The opportunity to coach at one of the state’s premier football programs led Dan Christman to Bastrop, where he will become offensive coordinator after holding the same position five of the last six years at Alexandria Senior High.
Bastrop has won state titles three of the last four years, although it was stripped of the 2005 crown for using ineligible players. Bastrop lost by a point in last year’s semifinals to eventual Class 4A state champion Belle Chasse.
“It was a chance to come to a real good school and a chance to work with one of the top coaches in the state,” said Christman, who won four state championships and a runner-up spot as the head coach of ASH’s boys track and field team.
Christman, 44, will be an assistant track coach at Bastrop.
“I’m leaving a good program and going to a real good program with a chance to improve myself knowledge-wise,” Christman said.
Former Tioga offensive coordinator Tommy Moore has been hired as ASH’s new offensive coordinator. Moore spent the last four years at Tioga after having been Natchitoches Central’s offensive coordinator for a year.
“I felt like it was time for me to make a move,” Moore said.
More Football: McMain's Kevin Roussell becomes head coach after interim season
Athletic director Kevin Rousell no longer is an interim coach for New Orleans McMain. He’s been named head coach, according to New Orleans Public Schools Athletic Director Ron Gearing.
It is his first head-coaching assignment after having worked 17 years for previous McMain head coach Robert Welsh, who retired two weeks before the start of last season.
With Rousell and former McMain coach Sam Hill serving as interim coaches last season, McMain finished 2-7.
“I feel we have some good kids here," Roussell said. "I've been around them a couple of years, and I didn't want us to bring anybody else in as a coach. I thought I would rather step up and take the job over. Now we've got to go out and compete and move forward."
Though McMain searched for months for a new coach, the financial shape of New Orleans Public Schools and Roussell's qualifications practically dictated his appointment.
"Because of the budget cuts and letting some teachers go, the school didn't have a new teaching position to give a coach, and they were not going to be able to hire new people to the school," Gearing said.
Roussell, who worked as an assistant football coach for Welch for 17 years, said he's ready for his first head coaching position. McMain will be compete in District 10-3A this season along with Holy Cross, Ben Franklin, Clark, Carver, McDongh, De La Salle and Cochen. McMain belonged to District 11-3A last season.
Drop in class lifts Monroe Carroll's spirits
Monroe Carroll is hoping that a reduction in one area will lead to increase in another. Declining enrollment has dropped Carroll from Class 4A to District 2-3A, where the Bulldogs hope to improve on their meager record of having won only three games the last two years.
“It was a move for the better for the athletic program,” Hamilton said. ”As far as football, 3A is the best thing that could’ve happened for us. Our numbers are down, and we just feel like this is a much-needed move because it gives us a better chance to compete night in and night out. It kind of levels the playing field for us."
Carroll returns 18 of 22 starters but will face a stout schedule with district foes Caldwell Parish, Madison, Marksville, Rayville and Monroe Richwood and non-district opponents Lake Providence, Monroe Wossman, Monroe Neville, Franklin Parish andAlexandria Peabody.
Senior quarterback Xavier Gray is a two-year starter and was named Class 4A Most Valuable Athlete last season. Running back Pierre Morgan is expected to make a healthy return after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament last season.
“It’s going to make for a great season,” Hamilton said. “We still had a lot of young guys last year, and we had a new offensive and a new defensive coordinator. Really we were just young playing up in 4A ball. With the schedule we had the last two years, you had to be a veteran team to have success.”
Track and Field: All-Acadiana team announced
It hasn’t exactly been like father, like son for Lafayette’s Andreas Duplantis, but Duplantis definitely is following in his father’s footsteps.
Greg Duplantis, a former LSU standout and professional tour member, is one of a few Americans ever to top 19 feet in the pole vault. The younger Duplantis hasn’t quite reached that height, but his personal best of 15-feet, 6 inches, which won the Class 5A state title, was good enough to earn him Boys Field Performer of the Year on the Lafayette Advertiser’s All-Acadiana team.
Greg also was a state champion for Lafayette. Andreas will compete in his mother’s native Sweden this summer at junior European and world competition.
A two-sport athlete, he participated in the Little League World Series in 2005 and now plays baseball for Lafayette.
Rayne’s Annie Simoneaux was named the Girls Field Performer after winning the Class 3A discus competition with a throw of 142-10 and the discus with a season-best effort of 118-8.
Simoneaux also is a member of Rayne’s volleyball team.
Lafayette Northside produced the Boys Track Performer of the Year in Jason Lee, the Boys Coach of the Year in Randall Francies and the Girls Track Performer of the Year in Kim Francis.
