Someone who knows Dahrie Koenig very well called her an “incredible woman” the day Delcambre saluted the former coach and educator for her selection to the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame.

I’d have to agree wholeheartedly with those two words chosen by Darcy Delcambre, Delcambre High School’s athletic director who was a sophomore when Koenig arrived to teach and coach at DHS in 1971, shortly after graduating from McNeese State University. Later, he coached with Koenig.

Through sports writing five years later, I first met the young woman whose coaching career started with establishing a girls volleyball team and resurrecting the girls basketball program. Through ups and downs in a season, it was apparent she was a great, personable coach who got the best out of her players in a positive manner. Koenig stressed team unity, team pride and team effort.

Koenig is a winner, plain and simple. Leader-ship, dedication and  education were the recurrent themes for someone so many people entrusted the care of their children.

The kids, hundreds of student-athletes and students, loved her. The school loved her. And the community loved the woman with the tell-tale smile, a graduate of New Iberia Senior High who made a fortuitous decision to go to Delcambre.

It showed Sunday at the ceremony inside the packed Shrimp Festival Building.

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

Delcambre, a native of the town, was one of countless residents who opened their arms and hearts over four decades to Koenig, who retired from coaching in 2000 to become the high school’s assistant principal until 2007. When her love for life, coaching and teaching and their love for her were challenged in 2000, they met the challenge head-on, like a volleyball player going up for a block at the net.

That year, just as the first semester was about to begin, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Vivian Koenig, her sister, said the community’s prayers and support helped pull the cancer patient through the tough times.

People cooked for her and helped in other ways, Dahrie Koenig said.

“You showed me in that particular year how much you loved me. 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,” she told the audience.”

She vividly recalls the fact the volleyball players wore their uniform to a special Mass for her after playing a match.

“These people are so good,” Koenig said.

There’s a reason for that and it starts at the top, in the classroom, in the gym and on the track and field.

Koenig will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, with some impressive credentials, Jan. 26 in Baton Rouge. Way to go, coach.

DON SHOOPMAN

SENIOR NEWS EDITOR