First-year coach looking for turnaround

The Central Lafourche football team battled both youth and injuries last year and struggled to a 2-8 season.

“It was a long year,” senior defensive lineman Jared Breaux said.

Now healthy, the more experienced Trojans say they are ready to turn things around.

They have a new coach to oversee the process.

First-year coach Travis Douglas will make his debut as Central Lafourche’s head coach this season. The new coach said his primary job is to erase the team’s nightmare 2010 season and teach his Trojans that they still have what it takes to compete after posting a 7-4 mark in 2009.

“The kids are working hard and that’s the biggest thing,” Douglas said. “I preach to the kids every day that it’s all about what you put into it and the kids are running and working their butts off and are getting after it. … The kids have been great. We’re excited to get going.”

The biggest change in strategy between Douglas and the team’s former coach Chad Callais will come on the offensive side of the football.

Under Callais, who resigned from the program this spring due to personal reasons, the Trojans ran a triple option attack. With Douglas, the team will open the umbrella and run multiple formations, including some in spread formations.

“Hopefully, we can throw the football a little more,” the first-year coach said. “We’ve been working hard on the passing game and we’re trying to get some good things going in that aspect of our offense.”

Tasked with making that transition a smooth one is quarterback Jeremiah Ballard, who Douglas said is the leader of a group of Central Lafourche players who could see time under center in 2011.

Ballard wowed coaches in spring practices with both his passing and running ability under center for the Trojans.

He credits his success on the change of scheme implemented by Douglas.

His teammates agree.

“It’s more open. We’ve got a lot of blockers ahead of us,” Ballard said in the spring. “We’ve got more room to work because it’s more spread out. I like it.”

“It’s more high-pitched,” senior offensive lineman Lee Blanchard said. “It’s exciting.”

But make no mistake about it, the Trojans still want to make it known they are a run-first team, despite the new bells and whistles in their repertoire.

“We still going to line up and run the football and try to control the game,” Douglas said. “That’s still our philosophy.”

With the offense hoping to put up points and control the clock, the Trojans’ defensive scheme will remain virtually the same under Douglas, who was the team’s defensive coordinator prior to taking the head coaching position.

That unit will need some fine-tuning to experience success. Central Lafourche allowed 20 or more points in all but one of their games last season. In five of those games, opponents were able to drop 35 or more points.

The Trojans return Breaux in the middle of their defense, as well as starting safety Jordan Caillouet.

With that duo’s steady production and a little progression from a couple other guys, the team expects to be OK defensively.

“Last year was sort of a rough year,” Breaux said. “But we’re working hard at it. … We think we’ll be better.”

Hard work leads into Douglas’ second change within the program, an attitude adjustment.

The first-year coach coaches with a lot of fire and enthusiasm, often shouting encouragement before or after plays, even if it means he has to sprint across the field to do so.

That high-energy environment is exactly what the players believe they need to get back on the right track in the new season.

“I love it,” Caillouet said in the spring. “We definitely get fired up when he gets fired up. We absorb the energy he brings.”

Douglas said he doesn’t have any subconscious meaning behind his emotion, adding that it’s just the type of person he is.

He added that he believes his biggest job as the Trojans’ coach is to change the attitude of his players and to get them to understand that regardless of what happened in 2010, they can win games this season.

“Talent-wise, we’ll be right there,” Douglas said. “Man-to-man, no one will be head and shoulders above us. … We just have to learn how to win. We just have to learn what it takes to get over that hump. You know, the times when it’s 3rd and 5 and you have to go pick up a first down to win the football game, those are the types of things that we really need to understand and really need to be better at.”

The Trojans will not have much room for error in their attempt to grasp Douglas’ teachings.

Central Lafourche will play 2010 powerhouses Ponchatoula, Patterson, Brother Martin and E.D. White in their non-district schedule.

The Trojans are also the only team in the Bayou District who will play both New Iberia and Westgate on the road. Throw in a road game against South Lafourche and you have hands-down one of the toughest schedules in Louisiana.

But that’s OK with Douglas and the Trojans, if they are healthy, that is.

“We’re definitely looking forward to the challenge of playing those guys early,” the coach said. “We’ll know exactly where we stand going into district and hopefully it makes us better.

“I don’t care who you are, if you lose seven-or-eight guys to injuries, you’ll struggle. This year, so far, knock on wood, we’re healthy. … We’ll see how it plays out.”

Central Lafourche Trojans

District 7-5A

Sept. 2 vs. Ponchatoula

Sept. 9 vs. Patterson

Sept. 16 vs. Brother Martin

Sept. 23 vs. H.L. Bourgeois*

Sept. 30 at E.D. White

Oct. 7 vs. Terrebonne*

Oct. 14 at Westgate*

Oct. 21 at South Lafourche*

Oct. 28 vs. Thibodaux*

Nov. 4 at New Iberia*

* Denotes district game

Coach: Travis Douglas

Assistant Coaches: Aaron Babin, Thomas Boudreaux, Derrick Collins, Dain Detillier, Scott Duplantis, Robbie Naquin, Brett Smith

Record Last Season: 2-8

Returning Starters: 8

Players to Watch: Jeremiah Ballard, Jordan Caillouet, Jared Breaux

Primary Strength: Athleticism

Fun FACTS

8: The number of Central Lafourche starters who missed time due to injuries last season

1: The number of road games the Trojans will play in the first six weeks of the season, a Week 5 tilt with E.D. White

6: The number of times the Trojans allowed 30 or more points in 2010.

Central Lafourche lineman Lee Blanchard (left) poses with his teammate Jared Breaux. The Trojans are hoping a new coach sparks life into the team after a 2-8 season. CASEY GISCLAIR