Louisiana Treasures: Frank Monica, Ruthie Dugal inducted into NHSCA Hall of Fame
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Frank Monica recalled the late knock on his door.
The Lutcher offensive coordinator was a few days removed from the Bulldogs’ Class 3A state championship in 1975. The program had just lost its head coach, Lou St. Amant, to an assistant’s job at Northeast Louisiana (now UL-Monroe).
Monica had just begun his coaching career at the age of 26 under St. Amant when members of the St. James Parish School Board showed up at Monica’s home with what they believed was a ringing endorsement for Lutcher’s next head coach.
“They were saying, ‘Congratulations, you’re the head football coach at Lutcher High School’,” Monica said. “I told them to get out, I hadn’t applied for it. I was too young. I wasn’t following a state championship (season). They said I didn’t have a choice; I had to take it.”
Monica relented, took the position at Lutcher, lost in the state semifinals his first two seasons before breaking through in 1978, leading the Bulldogs to the second of the school’s nine state titles.
Monica went on to a 284-91 record in 30 years, coaching Lutcher, Riverside and St. Charles Catholic to state championships, part of a sterling 51-year coaching career that resulted in his recent induction into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame.
“It’s quite an honor,” Monica said. “It was a surprise when I got the call from the LHSAA. The trip was nice. There were people there from all over the place.”
The Class of 2025, a group of 39 coaches and administrators, was treated to a three-day event in Rapid City, S.D., where Monica and Ruthie Dugal, a former volleyball/basketball/softball coach and current volleyball official, were inducted on June 26.
“It was a huge surprise,” said Dugal, a native of Opelousas who lives in Lafayette. “It’s a tremendous honor. It’s hard to say how shocked and surprised I was being nominated and selected. The experience was awesome.”
Former director of the Louisiana High School Coaches Association, Eric Held, nominated both Monica and Dugal for the honor.
Dugal, 74, carved out a path in athletics that spans more than 50 years. She played both volleyball and basketball at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now UL-Lafayette) before coaching at Episcopal in Baton Rouge and Comeaux High in Lafayette. She was the first female president of the Louisiana High School Officials Association.
She was part of the steering committee that helped Lafayette land the state volleyball tournament and has served as a liaison for the LHSAA with the girls’ state golf tournament, which continues a run in Lafayette that began in 2015.
“It’s incredible by leaps and bounds,” Dugal said of the participation in volleyball. “Volleyball just keeps growing. It’s one of the fastest-growing sports in the nation. We keep trying to promote girls’ sports and keep them going.”
Dugal played both basketball and volleyball for three seasons at USL, served on the coaching staffs for a season, and embarked on her coaching career as an assistant volleyball coach to Frances Compton at Episcopal in 1976-81.
The Lady Knights won three state championships and were twice state runners-up.
She went to Comeaux, serving as the head basketball coach for 19 years, a program that made two appearances in the state quarterfinals, and guided the softball program to three state runner-up appearances in 2001-02-03 over a six-year span.
Overall, she spent 28 years at Comeaux as an assistant and head coach and retired in 2010.
Working in conjunction with the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission, Dugal and coach Terry Hebert of Teurlings Catholic were instrumental in luring the state volleyball tournament to Lafayette, where some of the biggest crowds in the event’s history have annually turned out.
Dugal has worked in concert with LHSAA’s Assistant Executive Director Karen Hoyt on the tournament and assigns officials for every match.
Dugal was the LHSAA’s tournament director when Broussard hosted the state’s select softball tournament and will mark her 40th year as a volleyball official this season.
“I really still enjoy officiating and enjoy seeing the game grow,” Dugal said. “The talent keeps improving. There are plays they’re making now that I would have never thought they could do. I still get that feeling of being awed by what they can do. The athleticism, the training, having great coaches, great athletic trainers, are helping these kids develop.”
Ironically, it took the NHSCA’s induction, some 1,500 miles away from home, for Dugal and Monica to meet for the first time.
“He’s a doll,” she said of Monica. “He’s a super nice person. Very fun to be with.”
This was the third hall of fame that the 76-year-old Monica has celebrated.
The LHSAA inducted Monica in 2019, and last year, the good-humored coach took his place in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches.
Monica’s coaching resume also includes two stints as an assistant coach at Tulane, but his impact at the high school level was profound.
The former Nicholls State third baseman and team captain, who helped the Colonels to the Division II College World Series, spent five seasons at Jesuit and concluded his career with a 21-year run at St. Charles, which made 12 appearances in the state semifinals and six in the finals.
“I coached them hard and loved them hard,” Monica said of one of his familiar refrains. “We loaded up our schedules with people over our head. They knocked us around. We never had an SEC signee at St. Charles.
“You were playing in the River Parishes where they had four and five guys signing D1 all the time,” Monica said. “We tried to develop our kids and learn the integrity of the game. It was always about the team.”
Monica, who spent one year as a baseball assistant to Ray Didier at his alma mater, turned the job at Lutcher into a proving ground where he coached the Bulldogs for five years.
“We had good players and the community was unbelievable,” Monica said. “Friday nights were special.”
His time at Riverside was short, but memorable, with a state title in his only season at the school in ’83, before moving to Jesuit, Tulane, and finally St. Charles.
Monica currently ranks 11th on the state’s all-time wins list.
Upon his return home from South Dakota, Monica was back working at the Manning Passing Academy, where he’s been part of the camp since its inception in 1996.
“I got a chance to meet Ruthie, who I didn’t know personally, and that was nice,” Monica said. “We were able to sightsee at Mt. Rushmore and enjoyed the scenery. We enjoyed everything.”