New head coach wants to build program and raise standards
St. Martinville – New St. Martinville Senior High head football coach James Dartez hopes to “restore the roar” to the Tigers’ football program.
He plans to do that the same way he helped Baker High School remake its program, by building a foundation and raising the standards for players and coaches.
“There’s no magic wand for a successful football program,” Dartez said. “You have to come in and set the standard. The standard’s the standard. Anything less than a 100 percent effort is not acceptable — how we handle the weight room, how we handle the running program, how we do conditioning. Everything has the highest standard.
“I’m not asking the kid to be another kid, I’m just asking them to give their individual best. And that’s year one — laying a foundation for longterm success. We’re not looking for the microwave society that we’re in today where we expect to be good day 1. You have to work at that and put in the time and effort that this game demands.” Dartez spent three years as the head coach at Baker High before leaving to help care for his ailing father. Dartez is married to his high school sweetheart, Idasha, and the couple has two children, Ashlynn (13) and James III (7).
“My father passed away,” Dartez said. “So I took a year off from the game. My dad was my superhero. (It was) the biggest loss I’ve ever had. So I took a year off to get focused and be there with my family and grieve properly. A lot of times as head coaches we get wrapped up in wins and losses when it’s really about the holistic building of young men. My job is to make sure they’re great people when they leave my care. I tell parents all the time, if the only thing your son learns from me is football, then I’ve failed tremendously. You’ve got to learn accountability. Learn discipline. Learn consistency. So that’s the things that I pour into my young men. And I knew that I couldn’t do that as well as care for my dad in his last couple of months of life as well as be there for my family, so that led to my decision.”
Dartez was named head coach at Baker in 2023 after one season at Bolton in Alexandria.
“I was the fourth coach in five years (at Baker),” Dartez said. “They had a lot of turnover. They didn’t have a foundation, so we came in there and we put in a foundation, put in work and we elevated the standard.
“And within three years we hosted the first home playoff game within 15 years, sent a bunch of kids off to college and we really turned the program around. That’s my job here — lay a foundation down, and raise the standard and get back to St. Martinville football.
Dartez takes over for Garrett Kreamer, who had taken over at SMSH in the summer of 2025.
Kreamer left to become the first coach at Vermilion Charter Academy near Maurice, which opened in 2024 and will compete in junior varsity football only for two years as it joins the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.
Kreamer went 3-8 overall and 1-2 in District 5-3A in his lone year at SMSH but led the Tigers to the playoffs and beat St. Martin Parish rivals Cecilia and Breaux Bridge in the same season for the first time since 2021, which included a forfeit win over BBHS because of COVID- 19. The Tigers last beat both parish rivals on the field in the same season in 2018.
Dartez, 40, played football at Opelousas High School. He then went to Southern University to play football but injured his knee and transferred to UL-Lafayette.
He then was a coaching intern at Southern Lab under his mentor, coach Mike Roach, who had recruited Dartez while Roach was an assistant coach at Grambling. Dartez then was named offensive coordinator at Southern Lab at age 20.
Dartez then worked for 6 1/2 years in the athletic department at LSU and said he got to see the business side of sports including marketing and fundraising, seeing athletics from a different perspective.
He then was on the first coaching staff at Madison Prep, helping the program reach the playoffs by its fourth year. He then was an assistant coach at Northwest High and then at Opelousas before being named head coach at Bolton, which had not on a district game in eight years and hadn’t made the playoffs in 15 years, winning three games in his first year before the school district made the school a magnet school for the performing arts.
He said he’s been familiar with the program at St. Martinville since his playing days.
“This is what you call a dream job,” Dartez said. “I’m from Opelousas, born and raised. I played football four years there and we were in a district with St. Martinville, so I got to see the Martell Narcisses and the Early Doucets, and the thing that stuck out to me most was when we would come here, the town was shut down. Everybody was packed in the stands. There’s rich tradition, rich history. So when it came open, it was a nobrainer.”
Dartez said the Tigers’ offense will be geared toward what his players do well.
“We’re going to be multiple,” he said. “We’re going to run the football, but again, we’re going to put the football in our athletes’ hands. I always believe in doing what’s best for your personnel. A lot of guys are tied to a system whether they have the personnel to run it or not. My whole job is to make sure these guys get the best treatment and the best chance to succeed.”
Because so few high school players have the chance to play college football, he focuses on getting the best out of every player.
“They get four years to play this game,” Dartez said. “One percent of high school athletes will ever get the chance to go to the next level, whether it’s a scholarship or a walk-on opportunity. So these four years are key for them, before they step into the real world. So we try to tie our offense and our defense to our personnel and make sure we put our kids in the best position to succeed.”
He has a similar philosophy for defense.
“Our defensive philosophy is simple — never let the offense get comfortable, and go a hundred miles an hour,” Dartez said. “We call them a pack of wild dogs. We’re going to attack from the moment we get off the bus. We’re going to be a disciplined football team. And we’re going to run to the football. At the end of the day, football comes down to blocking and tackling. If you can’t block and tackle, you’re behind the eight ball. So that’s the thing. We’re going to preach fundamentals, knowing our keys and flying to the football.”
Dartez has begun working with players and coaches during the team’s summer program.
“The first thing I’d like to give these guys (credit for) is the attitude they have is getting better every day,” Dartez said. “From the moment I stepped on campus, it’s been ‘yes, sir; no, sir; coach, whatever you need us to do.’ These guys have bought in tremendously. They want to represent St. Martinville to the best of their ability. They’ve been receptive to everything. I throw a lot at them. We hit the ground running since the moment I stepped on campus. No complaining, they just came out here and handled the work.”
Dartez said all he’s asking of the players is to get better every day.
“It’s early in the summer,” he said. “Of course we’ve got some kids in basketball. We have some kids having job opportunities and everything of that nature. And I never limit a kid. I never tell a kid football is the most important thing in life, because it’s not. You’ve got family, you’ve got education. At the end of the day they’re student-athletes. I’ve got a couple of kids in Upward Bound. So I might not get them until July. We want numbers but more than anything, being the best version of you that you can be.”
Keeping the players motivated and enthusiastic begins with him, he said.
“I’ve got to come out here with high energy every single day,” he said. “I love it. This is how I support my family. The kids feed off of that. The kids know when you’re just blubbering and hollering for no reason. So we try to come out here with a positive attitude, with enthusiasm and energy and just keep the guys going.
“It’s hard work. There’s no shortcuts in football. It’s just a whole lot of hard work. I tell people it’s easy on Friday nights. I can give anyone a play script and a polo (shirt) and they can be a coach. But do you put in that effort when it’s a hundred degrees on this turf in June and July? Are you still enthusiastic when you’re in that weight room on that last set and your body’s telling you ‘I can’t go no more.’ Do you still have that same enthusiasm and passion for the game? That’s what makes a good football player and that’s what makes a good man. Because at the end of the day, they’re going to have to be family and they’re going to have to be leaders in the community. So at the end of the day they have to look at adversity, understand what it is and fight through it.”
Dartez said his goals for his first season are to have 100 percent effort at all times, rather than looking at the scoreboard. He wants players to get better every week and have a thorough knowledge of what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, and be the best versions of themselves at the end of the season, and let the chips fall where they may.
“Our battle cry this year is Restore the Roar,” Dartez said. “My whole job here is to bring stability, build a foundation for sustained excellence, and bring back that Tiger pride to St. Martinville football.”
