
Historic Season: Top-Seeded Denham Springs carries national ranking, undefeated record into Division I soccer playoffs
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Two months into the season, Denham Springs’ soccer team had an epiphany.
The Yellow Jackets of first-year coach Sean LeBlanc had completed a stretch of matches with victories over Baton Rouge High, Bossier, Catholic High of Baton Rouge, Mandeville, and St. Paul’s.
The team’s record? They were 7-0-1 and riding a wave of emotion and confidence that comes along with positive results over Division I staples such as Catholic and St. Paul’s who’ve combined to win 13 state championships.
“Once we went through that gauntlet, I think they started to look at themselves and go, ‘we actually have a shot at this,’” LeBlanc said. “Once we started putting wins together and started to put wins together against monster programs, we started to talk to the boys, ‘it’s not a hope anymore. This is a reality.’
“We have to understand the way that we play and the way we manage ourselves, we’re not chasing people, we’re going to be chased,” LeBlanc said. “We tried to change the mentality of how they were thinking and to be able to play with a target on your back. You’re now going to get people’s best games. There’s no hiding, they’re coming after you.”
Denham Springs (16-0-1) opens Division I play in the state playoffs on Saturday at 1 p.m. against No. 32 Terrebonne (9-9-4) at DSHS’ Yellow Jacket Stadium.

For the first time in school history, the Yellow Jackets are undefeated and seeded No. 1 – the first public school to hold such distinction since 2013.
They’re also ranked No. 5 nationally and No. 1 overall in Louisiana by MaxPreps. A first-round win would match Denham Springs against the St. Amant-East Ascension winner – a pair of District 5-5A foes – in next week’s regional round.
“We believe pressure is earned,” LeBlanc said. “If you’re not under pressure, then we haven’t been having a good season. We look at it as a reward and we understand that we’re beatable. Everyone’s vulnerable and in the tournament, anything can happen.
“We just talk about making sure we do the small things right as much as we possibly can,” LeBlanc said. “We mitigate the variables that the game itself presents so we don’t beat ourselves. If another team is better on that day and happens to take it, awesome for you. We focus on not beating ourselves and not letting the moment kind of be bigger than us.”
LeBlanc said the balancing act is to enjoy the flowers of the regular season without allowing it to overshadow the team’s pursuit of the school’s first state championship.
“We don’t want to take that away from them,” he said. “We talked about enjoying the moment, enjoying the process, appreciating what they have accomplished, but always remember that our goal was not this. We wanted to win the district. That’s our first one. We wanted to get better every game as we went. It was one of the goals on the way to the end product and that’s where we’re going.
“We’ve been very fortunate to come together a lot quicker than anybody would have put money on or had anticipated,” LeBlanc said. “It just ended up a real good fit. I walked into a lot of talent on the team and had to put a little organization to it and went after it.”
Unlikely alliance
LeBlanc, whose father is a native of Erath and moved the family around because of his military background, is a native of Dayton, Ohio who has lived in Metairie since 2007.
His coaching career included a six-year stay as an assistant at Brother Martin before leaving to become the head coach at St. Charles Catholic in LaPlace for six years.
LeBlanc returned to Brother Martin in a volunteer role, helping the soccer program, and became an assistant once again for the Crusaders, winding up with a total of 12 years at the New Orleans-area school.
Admittedly his knowledge of programs outside of the New Orleans area was limited to St. Paul’s and Catholic High when a friend informed him of an opening at Denham Springs following the resignation of Miller Hilliard.

“I didn’t pay that much attention to guys outside the area,” LeBlanc said. “That’s what happens when you coach in the city and have 7,000 teams around you. I had heard of Denham but hadn’t given them a lot of attention. I mean, I learned of a new school every day. There’s just so many in the city.”
LeBlanc’s coaching resume’ also included his position as the academy director for Slidell’s Youth Soccer Club. He has since resigned and accepted a position with the Baton Rouge Soccer Club, led by director Louie Smothermon, a former head coach at Brother Martin when LeBlanc was on staff.
LeBlanc was impressed after meeting Hilliard and his team-first approach and was announced as the school’s new coach on May 28.
“Lots of people coach for different reasons and I felt they coached for the right reasons,” LeBlanc said. “They’re good people. The icing on the cake was that the facilities were absolutely unbelievable.”
Denham Springs had a soccer program with 11 consecutive postseason appearances under former coach Chris Thorne and Hilliard. The Jackets made six trips to the quarterfinals, including last season, with a breakthrough moment with a semifinal at home against Catholic High in 2020.
LeBlanc didn’t conduct tryouts until the end of October and was taken aback by the level of talent assembled.
“That’s when I started to see exactly what I was working with,” he said. “To say I was pleasantly surprised would be one of the biggest understatements. There’s just a lot of talent. A lot of individual talent and there’s a lot of team players.
“A lot of guys, I would put up against anybody in the state,” he said. “I feel we have four or five of those kids. And we’ve got a lot of role players that really embrace their role and are here to help, and they ask questions and want to learn. It truly is a team. It’s a very fun group.”
Victorious start provides boost
A brand-new coach with a different philosophy, which included moving some players to new positions, opened his career at Denham Springs on Nov. 15 with a home game against Brother Martin.
The Jackets won 2-0 and essentially took off.
The game’s result wasn’t lost on LeBlanc who spent his formative years of coaching the Crusaders.
“For me personally, I’ll always love that school,” he said. “Everybody in the building was always so amazing. The kids are always so good. It was a huge part of my life. I left and I wanted to beat the people I just left, and those boys wanted to beat me. There were so many variables going in, and you just didn’t know how this was going to take off, or how the kids were going to embrace it. Was it going to work or not?”
With a base 4-3-3 formation with plenty of rotations and movement within it, LeBlanc was looking to adapt his aggressive style of play to his players instead of trying to pigeonhole them into trying something they weren’t comfortable executing.
He found the perfect marriage between his players in the attack, coupled with a talented midfield and defenders and goalkeeper, and the only standing between the Yellow Jackets and perfection was a 1-1 tie on Nov. 22 against Holy Cross.
“We started going after it and got that ‘W’ and at the same time we weren’t giving up any goals,” LeBlanc said. “It’s given the guys that confidence. My personality is that I tend to be aggressive, and I like to go after people. That’s why that worked out well because it fit my personality, and it fit their skill set. Not everybody knew. Once we settled in and started to get to know each other and develop a better rapport, and day by day we started to trust each other a little bit more, and it’s turned out very well.”

Denham Springs carried momentum from the non-district portion of its schedule, which included a 1-0 win over Byrd of Shreveport, into District 5-5A play and recorded consecutive wins over East Ascension (6-0) and Live Oak (4-1) going into a showdown with Dutchtown.
The team’s leading scorer Jankell Arias knocked in a header in the 11th minute and goalkeeper Tate Fuentes and the team’s backline made it stand up in a pivotal 1-0 victory. The Jackets won a 3-2 battle at St. Amant and completed their unbeaten run through the district (outscoring the opposition 21-1) with a 7-0 win over Walker last week.
“The district games against tremendous programs like St. Amant and Dutchtown continued to build our confidence and the belief system in the training and the belief system in the messages the coaches were giving them,” LeBlanc said. “It kept getting stronger and stronger. It’s turned into one hell of a season.”
Stacked at all levels
Fuentes has been the cornerstone of a defense that’s registered 11 shutouts and allowed seven goals this season.
The senior has 62 saves with converted forwards Lane Sadler, a junior, and Michael Nassimbeni, a sophomore, serving as the team’s two center backs.
LeBlanc’s been able to rely on a rotation of four players – junior Charles Fruge, junior Greyson Saxson, senior Lane Fontenot, and junior Mason Bell – at outside backs.
“Absolutely tremendous,” LeBlanc said of Fuentes. “He has to be one of the best goalies in the state. He’s a true leader. He’s got all the qualities of a good keeper. He’s a good director of the backline. He’s got great hands, he’s good in the air. He just checks every box.
“The rotation (at outside backs) has really worked out well,” LeBlanc said. “Maybe 80 minutes may be too long for their focus, or sometimes that day is a good day for you and they can handle the 80. We have depth and fresh legs. They just love doing their job. “
Arias, one of the team’s five seniors, has 14 goals and 12 assists to lead the way for a team that averages 3.4 goals per outing. Junior Jorden Moore has 10 goals and 12 assists, and junior Anthony Howard has eight goals and four assists.
The team’s balance, though, brings a smile to LeBlanc’s face. He has eight other players – senior Joshua Beasley, sophomore Eliel Sabio, sophomore Anthony Paz, sophomore Hector Lagos, sophomore Orlin Rodriguez, Fontenot, junior Lane Sadler, and Bell – that have combined for 30 goals and 21 assists.

“That’s probably one of my favorite things,” he said. “We just share the ball and if one guy goes down, or if anyone has a bad day, I have the ability to move people into different spots and fulfill the rotations. We just don’t lose a beat. It’s definitely a good thing for us.”
Moore, Beasley, and Sabio are part of a gifted midfield that’s also played a major role in this year’s success.
“If we make it that would be wonderful,” LeBlanc said of the state championship match on Feb. 22 at Strawberry Stadium in Hammond. “If we don’t, then it is what it is. There’s only one team that gets to hold the (state championship) trophy.
“We’ll do our best and at that very end, if it doesn’t fall for us, we’re at least going to do everything we can to be successful,” LeBlanc said. “If you do that, then I feel we can walk out of there with our head up and chest out and be happy with what we did.”