John Curtis Volleyball Assistant Coach Cindy Taix named NHSACA nominee for National Assistant Coach of the Year

by: Mike Strom // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

With a quarter century of credit in the profession of coaching, it might come as a surprise to learn that Cindy Taix of John Curtis never has felt the need to be a head coach.

In 25 years of coaching at Curtis’ River Ridge campus where she also has raised each of her two daughters, Taix has served as a key and trusted lieutenant for the Lady Patriots’ uber-successful softball and volleyball programs.

In recognition of her achievements, Taix was named a finalist for National Assistant Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association this summer prior to its national convention in Bismarck, N.D., on June 22-27.

“First, I am thankful for the nomination,’’ said Taix, who just completed her second year as Curtis’ girls athletic director while maintaining her volleyball coaching duties. “It came out of nowhere. I didn’t expect it at all. I’ve been doing this for a long time, but this is what I enjoy doing. I also don’t like to be in the spotlight or the limelight so when I was called, I really didn’t want to talk about it.

“I always like to be in the background. Let the head coaches and the players get all of the notoriety they want. I’m just here to kind of guide them and be in there. And that’s where I am with this nomination. I’m just humbled, very humbled and appreciative of all of the comments and all of the nice things that people have said, but I’ve just been doing me.

“I’ve been doing the same thing I’ve been doing for 25 years. I started at Curtis when I was 26-years-old. I was a young girl. I’m not so young anymore. I’m about to turn 50. But I enjoy the standard that John Curtis puts out and they’ve put us in a place where we can be our best as coaches and to be able to have our players excel.

“And any kind of awards that I get (goes) to the players and our administration. It’s nothing to do with me, but just being able to do what we can here.’’

Those at John Curtis would disagree with Taix’s humility about her contributions.

“Cindy is a person of high character and one who takes her work very seriously,’’ said John Curtis head master and head football coach J.T. Curtis Jr. “She for years did a dual role as a Spanish teacher for us and also as a volleyball coach and was excellent at both areas.

“We promoted her two years ago to women’s Athletic Director and there was a fight with the academic people over losing her in the classroom because she did such a good job in Spanish for us. But we needed to make sure our women’s athletics was getting the attention it needed and Cindy was, again, so diligent in her work and she’s just been a real asset to our program.’’

Taix isn’t sure where her fondness for humility and avoidance of the spotlight was derived.

“I think it’s just been my personality,’’ Taix said. “I’ve always felt like if we’re successful as a group, it doesn’t need to be me in the front. It never has to be. I would rather us win every state championship and my name not be mentioned than me being up there and being mentioned. So if we’re winning and I’m in the background, that’s great for me. It’s always been like that. I’ve never wanted to be in the limelight.

“I was telling my coaches, I was trying to get away without anybody know about the nomination.’’

Curtis has won no state titles in volleyball to date, but the Lady Patriots have advanced to the state finals four times, state quarterfinals 10 times in addition to advancing to five regionals during Taix’s tenure. The Lady Patriots have won eight state softball championships, one quarterfinal and one regional while Taix assisted.

“The thing that I really admire about (Taix) is there’s no task too small and there’s no task too big,’’ J.T. Curtis said. “Whatever needs to be done, Cindy’s going to jump in with both feet and it’s always going to be, ‘Yeah, I’ll be glad to do that. I can get that done.’

“Now, the other side of Cindy is she is as competitive as they come. She wants to do things well and she has a competitive spirit about her that is contagious. We really like that about her. We admire that about her for the way she approaches her work and her coaching.’’

Taix was nominated for the NHSACA award by current volleyball coach Alyxandra Carter, who just completed her first season in charge of the Lady Patriots. Carter coached as an assistant alongside Taix before replacing Juli Hartley with whom Taix coached for seven seasons from 2016-2022. Taix first served as volleyball assistant under Dawn Cabrera Curtis prior to Hartley’s elevation.

“Part of (the reason Taix has remained an assistant) is because she’s always been a full-time teacher in the classroom,’’ J.T. Curtis Jr. said. “It was very difficult having to do a lot of double duty, and she and Juli worked very well together.

“There’s not a lot of ego involved here. They work together. They interacted with each other just as we do in all of our sports. Cindy had significant input in the program as the assistant coach. Her opinion was valued and I think that made it a very workable position for her.

“And then, of course, when she went into the (athletic director) role that’s she’s doing now, it would have been very difficult to do both. Because you have to remember Cindy also does our elementary (girls sports programs). Sometimes people forget that we have the elementary girls program that she is in charge of and makes sure that those things get done.’’

One of Taix’s strong points is being a problem solver.

“Cindy’s strength for sure, I would say, is player relations and relationships,’’ Hartley said. “I find that she has a way of bridging the gap between a head coach and the player. She is able to find common ground to work with and to work on. Cindy just is genuine. She has a way with dealing with people. And, for me, she was that person who could bridge that gap between player and coach.’’

“In coaching style she’s intense. She wants to win. As far as style, her expectations of players is high. Cindy is well deserving of this award. She has put in a lot of time into this program and we love seeing this happen.’’

Taix’s move into coaching actually came after serving two years right out of college as a sports writer for The Houma Courrier following her graduation from LSU with a Mass Communications degree.

“I graduated in Mass Communications at LSU and that’s what I wanted to do, be a sports writer, broadcaster or whatever it was as long as it was in sports,’’ Taix said. “So I interviewed at The Houma Courrier and I was a sports writer. I covered Nicholls (State). I covered LSU. I covered the Saints back in the time when they had newspapers.’’

Engaged and soon to be married, Taix wasn’t sure how coaching would square with her desired future life as a wife and mother. Cindy and her husband, Danny Taix, would go on to parent two daughters, Danielle, now 21, who is entering her final season as a UL volleyball player, and Marrissa, 17, who is entering her senior year and season of Curtis volleyball.

“In my youth,’’ Taix added, “when I was first starting out as a coach, my dream was to go into college and coach college and take the next step. But once I had my girls and I had the family life, I knew that I couldn’t do both. (Being a successful head coach takes) tunnel vision. When you’re trying to be successful, you have to put  everything into it and I felt like if I did that I probably would have been divorced.

“I guess it was after our fifth state championship in softball, I was able to take a backseat. I just took a year off from softball. I still coached volleyball. And that’s where the path led me. Just being a family, being with my family. Curtis allows us to do that. My girls were raised here in the gym. From day one they’ve been in the gym.’’

“I still coach (softball). I do the little kids in junior high. I help out with that as far as softball. But I’ve stayed (with) volleyball and continued coaching volleyball. One of the reasons was both of my girls chose (volleyball) as their sport. Even though I have a softball background, they chose volleyball.’’

A two-sport standout at East Jefferson in the early ’90s, Taix had earned a roster spot as a senior walk-on on LSU’s first modern era softball team in 1997. That 1997 team came to be following Title IX lawsuits that paved the way for increased NCAA sports availability for women. Taix and her twin sister Karla, who was a pitcher, were representatives for LSU’s softball team in the suit.

The 1997 LSU softball team debuted with a 44-14 overall record and an 18-6 mark in the SEC, good enough to earn the Western Division championship.

Taix had been a standout softball and volleyball player at EJ from 1988-92, starting four years as a left-handed first baseman for Coach Pam Molaison while earning All-State and All-District honors. The Lady Warriors advanced to the LHSAA state tournament in Taix’s senior year before losing in the semifinals. Taix also had been a three-year starter in volleyball as a setter and right outside hitter.

“It’s a different path (today),’’ Taix said. “At the time we didn’t have the AAU teams that you have playing now. You had one then, in Baton Rouge. We played REC (recreation department0 ball, all (Jefferson Parish Recreation Department). We went to World Series. I played under Dawn Benoit. We won state, won the World Series.’’

Her path to coaching also was atypical.

“Right after I left LSU, I went back and coached at JPRD softball and I was pretty good at it,’’ Taix said. “It was all fresh and I liked it. I enjoyed it. I felt like I could get the kids to buy in and to play better as far as skill-wise. So I knew I wanted to take that path, but I didn’t how I was going to make the move back until I got the call from Curtis.’’

Taix has not looked back.

“At the time we were building something at Curtis,’’ Taix said. “It was before we even had a field. It was in the inaugural part of building what we have now. I came over and I was pitching coach and the first base coach early on . . .  and that was it. That was our path.’’