BATON ROUGE – The importance of education combined with the value of sports was the topic for LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson Thursday as he spoke to over 200 third through six graders at the local Inspire Charter Academy.
The Academy is preparing to start a sports program this year beginning with basketball, volleyball and track.
Coach Johnson stressed the importance of education and how it will help in sports when it comes to “listening, learning/studying (being able to read) and the importance of making good grades to get a scholarship at the next level.
Principal Phillip Price introduced Coach Johnson to the students, who after his talk took such questions from the students as “When he started coaching? Who is his favorite basketball player and What was his favorite subject in school?”
One of the teachers in the group was Tremaine Mitchell, a math teacher who graduated from LSU in 2008 and was a member of the Golden Band from Tigerland.
The LSU men’s basketball team opens the 2011-12 season on Saturday, Nov. 12 at noon at the Maravich Center against Nicholls State. It is the first half of a basketball-football doubleheader on North Stadium and admission to the basketball game is free of charge. Season tickets for the 15 home games at the PMAC are on sale beginning at $100 at LSUsports.net.
Follow LSU Basketball on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUCoachJohnson and @LSUBasketball. LSU Basketball just passed Thursday a total of 9,900 people who have “liked” the page, heading toward a goal of 10,000 followers by the opening of the basketball season on Nov. 12.