Millet, Perrilloux, Ravannack, Roth among LA High School Sports Hall of Fame inductees

BATON ROUGE – It was a banner night at the Crowne Plaza in Baton Rouge Tuesday evening for the 46th Annual Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

A distinguished class of 10 honorees received their just awards for terrific accomplishments at the high school level.

That included four from the New Orleans area.

Former Country Day volleyball coach Maggie Millet, former East St. John quarterback Ryan Perrilloux, long-time state wrestling tournament director Jim Ravannack and former Archbishop Rummel head football coach Jay Roth were among those honored before a sellout crowd.

With a brilliant career spanning from 1969-2010, Millet served as the head volleyball coach at Country Day, leading the Cajuns to three consecutive state championships from 1974-76. Millet guided Country Day to 14 district titles, 32 appearances in the state tournament and 427 victories overall.

Millet was named as the New Orleans area Coach of the Year multiple times and received National High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year honors in 1991. She also spent time coaching soccer, tennis, track and softball.

Perrilloux earned All-American honors at East St. John, accounting for 12,705 yards of total offense, ranked second all-time in Louisiana history, His 9,025 passing yards are fourth all-time. Perrilloux accounted for 155 touchdowns and totaled 5,006 yards in his senior season, a state record. Perrilloux was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in 2005 and was named the National High School Offensive Player of the Year by USA Today. Perrilloux was a basketball star as well, averaging 24 points per game for the Wildcats and in baseball, he batted .500 for his career and earned All-State and All-American honors.

To this day, Perrilloux remains perhaps the best dual threat quarterback in Louisiana prep football history.

Perrilloux played at LSU, including being part of a national championship team in 2007 before playing at Jacksonville State, where he earned Offensive Player of the Year honors.

Professionally, Perriloux played in the Canadian Football League, the Arena Football League with the New Orleans VooDoo and spent time in the NFL with the New York Giants, where he earned a Super Bowl championship ring in 2011.

Ravannack is perhaps the most accomplished person in wrestling in Louisiana history.

On the mat, Ravannack was a state runner-up in 1977 at 138 pounds and won an individual state championship at East Jefferson in 1978 at 145 pounds, leading the Warriors to a state title. As a coach, Ravannack served as head coach at East Jefferson and was an assistant coach at Grace King.

Ravannack served as the director of the LHSAA state wrestling tournament for three decades, helping grow the event the sport dramatically. Ravannack was the USA Wrestling Man of the Year in 2001, served as Team Leader for the 2004 USA Olympic Wrestling Team and was a Team Leader for five USA International Teams.

Ravannack helped lead the charge to preserve wrestling as an Olympic Sport. He financed and built the USA Wrestling facility at Archbishop Rummel High School and founded the Gator Wrestling Club.

Ravannack has been inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (2005) and has been honored by the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport. Ravannack led the USA team to six different Olympic games and to 19 world championships.

Roth was an outstanding high school quarterback at Archbishop Rummel, leading the Raiders to an unbeaten regular season and earning All-District honors in 1980 and was named the Most Valuable offensive player in the esteemed Catholic League. He went on to coach his alma mater for 24 years, including 23 winning seasons, earning 12 Catholic League titles and winning the first two state championships in school history. At one point, Roth led his Raiders to 40 consecutive regular season wins.

Roth guided the Raiders to four state title game appearances. He retired from coaching after the 2018 season with 228 wins with a winning percentage of 79.7 percent. Roth is the winningest coach in the history of the storied Catholic League. He was twice named Louisiana Sportswriters Coach of the Year. Roth has been recognized for his excellence with the Contribution to American Football award by the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Others inducted included Dr. James Andrews as a competitor for Homer High School in football, along with basketball, baseball and track. Andrews has gone on to become the pre-eminent Orthopedic surgeon in the nation.

Eddie Cole was an accomplished cross country coach at University High, E.D. White Catholic and Episcopal. Cole led E.D. White to 11 state titles.

Gay Greer was an outstanding basketball coach at Haynesville, Caldwell Parish and Byrd, capturing seven state championships in her career.

Scott Peterson was a superb two-sport star in football and track and field at Acadiana High School, earning Gatorade Track & Field Athlete of the Year in 1990.

Mitchell Riggs had an outstanding career at McCall Senior High as head basketball coach, leading his teams to four state championships. He later served as girls head coach and also served as head coach at Madison High, winning a total of 913 games.

Ryan Travis was a star runner at Jewel Sumner from 1994-97, where he earned All-State and All-American honors, setting state records in the 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs.