TDL: Two-A-Days - St. Louis Saints

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Fresh off of a school year where St. Louis won six state titles as an athletic department, the Saints welcome in new head coach football coach in former Cecilia defensive coordinator, Brock Matherne.

“I’m looking to bring new energy to this place. I’m looking to really push this football program and to do things the right way,” said Matherne. “When people see the St. Louis Catholic football program, the things that they should leave saying is that the kids play very hard, they play with effort and they’re a tough team.”

Offensively, the Saints plan to run a power run spread offense led by Junior Quarterback James Reina.

“He’s a guy who we believe when things go wrong, he can make them right and he’s been doing a great job this whole off-season of just controlling our offense and just making plays when plays aren’t there,” Matherne said of Reina. “People are going to see our formations and think that we are a wide-open spread, we want to be an up-tempo team, but I am big on power run game. We are a gap scheme offense.”

For Reina one of the keys to his success, this off-season is having a veteran offensive line.

“If you don’t have an offensive line then you can’t do much at all,” admitted Reina. “We’ve got three seniors on the offensive line and we have a few younger guys on it, but the offensive line is probably the main part of the offense.”

Being a defensive-minded coach, Matherne isn’t sticking to just one system. He likes his defenses to be versatile

“People always joke around and say ‘what’s your scheme?’ and I say ‘Winning defense.’ We do whatever it takes to win. I’m not one of those guys who phones in and says we are going to run a 4-3. We want to do whatever fits best for our kids,” said Matherne. “Really what I want people to see when they see our defense is effort. I want to see a relentless pursuit to the football I want people to see all 11 orange hats to the ball at all times and I believe that’s what yall are going to see on Friday nights when this thing kicks off.”

The defense will be lead by senior safety Marcus Duhon who will start a tradition for the Saints this season.

“He’s a leader. We started a tradition here with the No. 1 [jersey]. It’s going to represent leadership for my program,” said Matherne. “It represents a win today mentality, it represents our core beliefs of effort, competing and togetherness and Marcus represents all of that.”

“It means a lot to me because I was a leader, but I always led by example,” said Duhon. “I never was a person to speak too much but now I’m turning into that person.”

But more than anything, Matherne is ready to change the culture of Saints football.

“Man we’re just excited to be here, excited to change the narrative around this place when it comes to the football program.”

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