Pillar of the School: Catholic basketball names locker room in Glen Randow’s honor
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Nearly 50 years later, Glen Randow remains uncertain why he was hired to coach the basketball team at Catholic High in Baton Rouge.
After a college playing career at Northeast Louisiana University (now UL-Monroe), Randow heeded the recommendation of fraternity brother and college roommate Kenny Guillory to head south and begin coaching at Catholic High. There were four stops before, coaching at Sherwood Middle School and Lee High (now Liberty Magnet), coaching middle school and freshman basketball, before leaving for Bunker Hill, Ind., to coach at Maconaquah Middle School.
“It was so rewarding to see basketball played the way it was in Indiana,” he said.
More than spending time coaching for four years in basketball nirvana, Randow also met a woman from outside of Indianapolis, Holly, whom he would marry and spend the next 46 years of his life with.
“We talked basketball more than anything on our first date,” Randow said. “I said she was a keeper.”
Randow opted to return to Baton Rouge in 1973 and coached for three years at Park Forest Middle School when the head coaching position opened at Catholic High.
Somewhat reticent about his chances to land such a job because of a lack of varsity head coaching experience, Randow applied and shared his vision with Brothers Eldon Crifasi and Adrian Gaudin. They later informed the Pineville native that he was their choice to lead the Bears and replace Frank Pasqua.
“I still can’t believe that I got the job,” Randow said. “I don’t know what Brother Eldon Crifasi or Brother Adrian Gaudin took from my interview. They wanted me, and I wanted to be there.”
He never left.
Randow, who turns 80 in July, spent 40 years as a full-time employee of Catholic High, ranging from roles as basketball and golf coach, to a member of the school’s faculty and administration.
He’s remained connected with the school, where he’s remained a member of the Men’s Club and flexible enough to tackle projects the school may throw his way.
“I’ve been a member of the Catholic High family,” Randow said of his time between 1977 and 2026. “It’s hard to believe.”
Catholic High rewarded Randow’s commitment to the school and carrying out the mission of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in between Thursday’s basketball doubleheader that featured the Bears hosting The Dunham School.
The school officially announced that its basketball locker room would be named in Randow’s honor with plaques located at the entrance to the locker room and beneath the scoreboard. The locker room, which will also contain graphics, is undergoing renovation with new carpet and lockers, with the addition of a big-screen TV and entertainment games for the players.
“To be honest, I didn’t go into coaching for that,” said Randow, 423-250 in 23 seasons as basketball coach and member of Catholic’s Grizzly Greats (2014-15). “I came to teach a wonderful game to guys who love it. It’s a wonderful honor.”
There was little doubt who would be the first person Randow addressed to Thursday’s crowd.
“I have to thank the greatest scout, scorekeeper for our books on the road, and the best wife a man could ever ask for,” he said to a thunderous ovation.
Randow was a member of coach Billy Beeson’s teams at Pineville High, helping the Rebels to the school’s first district title in 1963 and again the following season.
Pineville was better known for Randow’s teammate, Ronnie Kaiser, who later became the school’s basketball coach and directed the Rebels to a state championship. He also guided the baseball program to several state titles, Randow said.
“I grew up on the steps of Louisiana College,” Randow said. “Billy Allgood (basketball coach/athletic director at LC) was my first big influence about the game.”
Randow signed with NLU, where the Indians were coached by Lenny Fant, who was 326-221 in 21 seasons.
Although his experience didn’t include the kind of playing time he envisioned, Randow still came away fulfilled by the lessons learned from Fant, examples that would become cornerstones of his own coaching career.
“I didn’t get to play a lot but learned what practice meant and what you could be if you practiced and supported the team,” he said. “That was a great lesson for me to transfer to my players who were either not going to start or get a lot of playing time. You can play a valuable role being part of a winning team.”
Randow attributes his familiarity with Catholic High to Guillory, who regularly shared stories about the school and its leadership.
For someone born in Pineville and whose playing career had rarely dipped below Alexandria, Randow gained quite an education about the all-boys school in Baton Rouge.
“Every day he was telling me something about Catholic High,” he said. “He wore me out with stories. When I graduated in 1968, I knew I was coming to Baton Rouge wanting to teach and coach.”
Randow did a coaching apprenticeship at three different schools in Baton Rouge, sandwiched in between a stay in Indiana, when Catholic High was looking for someone to take over the program for Pasqua. He was attending graduate school at the University of Indiana, working his way toward an advanced degree, when his life’s journey took a distinct turn south.
“I had never really been a head (varsity) coach,” he said. “I had coached in middle school, ninth grade, and JV in those 8-9 years.”
During his time in Indiana, Randow was influenced by the motion offense instituted by Hoosiers famed coach Bobby Knight. He believed in the fundamental approach that relied on precise passing and cutting as a suitable replacement for the Bears’ flex offense.
“It’s a team game and so is coaching,” he said. “If you don’t have players that are committed, they don’t have to be great players, but they’ve got to be committed. I had some really good players, and I had more committed young men. They were smart and fierce in competition and in their competitive spirit. They bought in for the most part.”
Missouri State signee Perry Key was among the team’s top players in Randow’s first season. Key blossomed as a senior into a player known for his clutch play and a quick release, delivering six game-winning shots.
Randow also laughs about the additional duty he picked up in the spring of his first year. He was also the baseball team’s junior varsity coach, an experiment that lasted only one season.
Over the course of his career at Catholic, Randow would also lend a hand to legendary track coach Pete Boudreaux and became the head coach/moderator for both the golf and tennis programs.
“I did tennis once they taught me how to score,” he joked.
Catholic won state golf championships in 1992, ’93, and ’95, but Randow deflected most credit for the team’s success.
“I was a Gatorade, Snickers bar distributor,” he said.
But basketball is where Randow truly made his mark.
Catholic advanced to the state’s Final Four for the first time in 25 years, and first state championship game in school history, when Randow guided the Bears to the Class 3A state championship game, falling to Redemptorist, 64-59 in 1982.
Catholic reached the playoffs in four of the first five years under Randow before experiencing an eight-year gap without postseason play.
Then came a stretch for Catholic of playing in the playoffs in seven of the next eight seasons, with the Bears flirting with a perfect season in 1992.
“That was a tremendous year,” said Randow, voted the state’s Coach of the Year. “That team, man for man, was probably one of the most talented teams.”
Catholic went 32-0, including a win over Newman in its own tournament with standout and eventual LSU signee Randy Livingston, who scored 33 points, Randow said.
“We held him to 33 because he passed the ball,” he said of Livingston, who played at LSU and briefly in the NBA.
Standout players such as Jonathan Pixley, who signed with Samford, Kevin Batiste, Daryl George, Horace Crochet, and Stephen Sterling played vital roles in the season. If there was a common thread, though, it was John Ehret.
The Bears had defeated the Patriots twice, once in the semifinals of the Newman tournament and again during the regular season at Catholic.
When they met for the right to go to the state championship, John Ehret made a shot at the buzzer and eliminated Catholic.
“We had shots,” Randow said. “We missed a couple of tip-ins and a layup attempt. That locker room was hard to take. But you remember that locker room like no other.”
A rising basketball prodigy in the Baton Rouge area was Derrick Jones, who had taken notice of that 1992 team. He was so captivated by that run that he enrolled in school, where he enjoyed a standout career that led to a college scholarship.
He’s currently in his fifth season coaching the Bears, who won the school’s first state championship in 2023.
“He was hard on me as a coach,” Jones said of Randow. “There were several times, as an adult, I’ll reflect back on that discipline and where he was coming from. After my last game at Catholic, I was in tears just knowing that it had come to an end. I knew I was going to play basketball the following year, but I was crushed.
“He sat with me in the locker room at Glen Oaks,” Jones said. “He told me he was going to miss me. This guy was on my butt for three years, and I couldn’t breathe. I had to do everything right, and for him to say that made me feel like I’d accomplished something.”
Catholic would take Randow back to the state championship game in 1995, facing a tall task in the final.
The Bears were up St. Augustine of New Orleans, the nation’s No. 1-ranked team according to USA Today, and the Purple Knights emerged victorious, 57-33.
Catholic played in the playoffs three times during Jones’ career, with losses to Barbe his freshman season and Glen Oaks, led by All-American Lester Earl, in his final game.
“We weren’t the most talented teams,” Jones said. “I played in college and Blake Sanz (Loyola-New Orleans). We played team basketball. Coach always preached man-to-man defense. We really got after it on defense and took pride in guarding and defending. Offensively, we shared the ball and played unselfish basketball. We knew our roles. It helped shape how I was as a player and also my philosophy as a coach.”
Jones originally signed with Mississippi State out of high school before finishing at Samford. He was a high school assistant for two seasons at John Ehret before embarking on a college coaching career that lasted 12 years – working at Samford, University of New Orleans, Louisiana Tech, Vanderbilt, and Stephen F. Austin.
Jones returned to the high school game to coach Port Allen to three state championship games in four years. The Pelicans won state crowns twice and were runners-up another.
He guided Catholic (28-6) in his second team to the Division I select state title with a 57-54 upset of top-seeded Scotlandville.
“Derrick Jones is the epitome of what it means to be a coach that wants to win and instill in them the right way to play the game,” Randow said. “I’m so proud of him.”
In what turned out to be Randow’s final game coaching on the Catholic bench, the Bears were one step away from the state tournament with a quarterfinal trip to Fair Park in Shreveport.
The Bears, who had outlasted West Monroe and future NFL offensive line stalwart Andrew Whitworth in triple overtime, lost to Fair Park, a team that went on to win the state’s championship until it was rescinded by the LHSAA for the use of ineligible players.
“I guess we really never lost our last game,” Randow said. “We had a really good team that year.”
Randow had also served as the head of Catholic’s P.E. department and helped to expand the school’s intramural program. He transitioned his passion for Catholic High into an 11-year role as the school’s Administrative Director of Alumni Relations.
He retired from full-time duty at the school in 2017.
“He did a great job in that role,” Jones said. “Staying in touch with guys that graduated, organizing visits to get us back. I don’t know how long the role existed before he took it, but that’s a big part of our school now.”
Randow, who helped 15 players sign scholarships, was a valuable resource to the sitting Catholic High coaches after he left the sideline. That group included Mark Estorage, Kemper Todd, Michael Toups, Mark Cascio, and Jones, who all benefited from his experience and sage words of advice.
“He’ll come around if asked,” Jones said. “He’s been super supportive behind the scenes without being overbearing. He definitely left his mark on the school.”
Catholic High wrestling coach Tommy Prochaska, who has coached the Bears to two state titles and 475 dual meet victories in 29 seasons, had many indelible moments coaching at the same time as Randow.
Prochaska recalled Randow asking him, when his wrestlers circled the gym for a post-practice regime of 40 laps, to try to distract his basketball players during their free-throw shooting drills.
“He wanted us to talk to them and distract them while we’re running,” Prochaska said. Their free-throw percentage was through the roof because they were able to focus in on shooting. Our guys were running around, making noise.”
Prochaska said Randow was among his mentors at Catholic High, who also included legendary football coach Dale Weiner and Boudreaux.
For a young coach building his own program, Prochaska couldn’t have been more fortunate to have such positive influences.
“You talk about Mount Rushmores of Catholic High School,” Prochaska said. “Coach Randow’s is on that Mount Rushmore.”
Jones said Thursday’s ceremony was the result of a sentiment shared by former players, faculty, and administration.
How do you repay someone for nearly five decades of service to your school, the coaches, players, and students he inspired?
“We wanted to do something to let him know we’re appreciative of him and he’ll always be remembered,” Jones said.
Randow singled out former player Derek Fife, a teammate of Jones, during his speech Thursday for his contributions on the project.
There’s such symbolism within the walls of the locker room that Randow couldn’t think of a better way to be linked to Catholic High basketball in the future.
He witnessed ecstasy, tears of joy following a victory, and a pall after a crushing defeat.
The new locker room will be a safe haven for future players to carry out the program’s expectations and live up to a standard of play that has Randow’s fingerprints all over it.
“It’s their place of home,” he said. “Everything means so much in there. When seniors walk out, picking up their stuff for the last time, you get choked up pretty good because it means a lot. Not a lot of them go to the next level. For a lot of my guys, that’s what happened to them. They went to college and became doctors and lawyers.
“The locker room holds a special meaning to me,” he said. “To have that honor, to have it in the locker room, it’s a place where you begin with so much optimism. It’s an unbelievable place to be.”