St. Augustine had big presence at Louisiana Line Camp with 35 players participating

by: Mike Strom // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

St. Augustine had not participated in the Louisiana Line Camp as a team until this summer.

Enter Robert Valdez as the new head football coach of the Purple Knights.

An offensive lineman himself as a center at now defunct O. Perry Walker High School in New Orleans and then at Southern University, Valdez came to St. Augustine after serving two seasons as offensive line coach at Grambling following highly-successful runs at St. James and West St. John high schools and one-year stops at Scotlandville and McKinley.

So it came as no surprise that improving the Purple Knights up front would be among his top priorities following the program’s disappointing and unexpected 4-8 season in 2023 that included an 0-6 mark in District 9-5A’s Catholic League.

“The biggest thing (about football) is that your offensive line and your defensive line are the foundation of your program,’’ Valdez said. “Everybody wants to focus on skill guys and all of that, but it’s almost like in (the children’s story) ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ You better build your house with a solid foundation and not the kind where (adversaries) can huff and puff and blow your house down.’’

To that end, Louisiana Line Camp, which completed its 37^th edition at Nicholls State in Thibodaux this past week with laser-focused instruction on fundamentals and techniques from NFL, college and high school coaches, proved to be an ideal primer to reinforce what Valdez and his staff have been preaching since Valdez was hired in January.

“As a head coach, my mentality always is thinking along the offensive and defensive lines,’’ Valdez said. “I just think that that’s how we’ve been able to build programs in the past. I think that especially at this level (Division I Select) and in this league (District 9-5A) with the competition that we’re going to play against, we have to be solid up front.

“I just felt it was important for us to go out there and get that type of work (on fundamentals and technique). I think that it’s the best line camp in the country. When you talk about the experience that you’re going to get from some NFL coaches on both sides of the ball and from some good college coaches and good high school coaches, that is obvious.

“But it is not a competition camp. It is not an offense versus defense evaluation camp. It’s a drills camp. It’s a fundamentals camp. It’s a grind because you’re going to work three times a day in mid-June and you have to deal with the elements. So it was important for me to get our guys there.’’

Line Camp, Valdez said, “teaches you all of the tools to put in your toolbox that you can bring back to your team and bring back to your season and that’s what important.’’

The 35 Purple Knights linemen who attended — 19 from offense and 16 from defense — exited the four-day experience as believers.

Particularly satisfying for Valdez, offensive line coach Tyrin Arceneaux and defensive line coach Clyde Alexander was that approximately half of St. Augustine’s contingent were freshmen who all pushed through the heat and Spartan conditions.

Six a.m. wake-up calls, three-a-day practices followed by nightly skull sessions made for a demanding schedule for the record 775 campers who attended. Practices lasted roughly 90 minutes with eight separate stations set up for work on fundamentals and techniques.

“It was tough,’’ St. Augustine left tackle Juelz Baptiste said. “We had some slackers (initially), but as practice went on, people started picking it up more and more and more. I feel like we had a big improvement from the first day until the last day.

“Hopefully, it was easier for our guys because of the stuff we do at practice. I feel like we were well-prepared to go through the drills. Nobody was too tired because of the things we do here (at school). Coach Valdez and Coach Arceneaux put us through a lot of stuff to prepare us for stuff like that.’’

“My first impression was that I thought it was going to (make for) a long day,’’ Purple Knights senior defensive tackle Calvin Guidry said. “But I really got a good experience out of (camp). It was something new, something challenging and I really had fun doing it. As a team we came together as a whole to work hard and challenge ourselves for those days. We met a lot of people and they showed us a lot of different things.’’

A Saturday night Rob49 concert scheduled for the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on opening day of Line Camp initially created some hesitation among Purple Knights players who had wanted to attend the sold out musical event. Football prevailed, however.

“To be totally honest, some of us were like, ‘Oh (no),’ because they had the concert that weekend that we left,’’ Guidry said. “But a lot of us were willing to go (to Line Camp instead) and learn to get better for this coming season. We had a terrible record (last) season and we want to do better this season. Me, personally, I took this as a time to get better and really work on my skills mentally and physically.’’

“We were very skeptical,’’ senior defensive tackle Shyloh Madison said of some players’ initial trepidations. “We didn’t know if we really wanted to go. But we all got together and (decided) let’s do it. We’re going to make the best time of it and we did. We enjoyed ourselves and we learned a lot. It was a very great camp. If anybody had to go, I would say, ‘Go.’’’

“I like how fluid and how fast things were moving around the camp,’’ Guidry said. “Everybody was able to get two, three, four (repetitions) before we went to the next station. I really like how they had it set up.’’

“(Camp officials) did a good job organizing,’’ Madison said. “You went with your school and you did stations. So it was really easy to work around, 10 minutes per station. They fed us well, so they kept us going.’’

“The techniques we picked up and most of the techniques we learned were stuff that was already taught to us on a certain level, but the camp really showed us a deeper version of it,’’ Guidry, the defensive tackle, said. “That camp really showed us how to perfect and practice our techniques over and over again. We were working on striking, bending an opponent, setting the edge, six-point explosions and etcetera. I feel like the camp challenged us as a whole.

“This camp is going to help a lot of us. The first time somebody needs to get a sub, this is going to help the younger guys get more playing time and help them get out there. This camp really showed us a lot and really showed us how good we can be. I feel like that as a whole we are a great team. We’re just not disciplined enough. We just can’t really show enough discipline.’’

So make way for the culture change that is in its fifth month under an ultra-positive pied piper in Valdez whose 126-58-0 record as a head coach includes a 15-0 state championship season at St. James in 2015. Valdez was named NFL Don Shula High School Coach of the Year in 2015 for leading St. James to its first state title in 40 years.

“I’m a big metaphor and analogy guy,’’ Valdez said. “Some people may not know that they’re beautiful, but when they find out, they really flourish. So with our guys, going to camp helped them realize that I’m on the right track. I am doing the things I need to be doing. I can do more now because I see myself being successful. (The game) slows downs a little bit.’’

It also doesn’t hurt when the message is being delivered by a highly-regarded coaching tree of professional, college and high school assembled by defensive line guru Pete Jenkins and co-founder Don Rodrigue. Line Campers received instruction from NFL line coaches from the Chiefs, Vikings, Jaguars, Dolphins and Raiders among others.

“Pete Jenkins is considered one of the top defensive line coaches in the country,’’ Valdez said. “So guess who coaches that camp? The guys that play for him. So you’re talking about a camp where the kids are getting coached by the Minnesota Vikings, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Miami Dolphins, the Las Vegas Raiders, the Kansas City Chiefs. You’re working under guys that are teaching these things to guys at the highest level. You’re doing drills that are being taught to NFL players. You’re doing drills that are being taught in major colleges.

“So you go into the camp having a grasp of things because you’re seeing it, but then you’re like, ‘Oh, wow. We’re doing these drills. We’re doing these same drills that NFL guys are doing and we’re learning. What happens is you start playing a little bit faster when you become a little more comfortable. So I saw our guys embracing that and really, really getting active.

“Now, hopefully, our guys can play better with their hands and understand how to fit better with their keys. So you get an opportunity to be taught by guys who are at the top of their business. That to me is priceless.’’

Valdez took heart in watching his players from a distance, making sure they were hearing fresh voices.

“I work the camp, but I don’t work my kids,’’ Valdez said. “My kids don’t go through any of my stations. They’ll go through stations with somebody else. So I was able to watch from afar, but I’m seeing them receive the same message from a different voice. It looked like it was a great thing.’’

Particularly charming was watching his players instructed by rival Catholic League coaches.

“I took my hat off to the coaches at Rummel and the coaches at Holy Cross because we’re cross-coaching our kids,’’ Valdez said. “It was rewarding to go see the Rummel coaches coaching the St. Aug kids hard and see Holy Cross coach Scott Wattigny at his station, coaching our kids hard. So my hat goes off to them because we’re going to play each other one week, but for the betterment of the whole we’re teachers.

“They really did challenge my guys and they really did teach my guys with the intention of doing a really great job and our guys benefitted from that. To me that was priceless.

“It was priceless because our guys are getting St. Aug coaches, they’re getting Rummel coaches, they’re getting Holy Cross coaches and they’re getting Catholic High (of Baton Rouge) coaches and these are the types of coaches coaching at this camp. So this validates what they’re doing and they’re winning. They’re playing in state semifinals and championships.’’

So consider St. Augustine as sold on Louisiana Line Camp.

“I can’t wait for the season (to arrive) to put (what was learned) to use and see how far we’ve improved from last year,’’ Baptiste, the Purple Knights left tackle, said. “We learned a lot of new techniques. We learned a lot of new things. Now we have to put that to use this year to make our job easier and breeze through the season. We’ve got some tough opponents (coming up), so this was a good experience for us.’’

 “It’s just like everything else,’’ Valdez said, “when learning is being reinforced, it kind of sinks in a little bit more. So (the players) got a chance to go through some really, really good drills, some fundamentals and all that. And it’s grueling, a little bit.

“But I believe every kid who went through (the camp) was able to come back with the ability to have learned and gained some very valuable lessons in their craft, to have sharpened their craft. I told (the players) we’re going to continue to bring the gang.’’