HLB, Ellender, name head coaches

The Terrebonne Parish School Board announced last Tuesday that they’ve approved two coaching hires for H.L. Bourgeois and Ellender’s football coaching positions.

The board approved the hire of former East St. John and Vandebilt assistant coach Benjamin Powell to serve as H.L. Bourgeois’ coach.

Powell said he would get to work immediately upon his hire to try and turn around the Braves’ program.

H.L. Bourgeois finished 2-8 last season and didn’t record a district victory.

“The first thing we are going to go in and do is we’re going to establish our off-season program,” Powell said. “We’re going to make sure we’re hitting everything in terms of strength and conditioning. … Incorporate our system, our way of doing things as fast as we can.”

Powell’s most recent stop was at East St. John, but he’s also coached in Baton Rouge and in Texas along the way.

He said he’ll work to take all of his prior lessons with him during his first stint as a head coach.

“I think the biggest thing is to try to bring some of those ideas and philosophies from different places and bring it into H.L,” he said. “We’re going to go and do some new things. We’re going to do some different things. We’re going to change the approach to the offense and defense and we’re going to implement kind of some new systems.”

The school board also approved former Ellender assistant coach and former Bayou Bucks player Timothy Betts to be the Patriots’ new head coach.

The coach takes over the program after a decorated career as a player, winning All-American honors at Troy, before spending time at the professional level.

Betts will be taking over a program that has been winless each of the past two seasons.

The coach said his plan to turning around the program is through academics. The coach said he will work diligently to stress the importance of his player’s qualifying in the classroom in order to be able to play on Friday nights.

“I tell my kids all of the time they can check my resume,” Betts said. “I was a high school All-American, a college All-American, and I even got so far to be able to make it all the way to the NFL. But the thing that got me there was academics. I was able to be around. That’s the thing I’m going to relay to my players. If you have your academics, then now you’re going to be able to be around so that me and my coaching staff will be able to coach you the proper techniques and the proper things you’re going to need to excel, so that’s the biggest priority for me. If you want to play good football for Coach Betts, then academics are a priority, then we can get to the X’s and O’s.”

Betts added he’s not worried about the school’s recent struggles, because he believes there’s plenty of talent on the Patriots’ roster.

Ellender had more than 10 All-District performers last season, despite a winless record. Betts added he believes roster turnout will be higher next season with change in the program.

He currently works at East Park Alternative School in Houma and also has donated his time with Terrebonne Parish Recreation football.

“A lot of the kids know who I am and know my strategies and how I go about football,” Betts said. “It’s amazing, because some of the coaches there at Ellender already, when the rumor got out that I could possibly be named the head coach, the kids just went out of their way to tell me, ‘Coach, I’m coming,’ or ‘Coach, I’m coming back out and playing.’ These are kids who played at Oaklawn and were superstars, but went to Ellender and like disappeared, but whatever decision they made not to play has changed and they’ve said they’ll invest back into our program.”

The school board made both hires unanimously and both coaches will begin work immediately to fill out staffs.

“The work begins now,” Betts said. “That was my thought when the hire was announced. The work begins now.”