By T. Scott Boatright
Can complete and total success somehow become a little hard to handle?
That’s a thought Lincoln Preparatory Schools has to be pondering after hosting what turned out to be an incredible Michael Lyons Classic basketball tournament hosted last weekend inside the LPS Gym.
The tournament defined the phrase “standing room only.” It started strong and only kept getting bigger and better.
Not unlike the career of its namesake himself.
Lyons, who died in February of 2023, coached Lincoln Prep head coach Antonio Hudson at the old Grambling Lab High School, where Lyons chalked up a 737-100 record guiding the Kittens boys team and 434-98 coaching the Lady Kittens from 1979-2008, capturing six state championships and 40 district titles during that span.
He was a coach known throughout the Deep South if not the country as a whole, and someone Lincoln Preparatory School Athletics Director Johnny Simmons and boys basketball coach Antonio Hudson knew needed to be honored in this way.
Hudson played for Lyons at Grambling Lab before moving on to a standout career at LSU.
“The whole deal about that tournament is to try to keep Coach Lyons’ name and legacy alive,” Hudson said. “We’ve had teams eager to get into the tournament because of who he was. Right now we’re already working on the schedule for next year, because this ended up being so big. We can present some good matchups with great players all because of Coach Lyons — his name and who he was.
“It’s a blessing, man.”
Hudson said Lyon’s friendships with fellow coaches helped spark the incredible lineup for the seven-game tourney.
“That’s how we got Huntington,” Hudson said. “A lot of those coaches in the tourney were good friends of Coach Lyons and they came in the game coaching with him. So just to have people like that travel to play here — this is something that’s growing and that we love. We just want to keep working to keep Coach Lyons’ legacy alive.”
Despite having a packed-plus house throughout the tourney — totally packed from Game 3 of the tourney featuring Simsboro against Sterlington – Hudson said he wants to keep the event inside the home confines of the LPS Gym.
“If you knew Coach Lyons, you knew when it came to Grambling Lab, he wanted to play in that small gym,” Hudson said. “He would not go anywhere, just to try to fit in a crowd. It was about the aura of playing inside The Matchbox. It was about the aura of playing in that small gym with people sitting on top of you.
“It’s been talked about maybe changing venues or whatnot, and that may be something we’ll talk about, but we don’t want to water it down. Right now it’s one of the hottest things in that state. So, we want to keep it that way.”
Simmons credited tourney sponsor Origin Bank for being the driving force in the remarkable success behind this year’s event.
“Lance Hall, Ryan Kilpatrick and those guys, they wanted this to succeed. They wanted it to be huge,” Simmons said. “This wouldn’t have been possible without their help and contribution, which was just outstanding.
“And I’ll say this. Maybe it was because of Coach Lyons and who he is.. Maybe it’s because of Coach Hudson and who he is. Or maybe it’s because my first job when I got out of college was working for Johnny Maxwell at Ruston State Bank, maybe it was the six years I spent at Louisiana Tech, but people in Ruston just opened their arms whatever it was we needed them to do, whether it was a monetary donation, food donation or just coming out to watch and support the tournament.
“They just wanted to be involved in all of it and it grew into something I never, ever envisioned. We knew there would be a big crowd. But nothing prepared me for what happened Saturday.”
And while Hudson is determined to keep the tourney, or at least the bulk of it, inside the LPS, the bigger picture is tempting.
“We would never consider moving it too far from the Grambling area,” Simmons said. “We’re going to look and reach out to those people (Grambling State and Louisiana Tech) to maybe see what the opportunities are if we were to hold it at Grambling or at Tech.
“That would give more people the opportunity to attend and see the matchups we were able to put together for the games. But then again, Coach Lyons was always funny about wanting to play his team’s games in his gymnasium. He felt that gave him an upper hand. Sometimes when you put great games in big arenas, it takes away from the mystique and intensity of it all. We’ll look into it and think about it. But we’re also very pleased with the way this 2026 tournament played out.”
