Jordan Dupuy loves being the NSU Lady Demons’ head basketball coach.

When he was 12, he told his parents he wanted to be a basketball coach. Twenty-four years later, on Veterans’ Day, the Baton Rouge native walked onto the court at Prather Coliseum for his first game in charge of a Division I program.

While he is almost totally consumed by coaching basketball, he’s not addicted. Warm days ahead tantalize him even though he’s living a childhood ambition.

“The actual job itself isn’t my calling. It’s a dream come true, but it’s not my calling. How I do the job, that’s my calling. If you don’t treat people right, if you don’t have their best interests at heart, what a shame.”

Dupuy and his wife Elizabeth are doting parents to sixth-grader Alex (11) and fourth-grader Maddie (9), who get picked up by Dad at their NSU Lab Schools and do homework in his office after practice.

While Dupuy’s players might find it hard to believe, he considers his wife the tougher person in their marriage.

“She’s tough minded. She’s physically stronger than I am. Her toughness extends to how good a coach’s wife she is. When I go home, I’m there physically, but mentally I’m often somewhere else. She’s always been so understanding with me and so tremendous as a parent,” he said. “There’s no way I could have reached this point in my career without her.”

Dupuy is living the life he’s dreamed about. His parents and Elizabeth’s were in the stands for his head coaching debut, and will be there for many more games. He’s confident that his teams will hang more championship banners in Prather Coliseum. He’s determined his players will enjoy their experience as Lady Demons, and be well equipped for success past basketball.

He’s a basketball coach. But fundamentally, he’s a life coach, and he can’t imagine doing anything else.

“I have no idea. I haven’t thought about it. Something involving people, something involving kids. I loved coaching and teaching in high school because I was able to reach a lot of kids, even those I didn’t coach or teach,” he said. “That’s the special opportunity we have, and we have to make the most of it.”

This feature originally appeared in the Metro Leader monthly newspaper, and is redistributed here courtesy of the Metro Leader.