Doulet’s leadership pushed her team to post-season magic

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One thing you can always expect from Ville Platte High head coach Dot Doulet is amazing leadership.
The wiley veteran has seen her share of success throughout her career as the captain of the Lady Bulldog ship.
This season, that leadership was on full display, as Doulet led her squad to an overall record of 15-16 and an appearance in the second round of the LHSAA Class 3A playoffs.
For that reason, Doulet has been named as the 2020 Ville Platte Gazette’s Coach of the Year for girl’s basketball in Evangeline Parish.
Doulet’s season is something to admire, considering the fact she only had two seniors, neither of which started. Despite that, Doulet did put some big expectations on her squad before the season even got underway.
“I told them before the season started that we are not going to consider ourselves a young team anymore,” stated Doulet. “I wanted them to show more maturity and growth. They had already been under my leadership for the past two or three years. I wanted them to understand they should be ready to execute the things that you learned to get us across the finish line.”
That youth did show itself throughout the 2019-20 campaign. It was an up-and-down year for Doulet and the Lady Bulldogs during the regular season.
Ville Platte finished the first half of the year with an 8-6 record. For Doulet, the beginning of the season was a matter of getting the team to gel.
“It was like we were trying to get back into the groove of things at the start of the season,” said Doulet. “Then we started to improve and found a little bit of a rhythm. But, we just seemed to drop off at the end of the year. So, for me, it was like watching different teams at times.”
The Lady Bulldogs finished the year with a 6-9 record and the No. 19 seed in the playoffs. However, once the post-season started, Ville Platte found another gear and blasted past Caldwell Parish High School for a first round upset win.
In that game, the Lady Bulldogs simply wore the Lady Spartans down with their tenacity on both sides of the floor.
“It seems like we let everything loose in the playoffs,” commented Doulet. “They really surprised me in both games that we played. They showed that they could play with anyone.”
That they did.
In the second round, Ville Platte took the No. 3 seed Madison Prep to the wire, before losing a hard-fought contest to the Lady Chargers.
Now that the season is come and gone, Doulet has had a chance to reflect and look at what is ahead for her squad that returns five starters.
“I think we will be ready for next year,” said Doulet. “They really got a taste of what it is to fight in those playoff games. We will do summer league like we always do. That will be the time to work on the things we need to.”
As far as the seniors lost this past season, Doulet is appreciative of the contributions they made.
“We will always have an appreciation for what our seniors this year have done for the program. It will be hard without them next year.