Bio

2019 Grizzly Athletics Hall of Fame inductee video, David Augustine recalls some of his fondest memories from the program's first years, including the community's support of Grizzly Athletics.

Ask longtime fans of the Grizzly Basketball team which former player drew the charge the best, and nearly everyone will say David Augustine.

The 6-foot, 5-inch guard from Fenton, Louisiana, who played for the Grizzlies during the team’s first two seasons, had a knack for putting himself in the right place at the just the right time to draw the call. Grizzly coaches and fans loved it! Their opponents? Not so much.

The calls, in some instances, became game changers, thanks to Augustine’s 80 percent free throw shooting efficiency. In all instances, they charged up the team and the fans with his willingness to put his body on the line.

“I always told him he was so slow, he couldn’t move out of the way of anyone,” former Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Tom Barr said with a laugh. “He wasn’t a great athlete, but he got so much out of the ability he had. He was a step ahead of a lot of players.”

Part of that ability came from his innate understanding of the game. “He really had a great feel for the game and the way it was played. It’s something you don’t teach a player, it comes naturally,” Barr said.

Augustine came to the Grizzlies as part of the team’s first class of recruits in 1993. A standout on his Fenton High School team, which reached the Louisiana state playoffs four years in a row, he caught the eye of then Grizzly Basketball Assistant Coach Jason Tinsley, another native of Louisiana.

“He (Tinsley) knew him a little bit before we recruited him,” Barr recalled. “David was really easy to work with, very coachable. He caught onto things really well. The way he understood the game and how it should be played, and how he understood the way we wanted to play it, that was the first thing I noticed.”

Those skills came in handy when Augustine took the court for the first time following the midwinter break during the Grizzlies’ first season.

“We were 5-7 at the break, then we activated him for the second semester,” Barr said. “We finished the second semester 13-6. Adding him really stabilized our team. We had some really good wins in that second semester. He was the glue for our team.”

The Grizzlies’ first game back following that break serves as a perfect example of Augustine’s influence. In a home game at the West Plains Civic Center, the Grizzlies found themselves down 10-2 early against Shelby State Community College following a number of miscues. A 3-pointer by Augustine, however, halted the skid and started a comeback that allowed the team to pick up the win. Augustine finished the game with 22 points and a team-leading 10 rebounds.

Augustine’s steady hand helped guide the first-ever Grizzly team to an 18-13 season record, surprising many – including Barr himself.

As a sophomore, Augustine continued to set the tone for the Grizzlies, and his ability to play multiple positions ensured he stayed on the court.

“He was very versatile,” Barr said. “He played the point some for us, he played the shooting guard for us, he played the small forward for us. I could substitute him in several different positions, and he could play them. A lot of players can’t play the point and the small forward, but his understanding of the game allowed him to do that.”

One of his most impressive outings during the 1994-95 season came in November at the State Fair Community College Classic. In a span of 30 seconds, Augustine scored 13 points against Forest Park Community College.

As recorded in news reports at the time, the scenario began when Augustine stole the ball from a Forest Park player and scored an easy layup, despite being fouled. The contact knocked Augustine to the ground, where the player who fouled him kicked at him. The referee saw the kick and called a technical.

Forest Park’s coach immediately sat his player on the bench and replaced him with a player who was not on the official scorebook, which resulted in another technical foul. Augustine connected on all five shots from the free throw line to add a total of 7 points to the Grizzlies’ score.

Because of the technical, the Grizzlies retained possession of the ball, and on the in-bounds play, Augustine got the ball and canned a 3-pointer. On the subsequent in-bounds play by Forest Park, the Grizzlies stole the ball and gave it to Augustine, who snared another 3-point bucket.

“That’s unheard of,” Barr said.

With Augustine’s efforts and leadership, the Grizzlies went on to post a 26-7 season record and competed against a nationally-ranked Three Rivers Community College team for the Region 16 championship in just the second year of the team’s existence.

Reaching the region finals is one of Augustine’s fondest memories. “Even though we lost to Three Rivers, it was an awesome accomplishment for our team,” he said.

Augustine was named to the All-Region 16 Team – the only Grizzly to receive individual post-season honors in 1994-95. He led the team in scoring average with 16 points per game and in assists with 3.9 per game. He also recorded 29 charges – 12 more than the next player on the team in that category. In total, he drew 44 charges during his two-year career as a Grizzly.

Augustine graduated from Missouri State-West Plains with an Associate of Arts in General Studies degree in May 1995 and transferred to the University of South Alabama where he played for one season. He now works as a supervisor for a small construction company in Hathaway, Louisiana.

He and his wife of 21 years, Dawn, have four children:

• Dylan, a graduate of Eastern Texas Baptist University in Marshall where he played basketball for four years. He is now head basketball coach at Waskom, Texas, High School;

• Sydney, a junior at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, majoring in education;

• Colby, a junior at Hathaway High School and starter on the varsity basketball team;

• Ian, a sophomore at Hathaway High School and starter on the varsity basketball team.

Despite the distance in miles and years, Augustine fondly remembers his time in West Plains and as one of the first members of the Grizzly Basketball team. “We probably touched a lot of young kids’ hearts signing autographs after home games, but they touched our hearts also, experiencing that support,” he said. “Even though I was 11 hours away from home, the adopt-a-player program and the community made my time in West Plains feel like home.

“The fans never let us down,” he added. “How they filled the civic center and cheered us on was awesome. Several players from other teams told me they loved playing in our gym because of all our fan support.”

As for how he would like Grizzly fans to remember him, Augustine said, “as one of the players on the first two teams that started the winning tradition. Having two winning seasons for the first two teams was a great accomplishment.”

The induction of Augustine to the Grizzly Athletics Hall of Fame is well deserved, Barr said.

“What he and the other players of those first two seasons did helped establish legitimacy for our program,” Barr said. “Even though we were a young program, we were a program that people were going to have to pay attention to.

“David, Donovan (Brown) and Ben (Avery), they all set a good foundation for future teams. They were good examples. They played hard, were good students, were good people in the community. They set the standard for what the Grizzly team should look like and be like.”

David’s Missouri State-West Plains Career Stats   

1993-1995 • 52 Games Played