Team looking to get faster and stronger under new coach
Chris Landry [email protected] Cecilia
– The Cecilia High School football program was left with a good blueprint for success by former head coach Dennis Skains, and first-year head coach Cody Champagne building on that foundation as the Bulldogs go through summer workouts in preparation for the 2025 high school season.
Cecilia played in two straight LHSAA Division II Non-Select state championship games and won the 2024 title, and has been to the playoffs for nine straight seasons, including quarterfinal trips in 2017 and 2021.
And for the Bulldogs, success during the season is a result of work starting in the summer.
“Everything you see on Friday nights started in the summertime, offense, defense and special teams,” said Champagne, who was the offensive coordinator the championship team in 2024 and a longtime CHS assistant. “It’s first of all getting bigger, faster, stronger, and then just the little details of our three phases of the game — offense, defense and special teams — that we’re working on.”
Getting bigger and faster and stronger is a major part of what Champagne wants to do to build on what the Bulldogs have accomplished over the past several seasons.
“We slowly did football stuff and didn’t always focus on football stuff,” Champagne said. “We focused on getting faster and stronger, and the last week into next week we put in a little more football concepts.”
The team still starts summer workouts at the same time in the mornings and does 7-on-7 work on Tuesdays, with a few minor changes, he said.
“We have a great blueprint from summer until the end of the season in how we do it,” Champagne said. “We just look at those things and see where things fell through the cracks and make sure that doesn’t happen again. A lot of times that’s very slim because we’ve been successful. I think that even though you’ve been successful you still have to look at those things and not be complacent.”
The Bulldogs lost a talented senior class that, including offensive standouts in quarterback Diesel Solari, multi-position player Ellis Stewart and receiver Brent Gordon Jr.
Solari, voted the High School on SI Louisiana Offensive Player of the Year, signed with Coffeyville (Kansas) Community College after a record-setting offensive career.
Stewart, who became known as Cecilia’s version of Pittsburgh Steelers receiver/quarterback/ running back Kordell Stewart, played receiver, running back and quarterback on offense and played in the secondary on defense. He signed with Arkansas- Pine Bluff’s football team.
Gordon, primarily a receiver on offense and the school’s all-time tackles leader as a defensive back, signed with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
“That offense last year, those guys made us right a lot of times, and we made them right a lot of times, but we had some great athletes at skill positions,” Champagne said. “It’ll be hard to come by maybe ever again. But we have some guys that are willing to step up.”
Collin Dore will have a bigger role, the coach said. Braylon Calais, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards and 20 touchdowns as a sophomore last season, will see his role grow as well. Both are getting time at running back and quarterback.
“Some guys who had a little bit of time at receiver last year are going to be a big part of what we do,” Champagne said. “And they’re still very explosive, so it’s just a matter of making the plays when they have the chances. You won’t see much change from us on the offensive side. You might see a couple of quarterbacks rotating from quarterback to running back, kind of like we did in the spring game.”
Junior Ethan Journet is the only returning starter on the offensive line.
“That’s going to be a big project moving forward,” Champagne said. “We’ve got some guys who can play, it’s just when you get thrown in the fire we’ll see what happens.”
The Bulldogs were originally scheduled to face East Ascension in a spring game, but when the Spartans picked up another opponent, Cecilia planned on having an intrasquad game.
But the Bulldogs instead arranged a game against Abbeville for the spring, which worked out well for both teams.
Seven-on-seven work has helped the Bulldogs focus on getting Dore as many repetitions passing the ball as he can.
“I think that’s going to be our big thing is how can we throw the ball downfield,” CHampagne said. “You also have a sophomore in Layne Champagne who could see some action too (at quarterback).”
The Bulldogs went 3-2 in LSU’s 7-on-7 camp. After a slow start, the team got a win against a squad from Mississippi and has steadily improved since then in 7-on-7 work.
“I think playing with confidence is one thing,” Champagne said. “Keeping it simple and working on things in the passing game is big.”
In work at Acadiana, a lot of players got in a lot of work, including junior varsity players, which has been a big help for the team on both sides of the ball, the coach said.
“We are getting better,” he said.
Champagne said he’s hoping the defense will start off strong. The Bulldogs losing Brent “BJ” Gordon, a fouryear starter with 100 tackles in each of those seasons, and lose Rylin Hardy from the line, who recorded 41 tackles, 10 tackles for loss,and four sacks as a senior.
“We lose a few pieces but that defense was very young last year,” Champagne said. “We had a lot of sophomores out there and they got a lot of experience, so I’m hoping they can build off what they did last year. You’re still going to see some of the same stuff we do. You might see a little more fourman front than normal, but we’re still going to do a lot of the same things.”
A big freshman class of about 30 players has boosted the squad to around 115 players, Champagne said. The freshman class has some physical size to it as well, the coach said.
