After more than four decades as a volleyball player and coach, longtime Sam Houston head coach Rene Fontenot is down to the last few matches of her career as the high school playoffs begin.

Over 32 seasons, Fontenot won 819 matches, more than two dozen district championships and reached the playoffs every season, including 19 trips to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association state tournament.

What makes her career even more impressive is that her initial career path didn’t include coaching. After a standout career at Berwick High School, she earned a scholarship to play at McNeese State ,and planned to go into physical therapy or something in the medical field. She studied the options and chose health and physical education. It wasn’t necessarily what her parents had hoped for, but they became big supporters. Her father died two years ago but her mother still attends matches.

“My parents were so mad at me,” Fontenot said. “I was a gifted kid who took advanced classes and because I was on an athletic scholarship, I couldn’t be in pre-physical therapy. When I looked, it was like microbiology or health and PE.

“Then you realize, if I am going to stay and play, I’m going to be two years delayed going into medical school if I could get in. So it just kind of came to pass that I started (to think) being a teacher and a coach wouldn’t be that bad.”

It was rough at first as Fontenot essentially had to build the program from the ground up after then-Sam Houston Principal Kerry Durr created a second girls coaching position and hired her. At the time, boys basketball head coach Rick Nelson also coached the volleyball team.

That was in 1992. And for the first couple of years, Fontenot not only coached volleyball, but cheerleading, plus helping with softball and track. Her love of coaching was instantaneous and helped drive her to grow the program that had to get used balls from her alma mater, McNeese, just to have enough to practice. She expanded the schedule and took the team to bigger tournaments throughout the state to become more competitive.

“I love it,” Fontenot said. “I loved being able to share what I love with other people.

“I think that is where you get to truly give someone something that you’ve loved all of your life. Then I quickly realized what type of work it was going to take because I really just didn’t put a whole lot of thought into it, about what It would take to build a program that really wasn’t in place.”

In her second season, she took the Broncos to the state tournament and reached the state final for the first time in 1999 and again in 2008.

Fontenot witnessed a lot of changes in the sport and other girls sports. Volleyball switched to rally scoring in 2002 and the libero position was added in 2006. During those early years, softball switched to fast pitch and more focus was placed on girls sports.

“It was an interesting time to be (in) to watch female sports be recognized and push themselves more and buy into a weight program,” Fontenot said. “When I first played, the only person who overhead played was your setter.

“Now everybody does it. There are so many aspects of the game that have changed. It makes for a better, faster game. It has continued to get faster, forcing girls to be more athletic, to be stronger and be more all-around players.”

She came close to retiring just before her daughter joined the high school team in 2013, but Madison Fontenot, who, like her mother, went on to play for McNeese, persuaded her to keep going.

“Before Madison came into Sam Houston, I told her I would step down and become an assistant. Her response was, ‘I’ve been waiting all my life to get to you. What do you mean step down?’”

After all the years of long hours that brought much success, Fontenot is ready to relax and simply be a fan. She said she feels the program is more than strong enough to continue to grow.

“I’m sure there are parts of me that are going to miss it,” Fontenot said. “Not being called coach and the relationships you have.

“Being able to spend some more time with my family, I’m looking forward to that.”

How many more matches she has left will depend on the No. 2 Broncos, who open the playoffs today at home against No. 31 David Thibodaux. Sam Houston needs two wins to reach the state tournament at the Cajundome in Lafayette on Nov. 14-16.