Embarking on new Challenge: Kent Masson leaving Teurlings for Opelousas Catholic
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Kent Masson’s a devout Alabama football fan who admits to the clash of emotions he’ll grapple with.
For someone who named his son Bryant after Crimson Tide coaching icon Paul “Bear” Bryant, Masson doesn’t own any garments with any hint of purple but admits an expansion in his wardrobe is forthcoming after becoming the head football and wrestling coach at Opelousas Catholic.
“Wearing purple’s going to kind of be difficult,” Masson said with a laugh in deference to Bama’s Southeastern Conference rival LSU. “The school has tradition with those colors. You can’t ignore it. It’s going to be different to wear those colors. I don’t own a purple shirt right now. I may have to go find something somewhere.”
Masson’s world was awash in red, white, and blue at Teurlings Catholic for the past 23 years as running backs coach. He’s also been the head wrestling coach over that span where he’s transformed the Rebels into among the state’s powerhouses with 12 state championships and four state runner-up finishes.
The need for a change in color scheme came last week when Masson agreed to take over the dual head coaching roles at Class 1A Opelousas Catholic, whose primary colors are purple and gold. He’ll become a head football coach for the first time, replacing Cullen Matherne, who was 23-13 the past three seasons, including a 7-5 record and appearance in the Division IV select state regionals.
“I was never sure I’d be a head football coach,” Masson said. “I was always on the borderline, whether I wanted to do it, or did I just want to stick with wrestling and be an assistant football coach. I’d gone back and forth. I finally said one day that I think I can do this. I started getting more and more confidence that I could do it.”
Masson had a bird’s view of some of Opelousas Catholic’s football games. With his son Bryant serving as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator, Masson watched from the stands as his son’s coaching career took flight at the private school in St. Landry Parish.
Bryant Masson also helped to foster the school’s wrestling program for the past three years. The Vikings’ growth is a testament to Bryant’s guidance, which featured a school-best ninth place finish in the Division III team standings with 65.5 points.
Because Bryant had already agreed to a coaching position at St. Thomas More in Lafayette, the two Massons won’t coach together.
“He said it was a good place to go,” Kent said of his son’s advice of OC. “After talking to them, I said, ‘ This is the time. I was comfortable in the decision after a weekend of thought.”
Masson, a native of New Orleans, didn’t follow the customary path to the coaching sideline or wrestling mat.
Masson’s athletic career at Brother Martin High consisted of one year of football when it was discovered he had only one kidney. That didn’t deter him, though, from wrestling for five years.
A career in radio and television, and newspaper, comprised Masson’s path after college. He was a prep correspondent for the New Orleans Times-Picayune before branching into radio as a producer for the New Orleans Saints Radio Network for an all-sports station.
The bright lights of television signaled another turn on Masson’s career path. He was an assistant sports producer for WWL-TV before moving to WDSU as a sports producer.
Masson moved to Lafayette and was part of the sports team at KATC TV-ABC for six years before embarking on a coaching career at Teurlings Catholic that would last more than two decades.
“He wanted to get involved,” said Sonny Charpentier, the winningest coach in Teurlings history (194-73), who hired Masson. “He helped our freshmen that first year, and after that, he wanted to kind of get more involved and moved up. He was in all of those meetings. As a young coach, you try and be a sponge, and I think he was very conscientious. He did what you told him to do and did the best he could. I was happy with him when he was with me.”
Charpentier found Masson to be eager to learn, and his lack of coaching knowledge prior to Teurlings was never regarded as a negative.
“He was willing to learn,” Charpentier said. “Sometimes when you have former players who were good, they’re going to do it the way they did it. That wasn’t the case. I’ve been around a lot of good coaches, and my high school coach didn’t play the game.
“Sometimes the best players don’t make the best coaches, and he did a good job of not acting like he knew everything and was willing to learn,” Charpentier said. “He paid attention. He was a good assistant, and I appreciate everything he did for me.”
Charpentier had Teurlings up and running prior to Masson’s arrival in ’03.
The Rebels, who averaged 9.2 wins during Charpentier’s 21 seasons, advanced to 10 quarterfinals and two semifinals.
When Sonny Charpentier transitioned from the sideline to the school’s athletic director in 2016, Masson remained the team’s running back coach under Dane Charpentier, who guided the Rebels to a 65-32 record in eight seasons.
The Rebels made consecutive trips to the Division II state semifinals in 2022-23 and an appearance in the quarterfinals the following season.
When Dane Charpentier stepped down to become offensive coordinator at East Ascension, Masson worked for first-year head coach Michael Courville and the Rebels recorded an undefeated regular season and wound up 11-1 with a trip to the Division I select state quarterfinals.
“There’s so much to learn from coaches that you’re around,” Masson said. “Learning from Sonny Charpentier and Dane Charpentier, and one year under Michael Courville, has been a phenomenal journey for me. I’ve learned so much about offense during the time that I’ve been here. I’ve never coached the defensive side of the ball, but as a coach, you do learn about the other side of the football.
“In the 23 years here, I’ve learned a lot about how to put a program together and how to manage a program,” Masson said. “I also learned some things what not to do as well. Not every single person that coaches is going to be perfect at what they do. There will be things I take from the Charpentiers and Mikey Courville. In 23 years as an assistant is a long time. This was a time that I got interested in something else, and I felt this time was the right time for that.”
Masson truly excelled in making Teurlings a standard in Division II wrestling.
The Rebels had never won a state championship until Masson’s arrival, and after a state runner-up finish in 2011. The school emerged on the statewide scene as a powerhouse with 12 state titles and four runners-up finishes during a magical 16-year stretch.
During an 11-year span, Teurlings was the state champion or runner-up between 2013 and 2024 – winning five consecutive titles between 2014 and 2018. The Rebels won 348 dual meets and more than 60 tournament championships.
Following a fourth-place finish in this year’s Division II team standings, Teurlings recently conducted its team banquet days after Masson’s announcement that it would be his final such celebration.
“We always try and make it a celebration for the seniors,” Masson said. “That’s what it’s for, and we did that. Sometimes I get emotional a lot, and it was a very emotional night, somewhat like a funeral in some ways. It didn’t lack support for doing what I’m doing.”
Opelousas Catholic’s wrestling program was in its infancy stages upon Bryant Masson’s arrival. Along with his football coaching duties, he generated interest in wrestling and guided the Vikings to a school-best fifth-place finish in the Division III team standings with four participants finishing between third and sixth in this year’s state meet.
With his son’s departure to St. Thomas More, Masson will take over the wrestling program that may have a later start date than usual because of the number of wrestlers who also play football.
“Depending on how far we go in the playoffs will determine when we start wrestling,” Masson said. “About 90% of kids that wrestle play football. You can’t do anything until football’s over. We may start wrestling in the second week of December. We’ll practice for a couple of weeks. The kids have a great foundation already, and we’ll just build off of it.”
Opelousas Catholic, which appeared in the Class 1A state championship against Evangel Christian in 2005, was 7-5 and reached the regional round of the Division IV select playoffs.
The Vikings had one of the nation’s top wide receivers in Roderick Tezeno, a first-team Class 1A All-State selection, who signed with USC. He became the program’s second high-profile signee, following in the footsteps of current Buffalo Bills wideout Keon Coleman, who signed with Michigan State and finished his career at Florida State.
Coleman was a second-round draft choice of Buffalo in 2024.
“There’s a plethora of talent in the Opelousas area and kids that are coming to Opelousas Catholic,” Masson said. “While there’s a lot of talent, there’s also a lot of passion. You combine those two together, and you’re going to have a really successful football team. They’ve had a lot of success over the last several years. I can’t think back to the last time they missed the playoffs.
“I have to see what talent is there,” he said. “I’m blessed to have my son there who can fill me in on some things. We’ve talked four or five times already about who they had on offense and defense. Whether there anyone could play both ways? He’s given me the rundown on everything.”
Masson would like to employ a run-based offense and, with input from his son, last year’s defensive coordinator, could either stay with a 3-4 alignment or adjust to a 3-3 stack.
“In a perfect world, I would like to run an offense that’s just smashmouth,” he said. “But also gives you a lot of play action. At Teurlings, we’ve done shotgun with some reads and counters with a lot of motion. Depending on the personnel, it could be a great mix of all of that, and our opponents won’t know what’s coming next. We’ll make some decisions based on the talent we have and figure it out from there.”
Sonny Charpentier, an assistant at East Ascension, believes Masson has enough experience to put together a successful schematic approach.
“He’s been exposed to three different (head) coaches,” he said. “He’s seen how to do it, and he’s seen what he likes and what he doesn’t like. He can go with what fits him best. He can pick and choose what he wants to do with them. Winning is winning. He comes ready to work. He’s not afraid of work.”
Courville provided a great example in his first season as head coach for Masson to follow.
“It was a phenomenal year,” he said. “Michael Courville has to be one of the most organized human beings I’ve ever come across. Practice schedules, the itinerary for one day is right on track. I don’t think we were ever off track at all. He delegated authority. He gave everybody what they needed to do.
“We never wondered what we were doing next,” he said. “We knew what we had to do, and his organizational standards are impeccable. Sonny and Dane were organized in their own way. Michael was just a little bit different than they were.”
Masson plans to finish out the school year at Teurlings, where he’s a dual enrollment English teacher who counts his work with LSU.
Trying to salvage spring football is futile, he said, because of the school’s success in baseball, where a great number of those athletes also play football. The Vikings (21-6) are No. 1 in the Division IV select baseball power ratings going into this week.
A football team meeting is scheduled this week, where Masson will get to know the names and faces of the players who will work around their summer baseball schedules to have offseason workouts. There will be installation of both offensive and defensive schemes, and Masson plans to begin fall practice a week earlier than other schools.
“I wouldn’t have that many kids in the spring,” Masson said. “We’ll bypass spring and start early, and figure out the following year. We have to work where I can have everybody here for at least three days out of the week.”
Masson said he has one spot to fill on the coaching staff with an eye on a defensive coordinator who will fill the role his son previously had.
One of the built-in advantages Masson will enjoy is a renovated home field where off-campus Donald Gardiner Stadium underwent several upgrades before the 2025 season, including a turf field to replace the natural grass that previously existed.
Masson’s career will get underway Sept. 4 with an immediate step up in classification for his team against Breaux Bridge of Class 4A.
“That’s going to be a real challenge to open up the season,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. There’s a lot of excitement within myself. We can’t speed up the process of getting to that first week of the season. We’ve got to be able to slow things down and have the kids buy in into what we want to do, and they trust what we’re doing.”