St. Frederick High School in Monroe just hired a helluva football coach…

Is he gonna take over a struggling program and Build Her Back?

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struggling program

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Andy has St Fred's at basically what I would consider their ceiling. He had winning seasons and playoff berths every year including knocking off OCS for the district crown once. Had a semifinal appearance 2 years ago. That just feels like the ceiling there with that district. It will get a little easier this year with no OG, CC, or OCS in the new district, but still not an auto title with General Trass in there. DIV though still looks like the title will run through some variation of OCS, Southern Lab, and VC though, avoid them and St Fred's could absolutely be a pencil mark for the quarters.

To answer the question though no it's not a struggling program. Andy had them at heights that I think most of the parents and alumni are very pleased if not ultimately surprised by.

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Andy has St Fred's at basically what I would consider their ceiling

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Too bad all of their skill players left. Connor and Dade went to Ouachita and obviously Andy is taking his son to Neville. I wish him well, but most of their talent bounced.

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That will probably be the biggest thing the coach will have to do is to have a program where the good athletes stay. St Fred's has always had an issue with a standout Fr/So ending up at Ouachita, Neville, West Monroe, or Sterlington to finish their career.

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No matter whom they hire that will always be an issue…

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He’s no Leslie Peters

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Amen to that. Coach Peters is a living legend.

When did St Fred’s knock off OCS in football?

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When did St Fred’s knock off OCS in football?

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2017.

We made it to the dome in 2013.

Vermilion Catholic beat us pretty well.

All of the success we had was because of Billy Bell, who’s apparently retiring this year.

He came in and started running our strength program similar to West Monroe. He’s the guy behind the scenes that won’t be mentioned, but we basically owe it all to him.

He is a great coach. Like a previous poster mentioned he has no talent at St Fred’s. All skill positions are leaving including both quarterbacks.

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OCS probably has half of their players at 19 years old. They used to have a special grade called “8S” where they’d hold them back in junior high. Now they do it when they’re much younger.

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There were several schools in Ouachita that had 8S and 5T programs. Knew kids at them, and half is an over estimate at least at the school you called out. That one probably had less than 10 per year and half were true holdbacks who couldn't handle the curriculum coming from other parish schools.

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I graduated within the last ten years.

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I know for a fact that the two schools that used it the most (one of which you called out) have not done so for almost 20 years. I'm very well acquainted with coaches there and have had candid conversations on the program and it's effect one of them was someone who took advantage of it while he was in school and they were still offering it. One of the big reasons they got rid of it was the fact that they were having issues with the older kids (holdbacks) breaking the core values and then having to finish out their Jr/Sr year at Sterlington, CC, Neville, and St Freds. And of course the whole age limit on when a player can't turn 19 on or before Sep 1 or something like that. The football success at OCS is the program Fitzhugh runs there. Those kids from 5th grade up learn the system and buy in. Scary as it may be one of the coaches told me the kids they currently have in Jr High may be the best they've seen in several years. Off the top of my head I believe he said the 8th grade team had a single loss 6th-8th and the 7th grade team has not lost yet (I may have flipped the two).

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We’d be a lot more competitive if we followed suit.

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What Andy started just needs to be maintained. Holdbacks are not the answer, if you did (not sure with the hard age cutoff now how you would) then the same thing that has always hurt St Freds would continue with kids choosing the local publics to get exposure at a 4A or 5A vs 1A.

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There were several schools in Ouachita that had 8S and 5T programs. Knew kids at them, and half is an over estimate at least at the school you called out. That one probably had less than 10 per year and half were true holdbacks who couldn't handle the curriculum coming from other parish schools

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When I was there, many of their best players were 19. I know them by name and will not call them out. They were held back at a very young age instead of junior high since the LHSAA cracked down on it.

Half could be an exaggeration, but I do know many of their impact players were older.

I agree that OCS does have a great coaching staff. Coach Fitzhugh has been there for many years and the kids do buy in. They also have a tremendous benefit in being K thru 12.

I will say, we do lose some talented players to bigger schools over the years, but I think the trend is changing. The camps and the internet are making kids get noticed from all over. Of course winning will help any program.

Nothing against Andy Rob. He’s a good coach, but I didn’t play for him.

They’ll need a new strength coach that can maintain. That’s what helped St. Fred’s the past decade the most, in my opinion. Before Billy Bell came, we had no 400 pound squatters and barely anyone could bench press 200 pounds. Kids started strength training in the 5th and 6th grade from the elementary schools. The Catholic schools in Monroe never had that kind of athletic structure before.