Baton Rouge CC begins search after Byron Starks takes Lafayette role

Baton Rouge Community College has entered a crucial stretch of its offseason with Byron Starks leaving for a top administrative job in Lafayette, a move that forces the Bears to replace a coach who helped steady the program and keep it winning. The timing is the bigger issue than the vacancy itself: summer recruiting is active across NJCAA basketball, roster decisions are being made now, and BRCC cannot afford a slow search.

Starks has stepped away after a three-year run in Baton Rouge that produced a 48-28 record and a clear upward trend for a program that needed stability. BRCC’s athletics profile says he was hired on July 10, 2023, and had just entered his third year at the helm. In his first season, he was named Louisiana Community College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Bears to a 14-13 overall record, a 4-2 conference mark, a regular-season title and a Region XXIII quarterfinal appearance. The Bears also won their first-round playoff game before bowing out in the quarterfinals.

Lafayette Consolidated Government named Starks the next director of Lafayette Parks, Arts, Recreation & Culture after an extensive search and selection process, with local coverage saying he is set to begin the role in July 2026. The job puts him in charge of parks, recreation programs, community facilities and cultural initiatives across Lafayette Parish at a moment when the department is working through a parishwide parks planning process and addressing concerns about the condition of some public parks.

For BRCC, the departure closes a stretch in which Starks brought championship pedigree and regional credibility to Baton Rouge. Before arriving at BRCC, he spent five seasons as head coach at LSU Eunice, where he went 84-33 overall and 39-6 in conference play. His résumé also includes back-to-back state championships at Lafayette Christian Academy in 2017 and 2018, and BRCC’s profile lists him as being from Grambling, Louisiana.

HoopDirt reported that BRCC’s search is already underway, and the school has every reason to move quickly. The next hire has to do more than preserve the recent win total. BRCC needs a coach who can hold the roster together, keep current players from drifting during the summer, and continue the development pipeline that turned the Bears into a conference contender. The program has momentum, but in junior college basketball, momentum can vanish in a single recruiting cycle.