BATON ROUGE — Legendary Peabody Magnet coach Charles Smith was joined in the spotlight by coach-player combinations from LSUA and state Class C champion Plainview High School among the major honorees at Saturday’s 51st Annual Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Awards Banquet.

Smith received the LABC’s 2025 Mr. Louisiana Basketball award.  This award is given annually to someone who has made a significant, long-term contribution to the game of basketball at any level in the state of Louisiana.

Inducted into the Louisiana Basketball Hall of Fame were former University of New Orleans standouts Ledell Eackles and Bo McCalebb, who both played professionally, along with former UL Lafayette and NBA star Elfrid Payton.

Also honored at the banquet were Louisiana’s major college, small college, junior college and high school basketball players and coaches of the year, along with the top pro player from the state.

Smith has been the head coach at Peabody Magnet High School in Alexandria for 40 years, where he has won over 1,200 games and nine state championships.  He is Louisiana’s all-time winningest high school head coach and ranks fourth nationally.  He is now within reach of becoming the nation’s all-time winningest prep basketball coach.

Smith’s 1,236-219 career record and 84.9% winning percentage include a pair of perfect 41-0 seasons (in 2004 and 2010), with his 2004 team earning a national top five ranking.

He is a six-time Louisiana state coach of the year and was the ESPN National Coach of the Year in 2010.  A 2019 inductee in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, his greatest individual coaching honor came last October, when he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, becoming only the sixth high school coach to be so honored and the first one from Louisiana.

Senior guard Kashie Natt of LSU-Alexandria received the LABC’s Louisiana Small College Player of the Year award after being named the NAIA National Player of the Year and a finalist for the Bevo Francis Award as the national small college player of the year.  He was also the Red River Athletic Conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, as well as the MVP of the RRAC Tournament, while averaging 20.0 points and 10.3 rebounds (1st in RRAC), including 19 double-double games.

Natt, a Rayville native, recently announced he is transferring to Sam Houston State for his final season of college basketball, playing in the NCAA Division I Conference USA that includes Louisiana Tech.

LSUA coach Dimario Jackson, who was named the Louisiana Small College Coach of the Year, guided the Generals to a No. 2 ranking in the final regular season national poll, to the Red River Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships and to the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Tournament with a 31-3 record.  Jackson was also named the RRAC Coach of the Year.

Other 2025 LABC honorees included the Plainview combination of senior star Zequan Lewis and coach Dustin Howard, who led the Hornets to their first state title since 1965. Lewis was the LABC’s Class C Player of the Year and Howard was Class C Coach of the Year.