When the Westgate High School Tigers take the field on Friday in the LHSAA Prep Classic, it will mark the culmination of a project that Ryan Antoine has been working toward for over a decade.

Westgate has never made it to the Prep Classic, despite three appearances in the semifinals. Antoine is hoping to make history on Friday, becoming the first public school in New Iberia to win a state football championship.

Antoine, who graduated from NISH in 1999, was on the way to continuing his playing career when repeated injuries forced him to reevaluate his career goals and eventually pushed him into coaching.

“I played in New Iberia, graduated in ’99. I went on to play at Louisiana Tech from ’99 to ’01 and ended up getting injured.

“I had a pinched nerve and a herniated disk is my back. I was actually taking a play off in practice, so that’s why I kind of harp on my kids about not taking plays off, because you never know which play is your last.”

“It still sits with me, that my career ended by taking a play off and the guy who was going full speed, a linebacker, hit me in my back and ended my career. “

The injury may have forced Antoine to temporarily hang up his cleats, but he never planned to walk away from the game. A second injury exposed further health issues, which could become fatal if he continued to play.

“I had 80 percent foot loss (of feeling) and was told that if I got hit again I could become paralyzed.”

“I didn’t listen and went on to play semi-pro ball in Shreveport and tore my ACL. When that happened I found out that had a Protein S deficiency, meaning that I had a blood clot disease and if I get hit, I could get blood clots and pass away.”

His injuries may have meant then end of his playing career, but Antoine says that his family history of coaching provided him with another avenue to stay connected to the game.

“After that I wanted to figure out what I wanted to do, so I talked to my dad, my hero, and he told me ‘if you want to do anything, do something that you love and you’ll do it for free.’ I like being around kids and I like football, so it was an easy path for me”

“My mom was a coach. I used to follow her around when she used to coach at the old Iberia Middle School and always tag along with her and watch her coach.”

Antoine had to travel to find his first coaching position, but he always wanted to return to his home and make an impact in the area that meant so much to him.

“I went to coach at Central Arkansas for a year in 2004 then came back home in 2005 and started coaching at Westgate.”

“(From) 2005 to 2007 I was a defensive back coach and in 2007 I was promoted to defensive coordinator and stayed here until 2010. We went to two semifinals in those years and did pretty well, so I got a head coaching job at West St. Mary. I was a 28-year-old head coach.

“I stayed there a few years then I came back to Westgate in 2012-13 and have just been trying to build a program.”

Westgate had experienced some success in the past, most notably back to back semifinal appearances in 2009 and 2010, but by the time Antoine took over the program, it was in desperate need of an overhaul.

Antoine’s coaching philosophy is “to create great young men and women to advance God’s kingdom,” he said, and he began work on his project right away.

“We had to rebuild some things and start from the ground up, but now we are starting to see the fruits of our labor,” he said.

Antoine’s Westgate team has earned a reputation of being mentally and physically tough, able to grind out victories against opponents many consider to be the best in the state.

The Tigers are united behind their leader because he proves day after day that he will work tirelessly to try to give his players every opportunity that he can. Antoine says the impact the program has on the community cannot be understated.

“It helps keep kids off the street and I feel like anytime you have a good football program, I think the community thrives off of it,” he said.

“When the Saints were in the Super Bowl, the crime in New Orleans went down. It gives people something to look forward to and I think we’ve been able to do a good job at giving our kids something to look forward to. We are trying to create great young men and women and we’re trying to give these kids something to think about that’s bigger than Westgate. We want our kids to go out and grow and see something to compare new Iberia to.”

For Antoine, the project is about more than accolades on the football field, it’s about giving back to his hometown and community.

“I’m a product from here, I grew up 2 minutes from Westgate, and I always wanted to come back and be an influence and to try to leave things better than how I found it,” he said.

“I want to give these kids an opportunity, a chance. We’re not the biggest town, but we deserve a chance and I feel like every kid deserves that opportunity.”

Antoine says that being able to be a mentor to his players and teach them life lessons is one of the most enjoyed aspect of his job.

“Teaching them about loving the game and loving life,” he said. “Football teaches you about adversity; good things, bad things, success, failure, sometimes all in the same play.

“When you can handle those things you can now apply that to the real world.”

Antoine will lead his Westgate Tigers against Warren Easton in the LHSAA Prep Classic this Friday at the Caesars Superdome. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m.