– Dennis Skains, who served as the Cecilia High School head football coach for nearly a decade and led the Bulldogs to the second state championship in program history in 2024, is leaving the school to join the coaching staff at East Ascension High School, he informed the team on Thursday.
But Skains, whose team won the Division II Non-Select football championship on Dec. 13, said he expects the Bulldogs to battle for another state title in the next couple of years.
“I think Cecilia is going to continue to excel and become better,” Skains said. “I expect them to be in the Dome again in a couple of years. I think very highly of this operation and this place.”
Cecilia beat top-seeded Franklinton 35-32 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans in December. The Bulldogs finished the season 12-3 overall, one season after going 12-2 and reaching the state finals as the No. 1 seed in Division II.
Cecilia won its only other state football title, a Class 3A championship in 1995, after finishing as 3A runner-up in 1992 and 1993.
Skains said that the decision to leave was not easy.
“It felt like it was time,” he said. “It was a very, very, very difficult decision. I love Cecilia and I always will. I love the community. I love the administration, the kids, the support we get not only from boosters but from just fans. It was not an easy decision, but I felt like it was time for me to grow and put myself in uncomfortable situations so that I can try to become a better football coach.
“Also, I think maybe it was time for a different voice for our players and our assistant coaches. You know, you get the same voice for nine years over and over and over, maybe it’s time for a new one that does it a little bit differently than I do. I just think it was a move that wasn’t easy to make but in the long run is going to be the right decision for both sides.”
Skains
The Bulldogs went 7139 in nine seasons under Skains and reached the playoffs every year since he took the reins in 2016. Cecilia reached the quarterfinals in 2017 and 2021.
Skains emphasized that the team’s success over the past several years is due to the work put in by a lot of people.
“What I’m trying to tell people is the majority of people who built this program are still here,” he said. “It wasn’t one person that did it. It was a group effort of a lot of people that played a part in it, and certainly the guys who are still in that coach’s office were a huge part of it, bigger than me, so I know they’re going to continue to excel and do good things.”
Skains said the program is in a better place than it was when he started at the school in 2016, thanks to the coaching staff, administration and supporters.
Cecilia reached the playoffs in 2015 but had missed out the previous two years and in six of the previous eight seasons.
Skains said he was most appreciative of the support that the program gets from all involved with the school.
“It takes a lot of people,” he said. “You can’t run a program with just one person. It just doesn’t work.”
The biggest change from then to now is the expectation from everyone around the program that Cecilia should challenge for a state championship every year, Skains said.
“I think the biggest change is what we had to instill not only in the players but in the coaches and administration and community, was the intention to win — the understanding that our goals need to be set to the highest level,” Skains said. “District championships is not what Cecilia needs to be about. It needs to be about reaching the highest goals, a state championship every year, and to maintain that as one of the best teams in the state of Louisiana.”
And that’s the attitude he sees.
“One thing I’ll be proud of is, I know that every coach in that coaches’ office plans on winning the state championship next year at Cecilia,” Skains said. “Maybe it wasn’t like that when I first got here.”
Skains joins the EAHS football staff under Brock Matherne, who became the Spartans’ head coach in 2024. Matherne was an assistant at Cecilia for a year before taking the head coaching job at St. Louis Catholic. Skains coached Matherne at Belle Chasse High School.
“Brock and I are very similar in that we’re very like-minded people,” Skains said. “We’re very driven. We’re constantly trying to improve ourselves and our programs.
“I’ve tried to hire Brock every single year since I’ve been at Cecilia. We got him in 2020 but then he was a head coach the next year and he’s tried to hire me every time he’s been a head coach. It’s something that I think we’d eventually be together again, we just didn’t know where or when or who’d be the head coach, but I think the good thing about Brock and the entire staff is nobody cares who the head coach is, we’re all just driven towards one goal, and the goal is to take East Ascension to higher levels, and we don’t really care who gets the credit for it.”
Skains said he wants people to understand that Cecilia is going to continue to grow because the majority of people who helped build the program are still at Cecilia and aren’t going anywhere.
“They bleed green and gold,” Skains said. “They’re from here. I want to mention people like (Principal) Nicole Usie and (Athletic Director) John Ray Chevalier and (School Board Member) Mark Hebert and (St. Martin Schools Superintendent) Fred Wiltz are huge parts of this program that people don’t ever get to see or notice, but they allow us to do our jobs at a high level and give us the opportunity to do that.
“I’m grateful that I was able to be around such high level people as those people.”
He also praised the CHS Touchdown Club.
“They do so much, it’s insane,” Skains said. “They’re the best in the business, in my opinion. I haven’t been everywhere but I’ve been around a lot. This booster club, the Touchdown Club, they operate at a high level and they’re a huge part of the success we have also.”
Skains said he is not sure what his role at East Ascension will be yet but knows he will always have a place in his heart for Cecilia.
“I’m always going to feel like I’m a Bulldog,” Skains said.
