After serving as the offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator for the Colonels football team the past two years, Chad Callais accepts the head coaching position at Central Lafourche High school. Nicholls had the best rushing totals in the conference in 2005 and 2006 under Callais. The team averaged 364 and 234 yards, along with being ranked second in the country in rushing in 2005 and sixth in 2006.
Head Coach Jay Thomas said that Callais will be missed on the Colonels staff, but believes that Central Lafourche is getting a coach that will help turn their program around.
“We’re very proud, and excited that he’s earned this opportunity to further his career as a coach,” Thomas said. “He did a wonderful job for our offensive line, and has all the makings of a great head coach.”
The ties between Callais and the Trojan football team run deep. He was an offensive lineman at the school from ’87 to ’90 and line coach from 1999 to 2001. For Callais, Central Lafourche wasn’t just some job, it was a job that once it became available, he had to apply for.
“Once I saw it, I knew it had to be this school,” Callais said. “My experiences at Nicholls have been great, and having this job would be the only reason to leave.”
When he found out he was chosen as the Trojans new coach, Callais said he knew his career was heading in a different direction, but it’s a challenge that he is ready to take on.
“Having the chance to run your own program is something every coach dreams of,” he said. “To lead these young men in this program is a challenge I’m willing to take on.”
In 2001, Callais took the offensive line job at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark., where in three of his five years the team was ranked nationally in rushing in Division II.
Callais said in his time at Nicholls he learned a lot from Thomas and Offensive Coordinator H.T. Kinney and will use the tools he gained at other coaching stops to help him become a proven leader.
“Being around the entire Nicholls coaching staff is something I’m going to take with me wherever I go,” Callais said. “Once we won the Southland Conference title in 2005, it was like a dream come true that we all shared in.”
Callais is taking over a Trojan team that has been struggling as of late, the Trojans were 1-9 last season.
Callais wants to build a program that a community will be able to rally around and can be proud of.
“We are going to do things the right way, and have a strong work ethic that builds character,” he said. “We want to restore the tradition that we had when I was playing, and get the team back on the winning track.”
With Raceland and Nicholls separated by only about 15 miles, Callais believes the ability to stay in the area is a reason why the Central Lafourche job is so important to him.
“There’s nothing like being in South Louisiana,” he said. “It’s an unbelievable luxury to stay in a place where you know everybody, and continue those relationships that mean so much to you.
