Prince Is Back Home At OC
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
Throughout his life,Yves Prince has always felt most comfortable in two places: on the football field and at Opelousas Catholic.
Now that he’s pushing 70-years-old with well over 40 years of high school coaching experience, Prince could easily discard his extensive resume and perhaps retreat to a more sedate lifestyle.
However that’s not happening — at least not within the immediate moment.
“It’s the love of the game, man, that’s why I don’t quit,” Prince said on Saturday as he appeared with his coaching colleagues for the annual OCS team picture day inside a gym he remembers all too well.
Prince exhibited a quiet presence among football players that could certainly have been grandchildren who seemed unaware that they were beside a legend whose knowledge of the game transcends decades.
During his coaching career Prince has been a head coach at Pine Prairie and an assistant for several St. Landry Parish football teams.
Despite those experiences, his coaching compass, Prince notes, always seemed to point back to one direction.
“For me, this is where it all started. It’s home and I’m glad to be here,” Prince added as he sat in the OCS gymnasium where he once played basketball and congregated with his own teammates who played for Mickey Mills.
Mills was captured in his thoughts again on Saturday, Prince said, as he remembered the coach who provided leadership and helped introduce him to the essentials of football.
“Coach Mills, coach (Johnny Bourque) and coach (Armand) Castille made it easy for me. Coach Mills was a great guy who would sit and talk with us. He was always open to his players. He knew the game and he had no trouble explaining what he wanted done,” Prince said.
“Most of all, Mickey loved the game. He made it simple to catch on. To be a player back then, you have to love the game,” Prince added.
Prince was part of an intimidating OCS defensive front that included Damian Orbro and his brother, John Prince.
That OCS defense, run by Bourque, helped the Vikings to a 1974 state football championship on a cold, foggy December night at South Cameron High School.
After finishing four years at Grambling State where he was All-America at linebacker for Eddie Robinson, Prince would return to Opelousas Catholic to coach with Mills .
The 21st century high school players, Prince said, bring a different mentality than the ones he played alongside as a Viking defensive end.
“These kids now, they have everything. I think we were better players, because we came here after working outside as kids, on the farms and in the fields. Now the players have these large weightrooms,” Prince said.
Robinson, Prince said, was a coach who wanted to make his players better persons by stressing education, their religious foundations and personal hygiene.
The stories about Robinson moving through the players’ dormitories, using a cowbell as the morning alarm, are accurate, Prince noted.
“You’d have to get up, take a shower, get straight and then it was off to breakfast at 7 am. Coach Robinson thought if you ate breakfast, you would go to class. He wanted you to read and write,” Prince said.
What he’s seen this year at OCS under new head coach Kent Masson reminds Prince of Mills’ offensive style.
“I’m seeing some of the same things. We’re running the ball with a power-I and that kind of brings me back to those days,” Prince added.
Masson describes Prince as an “ultimate blessing.”
Watching Prince explain defensive line technique is like attending a classroom with the coach who wrote the textbook, Masson explained.
“I think Yves has more knowledge about the defensive line than all of us together. It’s great to watch him teach technique to the kids in addition to all the wisdom that he brings with it,” Masson said.
Masson added that he uses Prince’s knowledge in order to critique the Vikings’ offense.
“We’ll run a play and I’ll ask him if he likes it. What do you think? If (Prince) says he doesn’t like it, then we go ahead and cut it out,” Masson said.
“Right now, Coach Prince being here is what we need,” said Masson
