Coach Woody resigns from Vandebilt

The search to find Vandebilt Catholic High School’s next head football coach is ongoing.

Whoever is hired will have to name a new defensive coordinator upon taking the position.

Terriers’ assistant coach and defensive coordinator Ashton Cagnolatti announced this week that he has resigned from his position within the school and will seek other coaching opportunities for the 2014 year.

Cagnolatti had been with the Terriers’ program for each of the past few seasons. He was a top assistant coach under former head coach Brad Villavaso, who resigned during the 2013 season after a dispute with administration regarding the status of a player within the team.

Cagnolatti is a Plaquemine native. Known as “Coach Woody,” Cagnolatti was wildly popular among the team’s players, who loved the assistant coach because of his knowledge, but also his vibrant personality and enthusiasm for the sport.

Upon Villavaso’s resignation, Cagnolatti was among a core of assistant coaches who co-coached the team the remainder of the season.

Cagnolatti’s resignation puts another thing onto the to-do list of Vandebilt athletic administration.

The Terriers’ management is already busy trying to hire a head coach – a process that is expected to continue into the next few weeks. The school has created a committee to weed through applications – a process that is commonplace among the higher profile prep football jobs in the state.

Vandebilt AD Margarat Johnson told the Tri-Parish Times in mid-December that the job was generating interest and that a qualified candidate would be hired.

But she did not specify the number of candidates that had applied, nor some of the qualifications the school would prefer in an applicant.

“We’re hoping to hire somebody in early February,” she said when interviewed. “We have a committee going and we are expecting the job to draw a lot of interest.

“But outside of that, I don’t think it’s the right time, nor place to elaborate any further than that in terms of the type of candidate we’re looking for or any of the skills that he’d have to possess to be a successful coach within this program.”

It is not clear whether any other Vandebilt assistant coaches will follow Cagnolatti out the program in the coming weeks before a new coach is hired.

Sources close to the Vandebilt program said that many of the coaches were close to Villavaso and maintained a close relationship with the coach – even following his resignation from the program.