MCHS names Dominique football coach

Morgan City High School has hired its next football coach, one who has a state championship on his resume.
The Tigers welcomed Ferrante Dominique to campus Monday where he began work as head football coach and athletic director.
Dominique, who has experience both coaching and in administration, has a career coaching record of 47-33 with two district championships and one state championship, a Class 1A title in 2010. He also had a head coaching stop at South Plaquemines in 2016 where his squad finished 8-4 and advanced to the second round of the Class 2A playoffs.
In addition to volunteer coaching stints at Ascension Catholic and White Castle to begin his career, he also served as special teams coach at Class 3A Peabody in 2015.
He comes to Morgan City after serving his second stint as assistant principal at Peabody.
“Just talking with them while I was going through interview, they really want somebody to believe in. They want to work hard, they want to practice hard, and they want to win, and I realized after leaving White Castle and stepping down from South Plaquemines, that’s what I need to be doing: coaching football. I’ve got all my life to be an administrator.”
He said that he has been watching the coaching turnover at Morgan City and actually applied for the job a year ago before withdrawing from consideration after he accepted the assistant principal job at Peabody for the second time.
“It’s not too far from home, kind of feels like home,” Dominique said of Morgan City. “(Morgan City Principal) Mr. (Mickey) Fabre is straightforward. He seems to be a great guy. We’ve built a great relationship over the last 13 months. It’s an ‘A’ school. I’m all about academics.”
While he will be moving to the highest classification of football he has coached at, Dominique said the higher level of football involves organization and management but at the end of the day, it’s football.
“Heck, when I was at White Castle, we played Redemptorist, who was 4A at the time,” he said. “We always played Donaldsonville, who was 3A, Brusly, 3A, Plaquemine in the jamboree from time-to-time. I just think at that level, you definitely got to surround yourself with some good assistant coaches. I mean at the end of the day, it’s football. It’s just the organizational part of it.”
While Morgan City has not been to the playoffs since the late 1990s, Dominique said his goal is to make the playoffs this year.
He faced a familiar situation at White Castle, taking over a program that was 2-17 the previous two seasons and had it in the playoffs within two years and brought home a state title in his fifth season.
“I got a five-year plan,” Dominique said. “I want to be around to see it through. I think that these kids deserve that. The community deserves that. It won’t take five years to turn it around. We can turn it around pretty fast. If I can get the kids out, and I’m going to build the relationships, if necessary. One thing I’ve never had a problem with is getting kids ready to play, getting kids to believe in themselves.”
As for his philosophy, Dominique said he would work with what his personnel can do.
“I’m multiple, so when you’re multiple, you’ll find what’s working,” he said.
Dominique said he would like to spread the ball, run zone reads and jet sweeps and use a quick passing game.
“Morgan City got some athletes, so we definitely want to get the ball in space,” he said.
On defense, he said he likes to be multiple, use a three-man front and “clog up holes and be aggressive.”