‘He’s just one of a kind’: George Veazey remembered for impact in hometown of Abbeville
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
George Clyde Veazey was a behind-the-scenes type of guy. He didn’t seek praise or the spotlight. In fact, he did his best to deflect both.
He had a larger-than-life persona who could deliver one-line barbs that would send a room into hysterics, yet was more comfortable outside of public view, someone who flourished in the background rather than at the forefront.
When his son Andy, an attorney in Lafayette, stood before those mourners in attendance Monday morning at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville, his eulogy of his beloved and revered father, who had passed away on April 29, was a reminder of just how awkward he would have been in the moment.
“He hated being the center of attention,” Andy said. “He never wanted to be the head coach. He wanted to be a good assistant. He didn’t want any limelight.”
Andy acknowledged his father wouldn’t have been a big fan of his farewell.
“Today,” he said, “Daddy, would be mad because he’s the center of attention.”
Ivy Landry, who played freshman football for Veazey at Abbeville High and later coached with him at Vermilion Catholic and New Iberia, couldn’t have agreed more.
“That was 100% George,” he said. “He was just a great assistant who wanted to be as good as he could be. He never thought he knew everything. He always asked for help. He’d call other coaches and ask, ‘How do you do this? Why do you do this?’ He was always a very humble person. He was like a big brother to me.”
George Veazey, 83, attended Mt. Carmel High (which later became Vermilion Catholic) where he was a three-sport letterman. That was the catalyst of a 40-year love-affair with the parochial school in Vermilion Parish, later returning as an assistant coach in football, boys and girls basketball, and track and field.
Veazey’s career spanned 34 years at seven different schools until he retired in 2003. That turned into another 14 years as a volunteer coach at Mt. Carmel Elementary and Vermilion Catholic until 2018.
“A lot of what he did at VC was for no money,” Landry said. “He did it for the kids. He loved kids. He’s just one of a kind. He’s a very unique individual.”
Veazey, who enjoyed a 59-year marriage to his wife Louella, has had stints in administration. He was an assistant principal at Eaton Park Elementary in Abbeville and VC also acknowledged Veazey’s impact at the school to include a stint as assistant principal.
“Coach was just an uplifting guy, said former VC two-sport standout Jean-Paul Perrodin, now a traveling physical therapist based in Oregon. “He always had a joke to keep things light, keep things positive. Everyone around was definitely better for having him around us. We were very fortunate at VC to have him.”
Veazey was on the coaching staff of Bill Simon at VC when the school brought in a 30-year-old, up-and-coming coach – Wayde Keiser from the New Orleans area – to replace Simon who was leaving for LaGrange High in Lake Charles.
Keiser said that after signing his contract, it wasn’t long before he met Veazey for the first time.
After introducing himself Veazey, in his quick-witted nature, had one question for Keiser.
“He wanted to know if I could drive a tractor,” said Keiser, somewhat baffled. “Apparently George was doing all of the grass cutting around there and wanted some help. When I said that I could drive a tractor, he said good, we’ll take him.”
The melding of Keiser’s first staff at VC also had Landy, Russell Menard, and Eric Waguespack to go with Veazey.
Keiser acknowledged that as a first-time head coach, he subscribed to doing things one way – his own – and not taking a lot of advice into consideration when it came to dealing with players and parents.
While Veazey’s make-up could be that of a jokester, there was also a serious side ready to share his wisdom.
“He showed me that everything wasn’t black and white,” Keiser said. “You’re dealing with people, you’re dealing with kids, you’re dealing with their emotions. I was young. This is the way we did it, this is the way it’s done. What George taught me in those two years really helped me in the rest of my career moving forward. Sometimes you’ve got to be able adjust and go with the flow.”
Veazey was the offensive and defensive line coach, helping to develop some players at the Class 1A level into college prospects such as Perrodin, who went on to Tulane.
“He taught me everything I know about being an offensive line coach,” Landry, now an assistant coach at Acadiana Renaissance Charter in Youngsville. “He was a technician. People thought track (was his best sport), but he was just as good, if not better, as an offensive line coach.”
Keiser gushed about Veazey’s character and his capacity to impact others.
“He was a people person, he wasn’t just a good football coach,” he said. “I learned a lot from him in the aspect of how to be a better people person as I moved forward in my coaching career.”
Veazey was the perfect person to help balance out the high-energy Keiser whose mind and body moved at a rapid pace.
Keiser would go on to enjoy a successful 25-year head coaching career that included stops at St. Charles Catholic, Jesuit, and Brother Martin.
“It was like God put him there for a purpose in my life,” said Keiser, who is now retired and color analyst on televised high school football games. “I firmly believe there’s a pathway out for all of us, and all of the people that walk their path, there’s a reason why they’re introduced into that path. George Veazey was introduced in my path, not only to be a good friend, but also to help me on my path to becoming a successful head coach. He did that.
“It wasn’t because of X’s and O’s,” Keiser said. “It had nothing to do with the game of football. It had to do with the game of life and how George Veazey taught me something about moving forward in my career and dealing with people. It’s a people business. Coaching is a people business.”
Veazey had a deep affinity for track and field and in his recruiting pitches in the hallways of the schools he worked for, he had a distinctive approach that had a pretty success rate.
“He would tell the kids, if you come out for track, you’re not going to purgatory, you’re going to straight to heaven,” Landry said.
Vermilion Catholic didn’t have much of a tradition in the sport and was without a track.
Veazey and Landry teamed together to lead the respective boys and girls teams with Veazey coaching the field events and Landry sharing his expertise in the running events.
They were able to configure a limestone track around the football field and Veazey was able to get cement pads donated for the shot put and discus areas.
“One day I was talking to George, and he asked how I felt about track,” Keiser said. “I said it’s huge. I wanted kids who were not playing baseball to run track in the offseason. They would be lifting and running track. His face lit up. He said, ‘Fantastic.’”
Technically, Landry was the head coach of the boys and Veazey the head coach of the girls team, although they never referred to themselves in those capacities.
“We just worked together,” Landry said.
Landry said Vermilion Catholic won its first track meet in 1991 with a program that didn’t have the necessary resources to compete with some of its peers. The javelin was thrown in the middle of the football field, there was no pole vault pit, a small pit for the high jump, and the school’s relay teams would practice once a week at Erath High.
The beauty of Veazey was exhibited in the rise in his final two seasons of Perrodin to state champion in the shot put and discus.
After a third-place finish in the discus as a sophomore, Perrodin took the advice of Veazey and traveled with Veazey and Landry to Breaux Bridge to work with one of the state’s top track and field coaches – Pat Arceneaux – who had a discus and shot put ring at his home.
For one session, covering three to four hours, Perrodin noticed an appreciable improvement in both events.
“He showed me some techniques,” Perrodin said. “That experience made all of the difference in the world.”
Perrodin’s personal bests went from 42 feet to eventually 55 feet in the shot put during his junior year, and the discus, where he had a best of 138 feet, was traveling 155 feet.
He would taste state championship success in both.
“One of the most impressive things about him, wasn’t his coaching ability, but his humanity and humility,” Perrodin said of Veazey. “He could have said that I was his athlete and not let anyone take credit for my success. That’s not what he did. He saw a kid with real potential that was willing to work. He may have thought he didn’t have the skills to take me where I wanted to go, but he had a friend that did. That said a lot about him.”
Veazey and Landry’s work helped lay a foundation in track and field that continued under Ossie Blaize. Not only was he the school’s football coach after Keiser, but he was also considered one of the state’s foremost track coaches who led the Eagles to a pair of state championships.
“George may not have been there, but he was the one that set the foundation,” said Landry, who had returned to VC for the second state track title.
Veazey, who also served a stint alongside VC’s legendary girls basketball coach Kim Guidry, spawned the idea of VC hosting its own summer basketball camp for kids from both VC and Mt. Carmel.
There were few options in the area that served the needs of children other than what St. Thomas More coach Danny Broussard had created in Lafayette with his Slam ‘N Jam camp.
So, Dribble ‘N Shoot became a reality in 1988, and under the direction of Veazey and Landry drew 50 children in its first year. That quickly grew to more than 200 when the camp’s wholesome approach spread throughout the parish.
When Veazey and Landry left for New Iberia Senior High, Guidry maintained the camp which is still in existence following her retirement.
“He wanted to occupy the young kids during the summer,” Landry said. “There weren’t any camps around at that time besides Danny Broussard. We got the kids from Mt. Carmel and VC to show up. In the second year, we had a high school camp in the afternoon. He wanted to teach kids the fundamental game of basketball.”
Veazey was around for another landmark moment for the school.
Vermilion Catholic won its first two state championships in football in 2003 and 2013, the second one with Veazey on the coaching staff. The Eagles added a third state title in 2024 under VC alumnus Broc Prejean.
“There’s nothing like winning a state championship in football,” Landry said. “He got to live that and I’m glad he got to do that at his school.”
Veazey was honored in 2023 by the school for a 40-year tenure that encompassed his time as a student-athlete, coach, and administrator. His No. 42 basketball jersey was retired, a tribute to his athletic prowess that also included his time as a football and baseball player.
“George didn’t know how good a teacher he was,” said former Vermilion Parish Superintendent Dan Dartez, who attended Sunday’s visitation and wake for Veazey. “He didn’t have the confidence in himself, but he was a terrific teacher.”
Landry said Veazey’s aspirations were to be flawless in everything he did.
“He always thought he didn’t know enough,” he said. “But he did and he was good at what he did. He was a perfectionist at everything. He wanted to do everything to the best of his ability. He never wanted anyone to look at him and didn’t think he didn’t do a great job. In everything he touched, he did a great job.”
Andy Veazey said his father answered to a variety of names to the very people sitting in at Monday’s funeral service.
“They knew him as George, dad, pawpaw, George Clyde, Coach Veazey,” he said.
VC was out of school on Monday and out of a tremendous show of reverence, many of its students attended the 10 a.m. service. Many of them formed an honor guard on either side of Veazey’s casket, which was brought into the church.
“It was good to see even the young kids respected George just like the older guys that were there,” Landry said. “The kids didn’t have to come and they did. It was very well attended.
Veazey spent six years coaching at St. Joseph’s in Chauvin, sandwiched in between stops at Comeaux in Lafayette and Abbeville High where he coached Landry.
A six-stay in the oilfield between 1979-85 represented the only time he was outside of athletics until returning to VC for a six-year stay.
Perrodin was subject to one of Veazey’s witticisms, giving him insight into what developed into an impactful relationship.
“We were walking around campus one day,” he said. “He always tried to keep things light. He said, ‘When it comes to the ladies, people make it too complicated. It’s, I love you, you love me. Why don’t why love one another? That’s all you’ve got to know.’”
Nine years, covering three schools, New Iberia, North Vermilion and Kaplan, further expanded Veazey’s coaching career before taking over as assistant principal at Eaton Park Elementary in Abbeville. That lasted six years until he retired, setting the stage for another opportunity to impact his alma mater Mt. Carmel, and VC for another 12 years.
Veazey was engrained in the area. It’s where he grew up and attended Mt. Carmel/VC along with his siblings and five children, so when it came time for choosing a resting place, St. Paul Cemetery – located five miles from his residence – was the obvious choice.
“That was home,” Landry said. “He lived in Mt. Carmel Heights which was two streets from the school. That was family to him. He did go around in the public school (system) and worked at different places. I knew eventually when he came to the end of his career that’s where he was going to finish and he did. That was important to him to do that. VC was home.”