Josh Fontenot take over CHS football program

CROWLEY – For the third time in five years, Crowley High will have a new head football coach and athletic director.

The announcement was made at Monday’s monthly Acadia Parish School Board meeting, where officials granted Tommy Tate a transfer to another school in the parish and named offensive coordinator Josh Fontenot to take Tate’s place as CHS head coach and AD.

“Coach Tate has done an outstanding job here,” said CHS Principal Jim McKeiver. “I’ve only been with him since I took the job in August, but I’ve known him for many, many years and he is a very good coach and he’s done a good job here.

“I appreciate everything that he’s done here at Crowley High School and whatever he decides to do; I know he is going to be successful.”

Efforts to contact Tate on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Superintendent John E. Bourque, meanwhile, said Tate’s decision to step down was Tate’s alone.

“It was totally his decision,” said Bourque. “He came to use last year about Josh taking over after this season. He said he’d give it one more year and see what happened, but Josh was kind of a coach in waiting, you could say.”

The hiring of Fontenot is a break from past hirings, when CHS officials have gone outside of the staff to hire a new head coach. Brent Indest was the head coach at Abbeville High when he was hired in 2003 and Tate was the former head coach at McNeese State when he replaced Indest in 2006.

“Josh is a young coach and he’s energetic and enthusiastic,” said McKeiver. “He has a lot of plans for what he wants to do with the program and I think it’s a plus for Crowley High School and the community.

“He’s familiar with the program, he’s familiar with the community and he’s familiar with the kids. I think it’s the right fix and I think he’s going to do a heck of a job.”

Fontenot, a Ville Platte native, is a graduate of Nicholls State University where he played quarterback for four years before becoming a graduate assistant for two years.

From there, the Sacred Heart graduate went on a high school coaching tour that took him to Central Lafourche as a quarterbacks coach, Woodlawn and Plaquemine for one year each as an offensive coordinator and Florida, where he was the offensive coordinator at Class 6A Spruce Creek High School.

He joined the Gents’ coaching staff in 2009.

“For me, I always wanted to be a head coach,” said Fontenot. “But I wasn’t just going to settle.

“I was taught by a lot of coaches and one of the things every coach I ever visited with told me was not to take a head job just to take one just to say you’re a head coach. (They said) you’re not going to be a head coach very long if you do that.

“Crowley High is not that. For me, it’s pretty much a dream job. I love the community, I love the school and most of all, I love the kids. The kids are what make it worth staying and wanting to stay at Crowley High.”

Fontenot said the opportunity was set up by a “perfect scenario.”

“To come in for three years, work with some good coaches and some great kids and finally get your opportunity, I couldn’t have asked for a better first head coaching job,” he said. “This is a perfect situation for me and my family.”

Under Fontenot, Crowley ’s offense has thrived, putting up respectable numbers each of the last three years.

In his first year, the Gents averaged 251 yards and 24 points. That average climbed in 2010 to 464 yards and 42 points. This past season, the Gents averaged 318 yards and 24 points.

Fontenot said he will continue to run the offense while assuming the head coaching duties and he looks forward to the future.

But he does admit that there will be some bumps in the road along the way.

Knowing he has the support staff to get him through those rough spots makes the transition easier, he said.

“Me and Coach Tate have a really good relationship,” said Fontenot.

“I will lean on him to ask him questions in the future. It is my first (head) job and I’m going to have some missteps. So for me to have that (relationship) with Coach Tate and coach (Steve) Duplechain and Superintendent Bourque, well, that just adds to the perfect situation because I have guys that have been there, done that on several levels and been very successful.

“I have a lot of resources that I’m very lucky to have.”