‘It’s going to be tough’: Catholic-New Iberia Coach David Jordan nearing end of rewarding career

by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

There’s a stimulation associated with Catholic High of New Iberia baseball coach David Jordan’s approach to each day’s to-do list. Outside of organizing the regular season’s final road game to Breaux Bridge, a 1-0 win on Tuesday, he’s making sure the final home game has enough people to help with the concession stand and secure umpires.

There’s also the search for an additional game for his Panthers to play before the start of next week’s Division III select state playoffs.

The daily grind for the past 34 years – 28 at Catholic High – has kept Jordan busy enough with scheduling, fundraising, player evaluations, summer baseball, fall conditioning, and filling out a lineup card for another arduous season.

But this time, whether the Panthers reach the state championship game or not, there’s going to be a finality that has Jordan anxious entering the seventh inning of an impactful career.

“That’s stressful during the year,” said the 61-year-old Jordan. “It gets tiresome, but I’m wondering what am I going to do when I don’t have that? Right now, I’m busy. Catholic High has an athletic secretary that does the lion’s share of work. I just put out fires and answer questions. I know it’s going to be tough because every day I think about what I’m going to do. It will be a tough adjustment.”

Jordan said he first broached the subject of his future as baseball coach at Catholic with his team in 2023. Entering this school year with his health intact, Jordan later suffered a broken vertebra before the start of this season, further reinforcing his intentions that the upcoming season would be his last.

There’s a physical toll coaching staffs endure, particularly those who maintain and play on natural grass to keep their fields in pristine condition.

Jordan battled through his own adversity, still showing up for practices and games, but clearly wasn’t up to his own physical standard and decided that he would go out on his own terms.

“It wore me down,” Jordan said. “I struggled. Also, I’ve had a hip replacement (surgery). Mentally I feel like I can do this a while longer, but mentally I feel like 34 years of coaching football and baseball has taken its toll on me.

“The very first team meeting this year I told them this was going to be my last year,” Jordan said. “They knew it. Depending on who gets the job, I have offered to help out. After the back procedure, I’m thinking the kids are saying, ‘Coach Jordan’s pretty much done’.”

New Iberia has become the place where Jordan, a native of Orlando, has spent the majority of his life. He played junior college baseball for two years before transferring to LSU where he was influenced by legendary baseball coach Skip Bertman to enter the profession where he’s spent the last 34 years – 28 at Catholic High and 6 at Erath High.

He’s also served as football assistant until 2022, coaching linebackers and serving as defensive coordinator, and is currently the school’s athletic director – a role he’ll remain in going forward.

Jordan, the owner of approximately 680 career wins, is best known at Catholic for transforming the school’s baseball program into a power, leading the Panthers to the school’s only state championship in 2001 with a 6-5 victory over Riverside Academy in the Class 2A title game. 

“Before he got there, it (baseball) wasn’t taken seriously at all,” former Catholic football coach Brent Indest, now the football coach at Lakeshore High in Mandeville. “David was the first person at Catholic to give a damn about his facility, about getting the field right. When he taught science classes, he would jokingly say they were going to work on geology that day. All they did was pick rocks off the field.”

Bertman influence is real for Jordan

Getting into education and coaching were mutually exclusive for Jordan until Bertman, a six-time national championship-winning coach with the Tigers, intervened and altered Jordan’s career path.

Admittedly, Jordan wasn’t among the standout players, but that never stopped Bertman from meeting with him almost daily, discussing his class performance and the targets he was supposed to achieve on his goal sheet.

“I was the furthest thing from wanting to be a coach until I was coached by Skip Bertman,” Jordan said. “No. 1, he influenced me to go to class, and No. 2, to find a passion that I wanted to pursue. He’s a great motivator and even though I wasn’t one of the star players on the team, he still met with me almost every day and talked to me about my grades, what my goals were athletically and academically. 

“He made sure every year that I filled out my goal sheet and made sure I was taking steps to achieve those goals,” Jordan said. “It was after coming across coach Bertman that I decided that I wanted to coach. I got into kinesiology, got my degree, and have been doing this for 34 years.”

By the time his eligibility was complete, Jordan was still several hours shy of graduation. With a few friends at then-USL (now UL-Lafayette), he moved with them and completed his degree requirements with the idea of becoming a physical education teacher. 

During that time, he became engaged to a girl from Crowley whose aunt worked at a small private school in New Iberia. Still disillusioned, Jordan contemplated returning home to Florida when he was made aware of an opening for a head baseball coach at Catholic.

“They told me they liked that I had played college baseball,” he said. “I didn’t even know what Catholic High was.”

A month later after meeting with then head football/baseball coach/athletic director Paul Jumonville, Jordan became a baseball coach for the first time in 1991.

“It was a learning experience,” Jordan said. “I definitely learned the saying that it’s definitely not about X’s and O’s, but it’s about the Jack’s and the Joe’s. It was understanding how to relate and how to motivate high school-aged boys. That was the biggest challenge that I had, not necessarily how to throw the fastball away or how to hit the fastball away. It was more getting my team to buy in into the common goal. I also felt like that was the biggest challenge. I got better with age.”

Another difference Jordan discovered during the infancy stages of his coaching career was finding enough players committed to improving to match the passion he brought to coaching.

On a team that was .500 his first season, Jordan said there were three players that fit the definition of the type of player he was looking for – one that wanted to remain after practice and take additional groundballs, get extra cuts in the batting cage and calling him on weekends to do one or the other. 

“There’s the difference right there,” he said. “I had three. Teurlings had 8, Catholic of Baton Rouge had 12. My second year, I had six kids. We won that year and made it to the playoffs.”

An early breakthrough moment that gave Jordan some clarity on the direction he was headed took place after the team’s first-round playoff loss in 1992.

“I had kids tear up and I realized that they had invested themselves enough to care about this team, winning and losing, and the importance of it,” he said.

Building and returning to Catholic High

Jordan sees a daily reminder of his greatest moment upon entry to the team’s clubhouse.

That’s where a team picture of Catholic’s only state championship remains, a testament to perseverance for a program that first began in 1976.

“That was a very special group,” he said. “Most coaches never have an opportunity to coach a team like I had. It was like coaching young men and they pursued practice and games like young men. They had a great work ethic.”

Catholic experienced another run to a state championship game, advancing to the Class 3A final in 2006 only to lose to powerhouse Parkview Baptist, 6-5.

With the Panthers firmly entrenched each year in the conversation for district championships and deep state playoff runs, they had also created the kind of camaraderie off the field that strengthened their bond.

Because the diocese prohibited practice on Sundays, the team invented ‘Barbeque Sundays’ which consisted of approximately eight to nine players showing up for leisurely pitch-and-catch with their fathers. Players would take swings shirtless under a bright sun with the smell of barbecue wafting through the warm air.

“They just wanted to hang out,” Jordan said. “They could throw with their dads, get some sun and some extra reps.”

Jordan left Catholic after 18 seasons and traveled down Hwy. 14 at Erath High in Vermilion Parish where he coached both of his sons. He guided the Bobcats to the state playoffs in each of his six seasons, won two district championships, and was runner-up three times, before returning to Catholic to coach the 2016 season.

He’s been there ever since, a place he’ll complete his career.

“We built in New Iberia and didn’t want to make that drive,” said Jordan, whose second wife Pauline was a teacher. “I’ll never forget my time at Erath, but there were a lot of challenges. I wanted to get back to where I felt comfortable. I felt like Catholic High and New Iberia were my home and where I raised my two kids.”

Indest, who worked a year with Jordan before he left to coach at several public schools such as Abbeville, Kaplan, Crowley, and Carencro, returned to Catholic in 2013. He began laying the groundwork to get Jordan back in New Iberia which turned into a two-year pursuit until Jordan’s came back for the 2015-16 school year.

“My first priority was getting David back as head baseball and assistant in football,” said Indest, who also handled athletic director duties. “He was at Erath. It didn’t happen right away. It took me two years of really working on him to get him back. We really reaped the benefits of that. The standard that he previously set wasn’t being held up like before.

“More importantly it brought back the standard of expectations and accountability that we expected to hold the kids to,” Indest said. “He was such a valuable guy upstairs (press box) in football. David’s a real cerebral guy. He doesn’t get too excited during a game. He was able to spot out things and pick out things and was always a valuable asset.”

In the mix once again

Catholic made two trips to the state tournament in 2018-19, falling both times to the eventual state champions. The Panthers lost 1-0 to Notre Dame and 4-0 to Calvary Baptist, returning to a level of play Indest believed was a result of Jordan’s leadership. 

Where Catholic began to explode was on the football field where Jordan was the team’s linebacker coach.

The Panthers won the school’s first state championship since 1962 with a 33-16 win over Notre Dame in 2017. They made three straight trips to the state final with losses to Notre Dame (42-21) and Calvary Baptist (27-24).

Moreover, there were other deep playoff runs to the 2013 semifinals against Calvary (34-33 loss), the 2016 semifinals against Riverside Academy (40-14 loss), and the 2019 semifinals against St. Charles Catholic (43-42 loss).

“Whatever he’s going to do, whether it’s a sixth-grade P.E. class, a ninth-grade physical science class, a head baseball coach or defensive coordinator, he’s going to do it with meticulous detail,” Indest said of Jordan. “He’s going to have a plan and that’s the only way he knows how to attack things. 

“I can admit there are certain things that aren’t that important to me, or I put as much effort into as much as I do in coaching football,” Indest said. “That’s not David. He only knows one way and it serves him well.”

The success of football has seemingly had a carry-over effect on this year’s baseball team where all but six players were on the football team.

Led by quarterback Luke Landry and the Class 2A Defensive Player of the Year, J.D. Hildalgo, No. 7 seed Catholic won its second state Division III select title with a 31-28 upset of No. 1 Dunham. The Panthers reached the title game with a 33-31 verdict at No. 3 Calvary Baptist. 

Landry, a football signee at Louisiana Christian College, and Hildalgo, a Southwest Mississippi (JC) baseball signee, are two of the driving forces on this year’s baseball team along with pitcher Lane Fenske, an LSU Eunice signee.

“We kind of predicted this would be one of those years,” said Jordan, noting three to four players starters played as freshmen. “Them winning a state championship in football, that just gave us more belief that it could be done.”

Assistant coaches have played a vital role in Jordan’s success, spending a decade with Mike Lemoine and Rob Segura, who recently retired at district foe Loreauville. This year’s staff has given the Panthers another excellent opportunity to prosper with Colby Hebert, Jason Sullivan, and Jordan’s son, Jesse, a former assistant at LSU Eunice.

“With my health issues they’ve been a blessing for me,” Jordan said. “My son’s one of the finest coaches I’ve worked with. He has brought so many things to Catholic High baseball that we never had before.”

Another state championship for Jordan on the way out is a viable scenario.

Catholic has proven to be among the top teams in Division III where Parkview Baptist and University High are currently rated Nos. 1-2 in the power ratings.

The Panthers are right behind at No. 3 and with a strong showing since March 1 – they’re 11-4 – they’ve certainly made a case to be standing at the end. In a recent home matchup with U-High, they carried a two-run lead into the seventh inning only to falter 5-4.

A second straight one-run loss to Riverside Academy threatened to deter Catholic’s season, but since then the Panthers have rattled off four straight wins including their 1-0 road win over Class 4A Breaux Bridge. 

“We’re right there with the upper echelons in our division,” Jordan said.

During the team’s recent stretch of victories came a sobering reminder following Catholic’s 10-0 win over Loreauville to secure the District 7-2A tournament championship. When the team gathered for a picture, Jordan’s wife reminded him of the moment.

“It’s going to be tough,” Jordan said. “As soon as we won the championship on Saturday, the first thing my wife said, ‘This is your last one’. It’s pretty tough.”