I was pretty much told they thought it was cancer,” said Dahrie Koenig. “I had an appointment at M.D. Anderson (Cancer Center in Houston). The night I went for the diagnosis, I got a phone call. They told me the volleyball team, which had played a match that day, went to mass in their uniforms after. The community had a mass for me.”

That entire year, she said, her sister shopped and cared for her, and the community cooked for her and helped her in countless ways.

“You showed me in that particular year how much you loved me,” Koenig said. “That entire year the faculty did my entire job. I can never repay the faculty of Delcambre High School for what you did for me.”

Andrea Broussard, a 1987 Delcambre graduate, said Koenig was her P.E. teacher for four years “and my best friend beyond that.” Her former teacher had a favorite saying that she would write in the students’ yearbooks, said Broussard, one that was apt as Koenig’s former students, players and coworkers honored her.

“One of her favorite sayings was, ‘Good times may come and go, but memories last forever,’” said Broussard.

DHS athletic director Darcy Delcambre was a sophomore when Koenig arrived at Delcambre High School in 1971. He later became a colleague of hers when he returned to his alma mater as a teacher and coach, spent a year as an assistant coach with her and worked under her when she was an assistant principal from 2000-07.

“When you talk about Miss Koenig and Delcambre High School, it’s kind of hand in hand,” said Delcambre. “Growing up, and teaching, that’s all I’ve know. She was a coach and she was a friend. You just try to emulate her. There’s a little bit of her in all of us at Delcambre.

“She’s an incredible woman.”

Carey Laviolette, the Iberia Parish Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, was a student at DHS when Koenig arrived there. Koenig started the volleyball program at DHS in 1971, resurrected the basketball program the next year more than a decade after it had been discontinued, and started the girls’ track program as well.

She became close to Koenig after becoming a teacher herself, and said there’s nothing her mentor wouldn’t do for anyone else, even when she was exhausted beyond words. Koenig would hold overnight team-building exercises in the gym for her teams, staying up with the kids as they danced, dressed up and had a good time as they built team unity.

“The thing I always respected most about her was her leadership and dedication to the students,” said Laviolette. “My daughter was in her last class that she coached. How many coaches in the winter of their careers would do that for their kids, to build team spirit?”

Koenig said her parents were always there for her through her athletic career, beginning with sixth grade volleyball and continuing through high school and at McNeese.

“My mom and dad were there every game,” said Koenig. “If we were in Beaumont (Texas), they were there. If we were in Natchitoches, they were there.”

And she came to feel that the people in Delcambre were part of that family.

“I was there (at Delcambre High School) for 361⁄2 years, and I continue to be around Delcambre High School,” said Koenig. “These people are so good.”

Koenig at first resisted efforts by DHS principal Cory Bourque to have her elected to the Hall of Fame, thinking there were so many more deserving coaches around the state than her. Her list of accomplishments, and all the kids who played for her over the years, show how deserving she is of the honor.

Koenig was named district volleyball coach of the year four times and girls’ basketball coach of the year once, coached the LHSCA All-Star Volleyball Team in 1985 and 2000 and was chosen area coach of the year in 197 and 1999 in volleyball and from 1997-99 in girls track.

Delcambre High won the state volleyball championship in 1984 under Koenig, and was twice state runner-up; a dozen of her teams qualified for the state tournament. She also built the track program into a state power, winning 11 district championships and seven regional titles and finishing second in state four times.

Yet Koenig insists that her selection to the Hall of Fame is more a community honor than an individual achievement.

“I’m not being inducted into the Hall of Fame,” she said.

“Delcambre High School, and Delcambre, Louisiana, are being inducted into the Hall of Fame.”

“There’s no one more deserving than Dahrie Koenig,” said Laviolette, “despite what she says.”