MCHS hires former Division I hoops coach

New Morgan City High School basketball coach Robert Lee just couldn’t get south Louisiana out of his system.
The former University of Louisiana at Lafayette coach was introduced as the Tigers’ head man Wednesday at Morgan City High School.
“I felt like it was time for me to put down some roots somewhere, and I love south Louisiana,” Lee said. “South Louisiana has always been home. It’s where my family is. My daughter is going to Tulane, and I just thought that it was best for me, career wise, to come back and start coaching high school again. I had a lot of success at Opelousas High, and I just feel at this point in my life, I just want to finish my career coaching high school again.”
Lee becomes the Tigers’ third coach in as many years as he will replace Brandon Harden, who resigned after a season at the helm.
Among the recent coaching changes, though, Lee certainly is the most high profile.
After a successful stint at Opelousas High School, he was a member of the University of Louisiana coaching staff, first as an assistant from 1996-2004 and then as head coach from 2004-10.
Among the stops for the New Roads native since his tenure at UL Lafayette ended in 2010 were at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and the University of Arkansas, where he held assistant coaching positions.
Before joining the UL staff in 1996 as an assistant coach, Lee coached four years at Opelousas High and recorded 20-plus wins each season.
His 1993-94 team advanced to the Top 28 tournament and finished the season with a 31-6 mark. His 1994-95 team finished 29-8 and advanced to the state quarterfinals.
He led his team to a 29-5 mark and a trip to the quarterfinals in his final season.
Lee, who played collegiately at Nicholls State, spent the 1990-91 season as a student-assistant coach under then-coach Ricky Broussard.
At UL Lafayette, he led the Cajuns from 2004-10.
During his tenure, the team advanced to the NCAA Tournament in his first season before losing to Louisville, 68-62, in the first round. The team finished the season with a 20-11 mark.
Overall, his college head coaching record at ULL was 63-92.
Lee said he felt “fortunate” to be able to coach at Morgan City.
“I spoke to a couple other high schools, Evangel up in Shreveport and Hahnville, but this particular opportunity seemed to be a better fit for me,” Lee said.
Lee inherits a young Morgan City team that made the playoffs in 2015 after a two-year absence.
“I am thrilled to get a guy with so much experience,” Morgan City Athletic Director Scott Tregle said. “He has college and high school experience, and he’s won on both levels. He’s going to make these kids better. We want (to) rebuild our program and get back to the winning MCHS basketball tradition.”
Lee will hang his hat on defense but also look to run on offense.
“That’s what I like to do, but I’ll do whatever puts our kids in a position to be successful,” Lee said. “We’ll start along this journey in the next couple months, and I hope we can build a state championship level program.”
As for Harden’s departure, he said in May, “They just had a few issues at hand and tried to work those issues out and really wasn’t able to work the issues out and (I) didn’t have any other option but to resign.”
Harden said the decision was a hard one.
He thanked Principal Mickey Fabre and Tregle for giving him the opportunity to be at Morgan City and called the team’s 180-degree reversal from a 1-23 mark a year before to a 16-9 finish and a first-round playoff berth at the conclusion of the 2014-15 season the “biggest turnaround ever in Morgan City basketball history.”
Tregle declined comment on Harden.
The Daily Review Sports Editor Geoff Stoute contributed to this report.

Corwin Murray wrote this story. Reach him at sports@daily-review.com