Replacing Skains a tough chore

Many people know by now that I’m an alum of South Lafourche High School – a member of the school’s 2005 graduating class.

It’s really no secret my ties to the school. I’ve talked about it openly in several of my Casey’s Corner columns over the years.

I have cousins who go there, and hundreds of children that I’ve either coached or have seen grow up through Biddy Basketball walk the halls of the school each day.

I can lose my veil of objectivity for a minute and concede that it’s a place that’s near and dear to my heart, because that school was once home to me at time when I was coming into my own as a person. It’s where I decided I wanted to be a Sports Journalist. It’s also where I made lifelong friendships that I’ll have for the rest of my life.

So with that said, I want to dedicate this column to doing something that I’ve done privately, but never have done publicly.

It’s something that I should have done years ago, but never had the right outlet to do.

Now, with a football coaching search about to get underway, the timing is perfect to say the three words that I’ve been meaning to say for a long, long time, as it pertains to South Lafourche football and the way the program has been run.

And those three words are this: I was wrong.

See, I never wanted Dennis Skains to be the head football coach of my alma mater.

In fact, even I can now admit that I threw a hissy fit when the hire was made in 2012. I didn’t like his youth, nor did I like that he’d never been a head coach. I didn’t like that he was from outside of the area – a stranger to our community.

I didn’t like just about anything, and I wasn’t afraid to tell anyone who asked that it’d be a bad fit.

But I was wrong.

I wrote a column that lambasted then-principal Bubba Orgeron. In it, I was very open in blaming both he, other school administrators and Tarpons boosters for outgoing coach Terry Farmer’s dismissal.

I said in the piece that Farmer was done an injustice, and that the new coach would fail, regardless of who he was, because of a fan base that I described as entitled and overzealous.

My emotions at the time were raw – in part because I had a strong working relationship with Farmer, and also because I was just young and stupid at the time – a rookie journalist that didn’t know what the heck I was doing.

But even for all its shortsightedness, the column got attention, and was pretty well-written, if I must say-so myself.

It won Best Sports Editorial at the Louisiana Press Association Awards, and its words and raw passion generated a lot of acclaim from writers around the state.

In many ways, it was a piece that helped to put me on the radar as a local reporter.

But I was wrong.

Skains was a heck of a coach for the Tarpons throughout his four-year tenure, leading the team to the playoffs in every season he spent in Galliano.

South Lafourche was always gritty and competitive under Skains’ watch, and the coach did a very nice job turning the team back into a consistent contender – something that it lacked for several seasons before he entered the program.

Sure, success in the win/loss column is nice, but in high school sports, it’s what takes place off the field that’s truly important.

That’s the area where Skains arguably shined brightest and let a lasting legacy in the Tarpons program.

The kids in the football program looked up to their coach, and he repaid that love and trust by having their backs every step of the way.

Folks behind the scenes don’t know a lot of the things that I do about the football program, and how it’s been run in the past four seasons.

Many don’t know that Skains routinely stayed in his office until 1 or 2 a.m. – sometimes even later, working on different things to help his players succeed.

He spent countless hours working on highlight tapes, often sending them to any college he possibly could to get his guys exposure.

When not working on projects like that, Skains was often trying to help players through tough situations in their lives and/or studying ways to give the team an edge.

He embraced the rich history of the South Lafourche football program, and he enhanced the program and made it better than it was on the day he was hired.

That, folks, is the true mark of success at the high school level.

Of course, in this job, you see a lot of coaches come and go – par for the course in a field that’s as competitive as athletes.

But I’ll miss Dennis Skains being the head football coach of my alma mater.

The dude did a great job.

Cecilia is getting a good one.

I may not have wanted him at first, but I was wrong.

I’m damn sad to see him leave.