HOUMA, La. – After serving as an assistant football coach at Ellender High School for 5 years, former Nicholls State University and Ellender Running Back, Jesse Turner, was hired as the head football coach.
“Once I got it it was a great feeling but I knew the task at hand being that we were 2-8 the past couple of years and I want to change the narrative of Ellender High School football,” says Ellender Head Football Coach Jesse Turner.
Turner says it’s time to put football back on the map and give Ellender its first winning season since its last postseason appearance in 2016.
“Everybody looks at it as a basketball school year in and year out. We go to playoffs in basketball and sometimes we make it to the state championship. I want that same vibe for the football team,” added Jesse Turner.
Last season, the Ellender Patriots were showing promise, thanks to a core group of playmakers, highlighted by Running Back, TyShaun Hester.
Hester was sidelined midseason with a foot injury.
“We were 2-3 when I went out so it hurt me when I went to the doctor and they told me I had to sit out a couple of weeks, but I was still there supporting my team and trying to get back quicker than I was supposed to but I couldn’t.”
Hester just recently committed to play his college ball at Nicholls State University, but he and the rest of Ellender’s senior class have something to prove in 2020.
“When we come here we have got to set our mind to those 2-8 seasons. So every time we get here, when we step on that field we have got to think, oh we are not going 2-8 this year. If we all have that same mindset and we all contribute to that one thing, then we will definitely turn this around,” says Hester.
Head Coach Jesse Turner agrees, saying “What I see is a hungry team, I do see the change in atmosphere that our guys are starting to believe. That our guys believe that we can play for a district championship and play during Thanksgiving. If we build on that mindset and spread it throughout the team and the school, then I definitely believe there will be a change coming soon.”
