#WinToday: EA’s first-year coach Brock Matherne motivated by past to keep Spartans focused on Present
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Two rather forgettable, yet indelible, images have gone a long way in shaping the life of Brock Matherne.
#WinToday has been a mantra in each of the coaching stops the 31-year-old Matherne had made, including the last two in head coaching capacities at St. Louis Catholic in Lake Charles and East Ascension in Gonzales.
In the eight months since taking over the Spartans’ program, the hasn’t been a day without a reference to #wintoday – whether Mathern’s team takes a step forward on the practice field, weight room, classroom, or in the community.
Everything counts, he said.
“You don’t know what’s coming the next day,” Matherne said. “#wintoday is my whole life.”
Never was that more evident than in the life of a then impressionable 9-year-old Matherne. His father, Michael, died of cancer, forcing his mother Tabitha into an increased role in the family household to care for Brock, an older brother and younger sister.
“She went from stay-at-home mom to figuring out what she was going to do for her family,” Matherne said. “I watched the hours she put in to take care of us.”
Those responsibilities turned to self-preservation three years later when the family was forced to evacuate their Boothville-Venice home in Plaquemines Parish to avoid an impending hit from Hurricane Katrina.
The storm, which made landfall Aug. 29 in Louisiana near Buras and Triumph, became one of the five deadliest hurricanes to hit the United States with 1,392 deaths and $125 billion worth of damage according to reports.
Towns such as Boothville, located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, were devastated by flooding which included a 12-foot storm surge in Plaquemines Parish that splintered many homes.
Matherne’s family, 16 in all, first evacuated to Arkansas and then Tennessee in search of shelter. When rooms were scarce, he said they slept the first two nights in their cars before being divided into two rooms at a hotel.
He still shutters at the thought of the family’s return home to such ruin.
“It was pretty traumatic,” he said. “We saw we had nothing and everything was being torn down with bulldozers knocking over the houses and trailers. You don’t realize it as a 12-year-old and as you grow up, how much that played into your life.”
Katrina’s impact resulted in a reduction of more than 6,000 residents in Boothville and included the loss of the town’s proud Boothville-Venice High School.
Matherne was no different than any young athletic kid in Boothville, growing up with aspirations of one day playing for legendary coach Paul Solis, until those dreams were dashed by the storm.
Instead of having the opportunity of playing for Solis, who took Boothville to the state playoffs 23 times in 30 years with six quarterfinals and a semifinal berth, the Marthernes moved to Belle Chasse to discover a semblance of life and we later met legend-in-the-making coach Bob Becnel.
Becnel would be instrumental in providing guidance to Brock Matherne whose world had unraveled in a three-year span with the loss of his father and the effects of Katrina. Becnel would later become more than his coach, but a surrogate father who helped lead to Matherne’s 12-year coaching career.
“I wasn’t on a very good path,” Matherne said. “I gave my mom a lot of hell. It was a hard time in my life, and I’ll never forget Coach Becnel bringing me in and telling me to trust him for the next four years, and that he would have me for the rest of my life. He held true to that.”
Finding a safe haven in Belle Chasse
Matherne looked so forward to playing for Solis and attending Boothville-Venice. With both of his parents working at the time, and despite never having played an instrument, he joined the school’s band because he didn’t have a ride to the football games.
“Eventually, I worked my way to the sideline as a water boy for them,” Matherne said, “and was going to start playing varsity football in seventh grade.”
Belle Chasse, another area ravaged by Katrina, became a refuge for the Mathernes who wound up about an hour from home on La. 23.
When Katrina intervened and forced Matherne’s family to flee and wind up in Belle Chasse, he and his brother wound up playing for the Cardinals.
Becnel was in the midst of a 31-year coaching career, including 26 at Belle Chasse, when he guided the Cardinals to the Class 4A state championship in 2008 with a 28-7 victory over Bastrop.
Playing significant roles in the school’s first state championship in football where both Matherne brothers.
Blake, the team’s senior quarterback, went on to earn the state’s highest award – Mr. Football – and was selected Class 4A’s Most Valuable Offensive Player.
Brock, an undersized defensive back, had a pivotal role in Belle Chasse’s 4-2-5 defense – a scheme that continues to coach today.
The same characteristics – intensity and passion that drove Brock to success – are still visible today in his coaching style, imploring his players to exhibit such traits. He was considered a leader on the field that played with an edge and didn’t mind letting opponents know about it.
“He brings it, the energy, the intensity, the enthusiasm, the love,” said Becnel, who compiled an overall record of 191-127-12, including 169-108-11 at Belle Chasse which reached the playoffs 19 times. “He wasn’t big. He was quick and fast, very smart, and did exactly what we told him to do. We took advantage of his craziness. He was a vital part of our team.
“He was a key piece of our defense and did a great job,” Becnel said. “He brought it and you had to bring it with him. He was going to challenge everybody. He did a great job of making other people better. On our state championship team, he was encouraging and got into people’s faces.”
Stuck in neutral until getting the coaching bug
Matherne extended his playing career, first attending Division III Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas, then transferring to Mississippi College before winding up back home where he faced an uncertain time in his life.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he said. “That’s when I got into coaching and fell in love with it.”
Matherne returned to help at Belle Chasse, igniting a fire for coaching that still burns bright. He enrolled at Troy University and finished his degree, giving himself a chance to pursue a future in the coaching profession.
“He would always call me,” Becnel said. “He wanted to learn and bounced things off of me and used me as a resource, which I really appreciated. A lot of this is on him because he loved football, loves to coach. He’s been deeply invested in his players and wants the best for them.”
Another of the constants that have been influential in Matherne’s life is Dennis Skains, who gave him his first coaching job as a defensive backs coach at South Lafourche. They coached together for three years until Matherne moved to John Ehret for a season, served as defensive coordinator at his alma mater Belle Chasse for four years, and was reunited with Skains for a season at Cecilia.
“Dennis is a mentor of mine and I got to see how he ran the program to how they have it now,” Matherne said of Cecilia, last year’s Division II non-select state runner-up. “I didn’t have aspirations of being a head coach at the time. I just wanted to get better and learn, and he would always tell me that I would be a head coach one day.”
That day came at St. Louis, a private school, that had fallen on hard times after the region suffered the 1-2 punch of Hurricanes Rita and Ida. The Saints were 2-6 before Matherne’s arrival and 21-13 during his three seasons, including a state playoff win in 2022.
Matherne’s ability to position St. Louis on stable ground in a relatively short amount of time opened the door for bigger challenges.
East Ascension, a member of District 5-5A, suffered a 3-7 record a year ago when Matherne was hired at the ripe age of 31 to turn around the Spartans’ fortunes.
“A goal of mine was to get to the highest level in Louisiana,” he said. “I learned how to manage the program at St. Louis, making sure I was putting people in the right spots, and that we’re living up to our expectations. The biggest transition was just the numbers, going from 103 at St. Louis and now we have 140 kids.
“I loved my time at St. Louis, and it was probably my hardest decision leaving there,” he said. “My wife and I loved the place. We put together a list of 10-12 schools that if a job ever opened, we would be interested in, and EA was always on it. They had so much rich tradition and history.”
For the first time, though, Matherne would also be taxed with the athletic director’s duties which required a phone call to Becnel.
“He’s someone who helped me organize the AD side of things,” Matherne said. “I’ve had three mentors, coach Becnel, Dennis Skains and (Destrehan offensive coordinator) Clint Harrison. I’ve leaned on them for all kinds of advice.
“The mantra they taught me is we’ve been through this for a long time, and we’ve made a lot of mistakes,” Matherne said. “If you’re willing to listen, we’ll try to help prevent you from making the same mistakes. I’m 31 years old getting this job. I think they’ve helped me a good deal by me not making some mistakes.”
Quick Change?
Becnel’s the least surprised person to see Matherne leading a Class 5A program, one such as East Ascension that’s produced former NFL players such as tight end Andrew “Poncho” Glover and defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey.
This year’s team has the nation’s fourth-rated offensive tackle in 2026 in junior Brysten Martinez.
“I knew it was just a matter of time,” Becnel said. “If you give him an opportunity, he’s going to take advantage of it. He didn’t come out and say he was going to be a coach right away. It evolved and took him a little while to get full-blown into it. But he’s definitely there now.”
Matherne realizes there’s nothing rapid about changing the course for a program without being committed to a step-by-step process before victories eventually show up on Friday nights.
It begins with each player sharing Matherne’s vision, one that’s gained clarity since his hiring in January. The arrival of five of his former assistants from St. Louis has kept the message consistent with a repeat of the team’s core values such as running on/off the field, having your helmet on at all times, and having a disciplined sideline.
“The biggest thing I learned in trying to turn something around quick is that it really isn’t about football,” Matherne said. “It’s about making sure we’ve got the right mindset, and that we’re outworking everybody and when the season comes around, it’s about staying healthy.
“The buy-in from these kids has been there since we walked in the door,” he said. “The expectations are the same no matter where we’re at every year. We want to win a state championship, that’s what we’re building toward. Everybody tells me that it’s going to take time, but we don’t look into the future. Our program’s built off of #wintoday. We’re worried about where we are right now and taking the steps to be in that conversation come December.”
Matherne’s ‘single-wing’ spread under offensive coordinator Sterling Mobley may look somewhat unconventional to defenses, especially after a visit to Bixby (Okla.) High which has won 10 of the last 11 state titles in Class 6A. He plans to incorporate some of Bixby’s unbalanced lines, motions, and shifts to compliment an offense that will look to make a living running counters and power from a gap-scheme base and dare people to stop them.
The Spartans will operate from defensive coordinator Darius Carroll’s 4-2-5 base defense, one that Matherne played in at Belle Chasse, but will also feature multiple fronts to adapt to what offenses are trying to run.
“I thought it was a place where I could execute my vision, a place where we could build a consistent contender,” Matherne said of EA. “To do that, you’ve got to get to Thanksgiving (quarterfinal round) on a consistent basis and this is a place that has so much untapped potential. Gonzales is a growing area and I wanted to compete at the highest level. We’re competitors.”
The influence of #wintoday is felt in the program’s mission statement, which is from Mathern’s heart. It’s rooted in earning respect as the state’s best team, and the ability to develop players after their high school graduation for later life.
“When we finally got to go home after Katrina, we had nothing left,” Matherne said. “It really helped to develop my mindset of how we treat our program and where #wintoday came from. We want to help kids understand the importance of winning today. All of that comes from all the loss. What can you do today? You’re not really promised tomorrow, none of us are.”