Featured Photograph: New OCS head football coach Cullen Matherne signs his new contract surrounded by school officials on Monday. (Photograph by Freddie Herpin.)
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
Cullen Matherne visited Opelousas Catholic School just long enough on Monday to sign his new contract, pose for a quick photo opportunity with school officials and briefly discuss his plans as head football coach for the 2023 season.
When Matherne returns to the school this summer, look for him to potentially redesign the Vikings’ offense and put his system in place for a football program that has won two consecutive outright district championships.
Matherne, who became head coach at Covenant Christian in 2020, was the choice of a school wide selection committee that interviewed other possible head coaching candidates to replace Thomas David, who indicated in February that he was leaving OCS after seven seasons to seek other coaching positions.
“We all agreed that (Matherne) was the right fit for our Viking program – a young man of faith and character as well as knowledge of the game. I was also impressed with what his former principal said about his classroom abilities, calling him one of the best classroom teachers he had,” OCS principal Marty Heintz wrote in a school-issued press release.
Heintz also announced on Monday that Matt Citron is the new OCS athletic director.
Her announcement additionally indicated that OCS will employ Yves Prince, Bryant Masson, Jude Garrett and Randall Bulliard and Justin Boyd as assistant coaches next year.
Matherne said during a brief interview that he plans to utilize the athletic abilities of his prospective players by potentially moving the OCS from a run-oriented flex offense to a spread formation this season.
The Vikings lost four starting senior offensive linemen off the 2022, but Matherne said he doesn’t feel that will be a deterrent to perhaps implementing the run, pass option game.
Matherne added that he expects to install his system during the summer. OCS has traditionally selected using two extra weeks of preseason practices allotted by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association rather than undergo spring football in May.
His interest in the OCS program grew after Dennis Skains, his former high school football coach, recommended that Matherne apply for the position.
Matherne said he also recalls becoming impressed as he watched the 2022 postseason game film of the Central Catholic and OCS contest.
“That’s when I really got excited about what can happen (at OCS). What I saw on that tape really opened my eyes, a team that was playing the brand of football that I enjoy coaching and watching,” Matherne said.
Matherne indicated that he plans to spend the remainder of the school year fulfilling his Covenant Christian contract before moving his wife and family to Opelousas.
During his time as the Covenant Christian head coach, Matherne took over a program that had 13 players and developed it into one that featured 40 players in 2022, according to the press release.
Matherne said his father, Thad Matherne, was a longtime football coach in the Lafourche and Terrebonne parish areas.
It seems, Cullen Matherne said, that coaching has become something of a family passion.
“Coaching was always in my blood. My goal has always been to be a successful coach, with a successful program, but a program that is not just based on wins and losses, but one that helps form our young athletes in Christian men of father and leadership,” Matherne said in the press release.
