Dwight Fage, longtime coach at Acadiana Christian School, has been selected to replace Brent Indest as the head football coach at West St. Mary High School.

Fage, who has coached on multiple teams throughout South Louisiana, has spent the previous seven years at Acadiana Christian School, where he was able to build the Lions team into one of the top teams in their league.

“I coached at NISH and Loreauville, then I coached at Northside,” Fage said. “Then I took the head coaching job at Acadiana Christian School. I was there for 7 years and we went to 5 semifinals and a quarterfinal.”

Fage departed ACS with a 56-26 record, leading the team to the first playoff win in the school’s history. In March, he signed on to join Indest’s coaching staff at West St. Mary as a quarterbacks, running backs, and safeties coach, but he always knew that he would eventually be looking for another head coaching job.

“I knew from the beginning that whenever Brent (Indest) called to tell me that he was leaving, I wanted the job,” he said. “I called the principal and told her that I was more than willing to become the coach, but they had to go through the correct process and open it up for applicants. Even then, during those three or four weeks, I kept coaching them everyday. I went in for the interview and the next day I got the job. My goal was to work under Brent for a couple of years and then try to become a head coach again and he knew that. I was very up front with him about wanting to be a head coach again. I had the opportunity to work under one of the best coaches in Louisiana, so I took it.”

Since Indest took over, the team has been working hard to adapt to the Wing-T offense. While Fage hasn’t always used the Wing-T in the past, he said that given the work the team has already put into learning it, he will stick it out for this season.

“We’re going to do some Wing-T and also some read option and I’ll probably get into a spread look here and there,” Fage explained. “I’ve always done the spread, and at ACS we averaged over thirty points per game. I like the Wing-T and when I took the job, I didn’t want to change too much because we had been working on it since March. I thought that if I came in in June and revamped everything, it was going to be confusing so we kept the Wing-T as our basic offense.”

West St. Mary has struggled recently, but Fage said that he has high hopes for what he can build with the team. He isn’t sure what success will look like, but he is certain that he can achieve it.

“I just want us to get better everyday and get an understanding of the offense and keep working hard,” he said. “I don’t know how that will equate to wins and losses, but I just want them to start building a culture and we’ll go from there.”

One way that he intends to develop a winning culture is by focusing on player development. Fage said that he expects to start ten or more sophomores this year, so taking the time to teach the players the right way will pay off for him in the future.

“I’m all about player development,” he said. “I’m excited because at ACS we were a small school. With West St. Mary, we will have 7 junior varsity games so I’m looking forward to that because those kids are going to be the future of the program.”

Fage expressed his gratitude to the players and administrators at Acadiana Christian School for giving him an opportunity to coach there for so long, but said that he is excited for his new challenge with the Wolfpack.

“I’m going to miss all of my kids at ACS and I’m thankful for the administration there for giving me the opportunity to coach for seven years,” he said. “This is an opportunity to grow and rise up the coaching ranks, so I’m looking forward to the challenge. We have a lot of work to do so we’re just going to go one day at a time and try to get better every day.”