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Although he’s now in a position of making some of the most pivotal decisions in Louisiana college athletics, Verge Ausberry never forgot his roots in New Iberia.

Ausberry, who was selected to be the keynote speaker during Thursday night’s Greater Iberia Chamber of Commerce banquet, talked about his personal story as well as the state of college athletics to the business and civic leaders attending the event.

Ausberry was promoted in 2019 to the position of executive deputy director of athletics and executive director of external relations at LSU, and in his role has formalized planning and processes for the athletic department and daily operations, according to a prepared statement from the chamber.

Over the past decade, Ausberry’s responsibilities have included administrative duties for LSU’s track and field program as well as corporate relations, strength and conditioning, equipment and other units.

Whenever he has made important decisions like hiring coaches for LSU football, basketball or baseball, which can sometimes be a multi-million dollar decision, Ausberry said he likes to think back to his roots.

“The first thing that comes to my mind is this little boy from New Iberia is making some big decisions in college athletics,” he said.

Ausberry’s athletic career stems from New Iberia Senior High, where he was a linebacker for the Yellow Jackets between 1982-1984. While earning his bachelor’s degree at LSU, Ausberry played as middle linebacker on the football team, and was a four year letter-winner and leading tackler on defense for two years, which ultimately led to two SEC championships and four bowl game appearances for LSU.

In his current role, Ausberry said that his job brings him into contact with a wide variety of people that include legislators on the state level.

“I deal with politicians and I deal with 500, 18- to 22-year-olds, so that explains the gray hair,” he said with a laugh.

Creating a program that will cause young people to be successful in college athletics and use it as a motivational force for the rest of their lives has been an important task for the New Iberia native, and Ausberry said developing the people who enter the program has been an especially fulfilling part of his job duties.

“We want these young people to not only be successful in athletics, but in careers, that’s important to us,” he said.