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David McCormick has finally found the fit he’s been looking for.
A longtime South Terrebonne assistant coach and defensive coordinator, McCormick was named the head football coach at Ellender last week – a move the veteran coach said he’s excited about and can’t wait to begin.
McCormick said he’s been offered multiple head coaching positions throughout the years, but always turned them down because none were the right fit for he and his family at the time.
He believes this Ellender opportunity is exactly that – a chance to springboard his head coaching career in East Houma, a place McCormick said is near and dear to his heart.
“I’ve had a lot of head coaching opportunities, but I always passed on them for one reason or another. The timing and fit was never quite there,” McCormick said. “But this time, it just felt right. When you have that feeling, it’s time to make the jump and take the next challenge. It’s hard. I have two younger daughters who are still at South Terrebonne. I have family there, but this just felt right for me.”
For McCormick, the challenge will be turning the Patriots into a winner – something that previous coaches at the school have been unsuccessful in trying to accomplish.
McCormick said one of the keys to the future lies in Ellender’s ability to play defense – a facet of the game that the Patriots have struggled mightily in for several seasons.
Last year, Ellender allowed 28 or more points in eight out of 10 games, ranking near the bottom of the Houma-Thibodaux area in nearly every defensive statistical category.
McCormick said there’s no magic elixir that the Patriots can use to turn things around in short order. The coach said the fix won’t even be schematic as much as it will be developing a mindset and a philosophy that keeping opponents out of the end zone is of utmost importance.
That mindset, McCormick said, will be on full display in spring practices as he tries to shape the culture of the Patriots’ team.
“This school has given up a lot of points, and that’s something that’s gone on for a long, long time now,” McCormick said. “I will try and bring a different philosophy to that side of the football, and it’s something that we’re going to take an awful lot of pride in being good at. Our kids will be hard-nosed and aggressive. We will try and fly to the football and tackle. There’s no magic play. That’s the magic secret to every good defense. They all fly to the football and gang tackle. We have to get to that point.”
Offensively, McCormick said he doesn’t have a set philosophy in mind, but will base his team’s offense on the talent that’s present in the team’s locker room on a given year.
At South Terrebonne, the Gators have traditionally run a run-heavy Wing-T set, primarily taking advantage of the beefy offensive linemen and fullbacks that the school traditionally has.
But with Ellender, the Patriots historically are more loaded with backs, receivers and quarterbacks, which plays into a spread-oriented attack.
McCormick confirmed to The Times that he has retained Patriots assistant coach Jesse Turner as his offensive coordinator – a move that the coach said was important to his transition.
Turner was the offensive coordinator for the past two seasons under outgoing coach Terry Washington, and was one of five applicants to be the school’s head coach.
McCormick said that he can’t wait to work with the 25-year-old Turner, calling him a bright football mind.
“We’re going to be flexible and willing to adjust,” McCormick said. “When a coach says that he’s going to run this or that without looking at his talent, I don’t think that’s smart. We have skill guys here. Coach Turner and I will try our best to put together a plan that’s going to take advantage of all of that talent that we have at those positions.”
But perhaps what Ellender needs more than anything related to X’s and O’s is an attitude and a mindset shift away from the status quo.
Right now, Ellender is a basketball school. That’s the sport that dominates the attention of both the school’s students and also the community.
But McCormick said he hopes to change that.
He said that he wants to get people to believe in Ellender football again, and he thinks that he’s the right man to do so.
McCormick said that he grew up in East Houma, and has rich ties from that area.
“I know just about everyone here,” he said.
With that knowledge of the school and program, he hopes to do for the Patriots exactly what longtime South Terrebonne coach Richard Curlin has done – build the team into a consistent winner, both on and off the field.
“I’m excited,” McCormick said. “I really think the kids are going to buy in. The past two years, the team didn’t have as much success, but you could see that they kept competing. Once the team sees my energy and how I practice and my energy in terms of how much I care, I think we’re going to get rolling. I want what’s best for our guys, and I’m going to put my heart into this so that we can turn Ellender football into something that we’re all proud of.”
WASHINGTON NAMED COACH AT TARA
The man that McCormick is replacing at Ellender has already found new work.
Outgoing coach Terry Washington confirmed to The Times that he has been named the head football coach at Tara – a public school in Baton Rouge.
Tara is coming off an 0-10 season, but Washington said he’s looking forward to the rebuilding project.
He compared the job to Ellender’s, touting that it’s the same type of program with a losing history in need of a turnaround.
Washington said he is hopeful to turn Tara into a playoff contender. •
