BATON ROUGE - For the last decade, Central has been a middle of the pack program watching district rivals Zachary and Catholic win multiple state championships.

The Wildcats wanted that to change, so they went out and got Catholic head coach David Simoneaux to lead them.

It was a surprising move, especially since Simoneaux just won a title with the Bears in 2021, but he saw Central as a place he could build a championship program.  

"The commitment from our administration to equip every sports program on this campus with what it takes to run an elite program is something that I just couldn't turn down," Simoneaux said. 

With the foundation in place, it's now Simoneaux's job to change the culture, something that has been going well so far.

"We're just proud of what's being built here and really excited about the group of kids that we have. They've done a phenomenal job of coming in with a new coaching staff and embracing everything that we talked about," Simoneaux said. 

As expected, Simoneaux is changing things up. Having coached against the wildcats the past few years, he is now putting his players in spots where he believes that they can succeed the most.

"Some guys got some game experience, which is, you know, tremendously helpful there. The improvement that you're looking for, it's just executing the new offense and being able to have a call on one card, and obviously we're still trying to figure out exactly what that is. We're getting closer and closer each and every single week because we are still figuring out all the pieces of the puzzle."

The Wildcats will look to get back to the playoffs in Simoneaux's first year, as they missed it in 2022 going 4-6.