Vandebilt succeeds, despite tough 2013 season

Coming into the 2013 prep football season, everyone in the Tri-parish area wondered how Vandebilt Catholic would replace Elijah McGuire’s explosive playmaking ability.

The Terriers did that without a problem.

But a world of other off-field problems gave the team a roller coaster year.

In the 2013 campaign, Vandebilt lost starting quarterback Bailey Pere to injury and replaced head coach Brad Villavaso midseason after a public scandal involving the text messages the former coach sent to a disgruntled player. The Terriers also had to forfeit the final game of the regular season for playing an ineligible player, a loss that pushed the team out of a home game in the Division II State Playoffs and onto the road for opening-round play.

But through it all, Terriers assistant coach Ashton Cagnolatti said the season was a success because of the character and grit shown by the team. Vandebilt won seven of its 11 games on the field (one game was forfeited), and Cagnolatti said the team never succumbed to the distractions that surrounded the program.

“This was a character revealing year for us,” Cagnolatti said. “That’s the best way that I can explain it. With everything that went on this year, the kids never, never let it get to them. When we had every excuse in the world to lay down and to quit, we stood tall and refused to do that. We never had any problems and that’s a testament to these kids. We had a successful year here. We had every opportunity not to, but we kept fighting.”

Everything started just fine for Vandebilt.

Fresh off last year’s deep playoff run, the Terriers started 2013 strong by winning three-straight games. In the first month of the season, Vandebilt walloped rival E.D. White 27-9 on opening night and then topped Thibodaux 27-20 and St. James 22-18 in consecutive weeks.

All three of the Terriers’ victims reached this playoffs this season. St. James won a couple of postseason games while there.

“We sat down as a staff early in the year and we said that we knew we had a chance to be pretty special again,” Cagnolatti said. “We knew we wouldn’t be as explosive without Elijah. But we thought we could control the ball and play good defense and win a lot of games. All we needed to do was stay healthy.”

Unfortunately for Vandebilt, that didn’t happen.

The Terriers suffered their first loss of the year in Week 4 – a 51-19 thrashing at the hands of Patterson.

A week later, Vandebilt lost 27-10 to Brother Martin, a contest that was ugly for two reasons. Away from the lopsided scoreboard tally, Pere tore his ACL in the defeat, which forced Vandebilt to hand it’s offense to sophomore David Yancey.

Yancey was conservative, but sound as the team’s quarterback. He led Vandebilt to four district wins on the field and effectively managed the game without many youthful mistakes.

“He came in and did such a terrific job for us. I’m so proud of that kid,” Cagnolatti said. “He’s a smart football player. Is he as big as Bailey? Does he have as big an arm? No, he doesn’t. But David led us to some big wins in the middle-late part of the season. He wasn’t that big pocket presence that Bailey was, but he was always ready mentally, and he did a great job keeping our offense on track.”

But just when Yancey started to get comfortable in his surroundings, more turmoil started to infiltrate the Vandebilt locker room. In the back-half of the season, Gage Corte quit the Terriers’ team after having a dispute with Villavaso.

After a very public back and forth, it was revealed that Corte decided to step away from the program after a series of text messages sent by Villavaso. In those messages, which were obtained by the Tri-Parish Times, the coach said that he had an issue with something Corte allegedly said to a person at a local hotel.

Corte denied the coach’s accusation, but Villavaso didn’t accept the player’s explanation.

“You were very disrespectful to one of my wife’s friends last night,” a text in the log reads. “And now you have a price to pay.”

Another message reads, “Challenging me and my staff Is a life-long mistake.”

After taking his grievance to the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Corte was ordered to return to the team. After a back-and-forth with administration regarding the situation, Villavaso was removed from his duties before the team’s regular season finale with Ellender. The school never named an interim coach.

Vandebilt rallied around the adversity and beat the Patriots to seal what they thought was an undefeated district season.

But one day later, the team had its name plastered across the headlines again as the win was forfeited and the program was placed on administrative probation for the use of an ineligible player.

“That was such a hectic series of days,” Cagnolatti said. “Every day for a while, it seemed like it was it was another hit laid onto us. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever been through as a coach.”

But even with the adversity, Cagnolatti said the Terriers never broke.

The team advanced to the Division II playoffs and got walloped by Teurlings Catholic 44-7.

But Cagnolatti said the team never quit throughout that game and stayed focus all season. The assistant coach said he told the players following the game that he was proud of their courage in the last month of the year.

“It didn’t end how we wanted it to, obviously, but those guys had no reason to hang their heads,” Cagnolatti said. “The character that those guys showed down the stretch of the season was remarkable. They never buckled or faltered.”

With the season over, Vandebilt administration announced this week that it is currently accepting applications from candidates interested in being the team’s next coach. Cagnolatti said he believes the new coach will be taking over a quality team.

“A lot of times, you see a new coach take over a team with nine starters gone on offense and defense, so it’s like you’re completely starting over,” Cagnolatti said. “But we have talented players coming back who know the system and who have been in the system. If we have a good offseason in our conditioning program, that’s a huge key. I think we will. I think we’ll be back strong again next year.”

Vandebilt Catholic tight end Chase Hawthorne catches a pass during the team’s key district game with South Terrebonne. The Terriers overcame a difficult season and rallied to win seven games on the field. Terriers’ assistant coach Ashton Cagnolatti said he is proud of the players for their ability to continue fighting.

JOSE DELGADO | TRI-PARISH TIMES