OHS Revives Boys Soccer
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
Sometimes if you deliver the proper message, you get an appropriate response.
That’s the approach Colston Fontenot took when Opelousas High convened for the 2024-25 school session, when he began what became a successful effort to revive the boys’ soccer program at the school.
The OHS boys concluded their soccer season last Saturday when they were eliminated in a first-round Division 3 playoffs match in Baton Rouge by No.2-seeded University Lab.
Despite the quick exit from postseason, Fontenot says he is hopeful the playoff experience – the first by the program in about a decade – serves as a foundation for the future.
What Fontenot says he initially discovered was that OHS boys soccer was in need of leadership from someone who could provide a caring touch along with some essential stability.
And then hopefully, things would fall into place.
“Boys soccer had several coaches over the past few years and I knew that if I could come in and change that with some care, then the possibilities I saw could happen,” said Fontenot, who played OHS boys soccer five years ago and later at LSU.
Fontenot said he was reminded that OHS soccer was in the same condition as it was when he played his last game there.
“I wanted to come back and I wanted the program to be something,” Fontenot added.
His first task, Fontenot said, was finding players interested in soccer.
None of his prospects had played on the elite club teams, so Fontenot depended on those who played recently at OHS, or others who wanted to experience the sport for the first time.
“Mostly, I had juniors. Some of them had prior knowledge (of soccer) or had family members who played. I would say four or five had true soccer experience,” Fontenot pointed out.
“At first I had 10 or 11 who were interested in playing. I had to revisit that and I started working the halls, putting out fliers about boys soccer and I ended up with about 17,” said Fontenot.
The Tigers eventually won five games and Fontenot is encouraged about the program next season.
“We have a strong junior group. Making the playoffs for the first time in 10 years gave us a boost and built some confidence. Next year we hope to build up a little more and be better,” Fontenot said.
This season the Tigers’ offense was led by striker Wesley Thibodeaux (17 goals) and a couple of center-midfielders in freshman D’Quyon Brown and David Hernandez, a team co-captain with Thibodeaux.
The program lost a key player, Fontenot said, in keeper Daniel Mayon, a senior.
Brown, a basketball player, has good athletic skills that were adaptable to soccer, said Fontenot.
St. Landry Parish included six playoff teams, but all of those were eliminated in the first round last week.
Fontenot is hoping that perhaps he can be part of a soccer revival parishwide.
“I think the improvement for soccer will have to come by getting six and seven-year-olds interested and playing competitively. I wouldn’t want to say soccer has disappeared around here, you just need people willing to work at reviving it,” Fontenot said.