Return to his roots: Dane Charpentier leaves head coaching position at Teurlings to become offensive coordinator at East Ascension
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Dane Charpentier’s not about to make anything bigger about his return to his alma mater, Teurlings Catholic, than what a regular football game deserves.
When he steps foot in Rebel Stadium on Oct. 24, the place he called home for the past eight years as head coach, the 40-year-old Charpentier will do so in blue and gold coaching garb as offensive coordinator at East Ascension which faces the Rebels in the eighth week of the 2025 season.
Charpentier recently agreed to leave Teurlings Catholic after eight seasons to join the staff of second-year head coach Brock Matherne as offensive coordinator at East Ascension. He will tentatively begin employment at the Ascension Parish school either at the end of this month or the beginning of February.
“It’s time,” Charpentier said. “It’s been a good eight years. It’s a good opportunity. I think it will be good for me and my family. It will just make sense.”
For the majority of his young life, Charpentier had a distinct color scheme – red, white, and blue – in his life. He graduated from Teurlings in Lafayette, playing for his father Sonny Charpentier as a senior, later coached with him for a season on a state semifinal team, and succeeded his dad when he retired as head coach with a school-record 194 wins.
Dane Charpentier, whose career record of 76-40 includes a successful stint at Opelousas Catholic. When the younger Charpentier took over the reins and coached at Teurlings where he went 65-32, his father later joined his staff and coached with him for three seasons before joining the Class 4A 2023 state champion, Cecilia.
“I’m very good friends with Dane,” Matherne said. “I have the utmost respect for him and his dad. I competed against his dad when I was in high school at Belle Chasse. I have the utmost respect for the way they do things as human beings. This just adds value to our program.”
Dane Charpentier guided Teurlings to consecutive appearances in the Division II select state semifinals in 2022-23 and directed the Rebels to a 10-2 mark and appearance in the Division I select quarterfinals last season.
The Rebels were eliminated 31-10 by John Curtis, several weeks after traveling to East Ascension and defeating the Spartans, 28-14.
Matherne believed the coaching job by Dane Charpentier was a prime example of an ability to adapt to his personnel. In years past Teurlings was noted for its pass-first, spread offenses that could generate plenty of points. This season, though, with a veteran offensive line led by Tulane signee Gresham Perry – a first-team Class 4 All-State selection and District 4-4A Offensive MVP – the Rebels were more reminiscent of a physical running team that was led by running back Douge Viltz and a physical style defense.
“You look at what they did on offense this year and it looks nothing like what he’s done in the last eight years,” Matherne said of Charpentier, who previously tutored the school’s career passing leader and Nicholls State signee Preston Welch (8,000+ passing yards, 91 TDs). “It looked like an almost totally different offense with his ability to adapt to what kind of athletes he has and his ability to develop athletes.”
Because of Charpentier’s adaptation this past season, Matherne said the 2025 system the Spartans will run will be a work in progress.
“You look at any team that played for Sonny or Dane over the last couple of decades,” he said. “One thing Teurlings had when they played was that they were tough teams. They’re going to play hard and will be tough and physical. That was my thing going into the offseason, to bring people in to build our toughness and match our size and athleticism. We can be physical. Dane’s been around ball his whole life. You saw that with his Teurlings team this year and it made me more confident with bringing that into our program.”
East Ascension went 3-7 in its first season under Matherne, including three losses by 10 points or less. The Spartans were 3-3 heading into District 5-5A play but dropped their last four games of the season and didn’t qualify for the postseason.
One of those final four games matched Teurlings facing EA for the first time ever. The trip to Gonzales featured several hurdles because of traffic but the then No. 1 Rebels broke a 14-14 tie, took a 21-14 lead at halftime, and scored on a lengthy opening drive of the third quarter and equaled an 8-0 start for the first time in 28 years.
Charpentier has since discovered plenty about EA’s long history as one of the oldest schools in Ascension Parish.
“I’ve found out they’ve got a great athletic tradition at the school,” he said. “When you visit there it’s kind of like an old-school place. There’s a lot of pride and school spirit, community support and that’s not something you find everywhere now. Maybe it’s not as common as it used to be.
“I think it’s a special place and I think it’s a great school,” he said. “It’s well run and just a really good opportunity. I’ve never coached at a school that large before with that amount of kids, so that intrigues me a little bit. A lot of people are casual fans, they don’t realize they see us in Division I (select) and East Ascension’s Division I (non-select). I had 700-something students, and they have 2,000 students.”
EA’s return trip to complete the two-year contract with Teurlings will now have an interesting subplot.
“It’s a football game,” Charpentier said. “Nothing more, nothing less. There are a lot of families and kids that I still care about deeply and it will be good to see them again. It’s a high school football game. You have to keep it in perspective.”
The relationship between Matherne and Charpentier began several years ago when Matherne was the head coach of St. Louis in Lake Charles. He annually brought his teams to Lafayette to compete against the Rebels in 7-on-7 action, often catching Matherne’s attention with their offensive intricacies.
“I often told Dane my kids looked 10 times prettier than his,” Matherne said with a laugh. “But the routes you guys ran were so crisp, it looked like a well-oiled machine. It’s a breath of fresh air to have someone on the offensive side and he’s going to build a system that best fits what our athletes are. He has a strong knowledge of football.”
Matherne stressed there wasn’t an opening when Charpentier joined his staff. Last year’s offensive coordinator, Sterling Mobley, will remain as run-game coordinator, but for a young offensive staff whose unit averaged 22.5 points a game, the addition of someone of Charpentier’s coaching experience and expertise on offense, made for a perfect union.
“We talked about the possibility if he moved on and just wanted to coach ball again and not have to deal with all of the administrative stuff you deal with as a head coach,” Matherne said. “I told him I would gladly take those duties from him and to come coach with me.
“Talks continued, got serious, died down, and got more serious again,” Matherne said. “It was a simple text from him: ‘Man, let’s do it.’ I jumped up with excitement. There are certain people that you don’t turn down and Dane’s one of them. If any program gets the opportunity to get Dane Charpentier, you take him. Our goal is to be a dominant program in the state of Louisiana and in 5A you’ve got to build a great coaching staff.”
Charpentier encountered some administrative upheaval in the past year, resulting in the departure of long-time principal Mike Boyer and his father, a long-time athletic director. He also admitted his closet looks somewhat barren after discarding a great deal of his coaching gear which he’ll trade in for East Ascension blue and gold.
“Teurlings has been home for my family since 1988,” Charpentier said. “Sometimes things change. Certainly, the school has gone through a lot of changes, and it just felt like it was best for my family and time to move on. I like to coach ball. Whenever you become a head coach it just takes you away from that more and more.
“If there’s a guy that I respect and can work for, and he’ll allow me to coach ball and connect with the kids and try my best to help the kids be successful, that’s the fun part,” Charpentier said. “I guess there’s money and prestige in the appeal of being a head coach. There’s a long list of things that come to find out I don’t really care about it that much. I like to work with kids. I like to get into the nuts and bolts of offense. That’s the fun part. That’s really why we all get into it.”
Featured Image Courtesy: Meagan Glover