{"id":811,"date":"2015-11-06T00:08:24","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T05:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/?p=811"},"modified":"2015-11-11T17:34:10","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T22:34:10","slug":"captain-shreves-gustavson-challenges-byrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/?p=811","title":{"rendered":"Captain Shreve\u2019s Gustavson challenges Byrd"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Captain<\/a>

Captain Shreve principal Ginger Gustavson talks to football player Tramel Roberson during a class. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith\/The Times)<\/p><\/div>\n

When it comes to athletic backgrounds and how that has the potential to move a high school forward athletically, few can match the resume of Captain Shreve\u2019s Ginger Gustavson.<\/p>\n

On the job at East Kings Highway for just over a month, the former Ginger Colvin was a standout basketball player at Benton High School, playing for both her father, Valcar Colvin, and Myles Holladay. She earned All-State honors in 1987, precisely 20 years after dad captured the same honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that not many people know, but that has always meant a lot to me,\u201d Gustavson told The Times in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n

One of nine area high school principals who played sports collegiately, Gustavson is the only one who competed in two different sports at that level. She played golf at North Texas her freshman year before returning to finish her undergraduate work at LSUS. She played on the inaugural Lady Pilots basketball team in 1990-91, averaging 22.4 points per contest, second best in school history.<\/p>\n

\"Captain

Captain Shreve principal Ginger Gustavson talks to Adrian Sevenson at breakfast on a recent morning. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith\/The Times)<\/p><\/div>\n

The multi-talented Gustavson has parlayed that athletic experience into success as an administrator, calling on tenets she learned as a point guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a strong foundation to make good personnel decisions for hiring coaches, teachers,\u201d she said. \u201cI come from a family of educators and I\u2019ve worked for some top-notch educators \u2014 Julie Bergeron, Kay Robinson and Jerry Badgley \u2014 all three very different, but all three very successful. I\u2019m myself, but somewhere a combination of the three.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gustavson\u2019s ties to the northwest Louisiana educational community run long and deep. Both of her parents have retired after multi-year careers teaching in Bossier Parish schools, while her husband, David, recently retired from LSUS after instructing there since 1974.<\/p>\n

Gustavson has served at Woodlawn, Southwood, Byrd, Caddo Middle Magnet, Broadmoor Middle Lab and First Baptist School, along with the Caddo Parish central office. Her brother, Glen, is the principal at Shreve Island Elementary and her sister, Valerie Quarles, is an Adaptive PE teacher in Caddo Parish.<\/p>\n

Her first day on the job as the Gator boss was the day of the Captain Shreve-Byrd football game, so she stood on the opposite sideline from her youngest son, Jack, a senior tennis player at Byrd. The Jackets won that contest handily, but the game got Gustavson\u2019s competitive juices flowing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing on the Shreve side that night was kind of surreal. Dr. (Sandra) McCalla introduced me to all of the alumni, the parents and put her stamp of approval. That was one of the most exciting nights of my life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Gustavson said she has caught some flak for her son attending Shreve\u2019s top rival. She shrugs that off acknowledging that \u201cByrd is a good school,\u201d with Jack and Sam attending there because she was there at one time. She is 100 percent a Gator.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a competitive person and I can\u2019t wait until we beat Byrd in football. We beat them in rifle shooting last week and I was pumped about that. When I got that text, I was like, \u2018yes! We beat Byrd,\u2019\u201d Gustavson said. \u201cWhen we beat Byrd in football next year, or the next year \u2014 cause I\u2019ve been going to the freshmen and JV games \u2014 and it\u2019s coming \u2014 It\u2019s going to be a good feeling. There\u2019s room in this city for more than one 5A powerhouse in football.\u201d<\/p>\n

She created a stir recently when she parted ways with softball coach Lory Kowaleski before the former Centenary standout coached her first contest with the Lady Gators.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know people want reasons, but it was strictly a personnel decision,\u201d Gustavson said. \u201cI knew what I signed up for. I just have to move forward and move the school forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a deep athletic background, Gustavson believes, makes her uniquely qualified to make hiring decisions. She believes she found the right softball coach in Gator assistant football\/baseball coach Mitch Fant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had to step out there and say this guy knows softball and he\u2019s on campus \u2014 he\u2019s our guy,\u201d Gustavson said. \u201cIn my mind, we\u2019ve got a great guy. It\u2019s part of the job to make those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gustavson remains active athletically, occasionally playing tennis doubles with her son against her sister and nephew.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always seeking out opportunities to play sports. I\u2019m always looking to be active and much prefer something with a ball. I\u2019m not a runner, even though I wish I could be. I just don\u2019t have that mentality,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to be dribbling, passing, catching, hitting \u2026 I wish I had taken up tennis earlier. I believe I could have been good at it. I waited until I was 40-something to take it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also waiting patiently to complete a mini-basketball tournament with Byrd girls basketball coach Toni Martinez, a longtime friend. While at CMM together, they reportedly split a pair of one-on-one contests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would mess with each other about who was better at basketball. I\u2019m 10 years older, but we are 1-1,\u201d Gustavson said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t done the third game yet because she started having babies. I\u2019m ready for game three.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy Jimmy Watson, Shreveport Times\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to athletic backgrounds and how that has the potential to move a high school forward athletically, few can match the resume of Captain Shreve\u2019s Ginger Gustavson. On the job at East Kings Highway for just over a month, the former Ginger Colvin was a standout basketball player at Benton High School, playing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ka5C-d5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblog.captainshreve.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}