JEANERETTE — When C.C. Paul returned to Jeanerette High to become an assistant football coach last year, he always had the desire to revive the football and track fortunes of the Tigers, who have struggled on both the gridiron and the track oval in recent years.

The track part came along a little more quickly as Paul was able to get a couple of athletes to the LHSAA Outdoor State Meet over the weekend.

The football part would have to wait because Paul was assistant coach to Ananias Johnson.

But with Johnson’s dismissal as head football coach, Paul had his opportunity.

And Jeanerette principal Linda Freeman made that become a reality as she named the Jeanerette-alum head football coach.

So Paul, who played and starred at Jeanerette and twice on staff as an assistant football coach, now steps up and takes over his dream job in leading the Tigers on the gridiron starting with spring practice these next two weeks and continues through the summer and into the 2019 football season starting in August.

“It’s good to be back home,” Paul said. “I started my coaching career here and hopefully I’ll end it here.”

Paul starting coaching in 1995 at Jeanerette and stayed until moving to Franklin Senior High in 2005 and now is back home with his beloved purple and gold.

“It didn’t matter where I was, I always kept up with Jeanerette athletics, especially football and track, my two sports,” Paul said. “I guess that in the end it was meant to be that I would end up back here.”

The funny thing is that the younger Paul always had second thoughts about becoming a head football coach, but over time, that changed.

“I guess I was holding out for the right job,” said the new Jeanerette head football coach. “I always wanted to come back home and coach at my alma mater.

“It may be about 10 years ago with Coach (Terry) Lewis was here. He became sick and it really changed my mindset about coming back and coaching here.

“Well, it didn’t happen that time and I was like, ‘it is what it is’, and I’ll wait my turn.And now I have my turn.”

Paul takes over a football program that has been down for the past several seasons.

From 2014 to now, Jeanerette has won 10 total games out of 50 possible regular season games and haven’t won in the playoffs.

The high water mark during that time was the 2017 season in which Jeanerette went 4-6 and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The low spot was 2015, when Jeanerette went 0-10 and was shut out five times that season.

“I think that it’s going to be building blocks for us,” Paul said. “Once the kids buy into the system and understand that it doesn’t happen overnight and that’s it’s a process, I think that we’ll be okay.

“I’m going to implement a lot of new programs and new systems and that will go a long way to how our season is going to go.”

The new head coach understands that it may be rough going in 2019 because in addition to a usually tough District 7-2A slate with playoff teams Catholic High, Ascension Episcopal, West St. Mary and Franklin, Delcambre and Loreauville are starting to trend up and newcomer Houma Christian is no slouch either.

Add to the fact that the Tigers also have games with Lafayette High and Gueydan on the schedule, it has the possibility to be a trying season for JHS.

One thing that will help Paul is while the current generation of Jeanerette players may not remember him from his first go-round in Jeanerette, their brothers and parents and aunts and uncles do.

“I either coached them or played with them, so they know me and I can say half of them are related to me,” Paul said. “So it was an easy transition to come back home with the community and the kids and everyone knowing of me and what I did.”

Paul said that he is going to spend this spring working on fundamentals and drills and then hit the weight room during the summer to get his team bigger and stronger.

“We’re going to eat weights,” Paul said. “That’s the only way to get better and compete, you have to get stronger so teams don’t push you around.”

Coming back home can be a trying experience for some.

But for Paul, it’s something he’s treasuring.

“To me, coming back here is an honor,” said the new JHS coach. “I played four sports here. It couldn’t happen at a better time. It’s my 30th class reunion this year and all my classmates and teammates and former students are coming back.

“It’s exciting. I can make a difference here.”