LAPLACE — Sports editor Lori Lyons will join L’OBSERVATEUR’s staff full-time Monday morning.

Lyons, a Houma native, graduated from Loyola University in 1987 with a degree in English.

She joined the Times-Picayune in October of 1986 and worked in sports for 24 years before spending two years on the crime and government beat. Her position was eliminated in 2012 when the New Orleans-based newspaper scaled back from its seven-day home delivery format.

“I love sports writing because I love the games, the atmosphere, the whole experience,” Lyons said. “The athletes usually have pretty interesting stories. It’s fun to get to talk to the athletes before they become jaded by fame. For some, I represent their 15 minutes.”

Lyons moved to the River Parishes in 1991 and lived in LaPlace until 1994, when she married husband Marty Luquet at Laura Plantation in Vacherie.

Luquet is the assistant golf coach at Destrehan High School and the couple has lived in Norco since 1995.

L’OBSERVATEUR publisher Stephen Hemelt said Lyons’ addition to the staff serves a special need for St. John the Baptist Parish and the River Parishes.

“Our community’s relationship to sports is rooted in generations as it connects children to parents and strangers to neighbors,” Hemelt said. “Lori Lyons is uniquely qualified to tell the stories behind our region’s sports glory while providing unique insight well beyond the scoreboard. We’re excited our readers will be treated to one of the area’s best writers on a weekly basis.”

In recent years, Lyons has worked as a freelance writer for L’OBSERVATEUR, The Advocate, St. Charles Herald-Guide and Sportsnola.com.

She most recently worked as a circulation assistant at the St. Charles Parish Library.