Legendary coach retires from basketball

Seven hundred and forty wins. Three state basketball championships. Multiple halls of fame recognitions. Seventeen district titles. After a 37-year career in the public eye, Andre Boutte has officially retired.

Those around the coach knew going into the 2023-24 season that this would likely be his final run, but the unselfish Boutte didn’t want it to be a “farewell tour” and take anything away from his players at Beaumont ISD’s West Brook High School. This year’s team finished with a 25-12 record and a spot in the 6A regional quarterfinals.

A packed room full of current and former players, colleagues, family and friends gathered March 19 at West Brook High School to celebrate Boutte’s illustrious career.

“It’s been a great journey,” said Boutte. “People often look at the end results on the scoreboard, but it’s years after, when the young men become men, that is the true test of winning and losing. There are peaks and valleys in athletics, real life lessons and coaches learn right along with them. I felt my role was to put the kids in the best spot, but I never did it by myself. It began with God enabling me to persevere through nearly four decades, as well as my parents, administrators, teachers and mentors, including Fred Williams and James Gamble.”

The 60-year-old Boutte closes a 28 1/2-year varsity coaching record at 740- 201 (.786) at four high schools – Kountze, Port Arthur Lincoln, Ozen and West Brook. He was also the athletic director at Port Arthur Memorial for nine years.

“I never tried to reinvent the wheel,” said Boutte. “Before I even started coaching, I had guidance and great mentors. Young coaches want to reinvent things. Don’t try to be somebody else. Be yourself and do the things you know how to do. As a result, I was able to accomplish the same things as Coach Williams and Coach Gamble did.”

Along the way were three UIL state championship trophies, two at Lincoln (1991, 1995) and one at Ozen (2001), which was a perfect 36-0 season and earned Boutte a USA National High School Coach of the Year award. He’s also a member of the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, Southeast Texas Coaches Association Hall of Honor and was named one of the Top 100 High School Basketball Coaches in the last 100 years by the UIL.

Boutte had very humble beginnings. He was educated in Beaumont and played basketball at Hebert High School under Williams where he helped the Panthers win consecutive state titles in 1980-81. He was an all-conference player at Temple College for two seasons before playing two more years at the University of North Texas.

"My accomplished coaching career didn’t start at Kountze,” said Boutte. “I learned a great work ethic taught to me by my parents. My daddy taught us kids how to work. My dad would clean the offices for extra money and my brother John, and I would help. Then, in the 7th grade, we were throwing newspapers in the morning before catching the bus to go to school.”

His work ethic continued at Hebert High, where he and basketball teammate Calvin Harris were cooks at IHOP. When their games were finished at 10 p.m., he and Harris would head straight to IHOP to work the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift.

That work ethic carried over to Boutte’s coaching success and through his players. He coached hundreds of alldistrict, all-state, and All-Americans like Emmanuel McElroy, Keith Harris, Kelvin McKyer, Keena Young – even NBA stars Stephen Jackson and Kendrick Perkins.

Coach Gamble, a four-time state championship coach at Lincoln, once told Boutte, “No one could win without talent, but not everyone can win with talent.”

Dominic Hardy was one of those talented players. He and other members from Lincoln’s 1995 state championship winning team spoke at Boutte’s retirement announcement.

“He is a great man,” said Hardy. “If you gave it your all on the court, you were going to play. I first started basketball as a small, insecure player and got better because of his him. I never went into a game unprepared. He had a way to make you confident without being cocky. Coach is a testament of greatness. I love him.”

Coach to some, father figure to most:

“As I got older, I realized when he was preparing us for battles on the court, he was really preparing us to be men and productive citizens,” said former Lincoln 1995 champion Sidney “Dip” Keal.

“Coach Gamble said a lot of things that stayed with me,” said Boutte. “Whether the kid came from a good or bad situation, it didn’t matter. Every kid needs you for something and it’s your job as a coach to find out what that is. And I tried to do that to all my kids before basketball. I wanted to help prepare them for life after the game. What are you going to do when the air is out of the basketball, and it doesn’t bounce anymore?”

Some of Boutte’s former students followed in his footsteps and became basketball coaches. Mike Thomas, a former head coach and current West Brook assistant, was a vital part of Ozen’s 36-0 team in 2001.

“I was a bad kid from South Park,” said Thomas. “He literally saved my life.”

Ashton Simmons, who has committed to play basketball for TCU, was the leading scorer this season for West Brook.

“Coach believed in me before I believed in myself,” said Simmons. “I am the person I am today because of Coach Boutte.”

Gardening and fishing are now on the to-do list, but Boutte said he always prayed that the day he retired from coaching, his mother Fannie Sylvester, 83, would still be here. And she is.

“I have a grandson playing sports now and she still has grandkids playing sports, too,” he said. “I want to be able to be able to pick her up and drive to Houston or Dallas and go to a game where she can relax and just watch without being so stressed. She never missed a game but, as she got older, it was tougher on her, especially mentally.”

Any advice the retired Boutte would go back and tell his young self?

“Let God direct you,” he said. “Do your best and treat the kids as they were your own sons.”