By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
NATCHITOCHES – The District 1-5A football landscape will take on a different look today.
Natchitoches Central High School will announce this afternoon that Jess Curtis, who has led Many High School to three small school state championships in the last nine seasons and three more state runner-up finishes, is the Chiefs’ football coach.
Natchitoches Parish school board superintendent Dr. Grant Eloi and other administrators declined official comment, but sources in Natchitoches and around the Many program confirmed the move. The announcement by NCHS will follow a Many High football team meeting early this afternoon.
Curtis has built one of the state’s powerhouse programs at any level. His unbeaten Division III Non-Select state champions this fall dominated one of NCHS’s District 1-5A colleagues, Haughton, 35-3, in September, and in recent years the program has thrashed bigger schools such as North DeSoto and DeRidder.
The Tigers have won 10 straight district championships and are unbeaten in district play during that time, reaching the state playoffs every year and advancing at least to the state semifinals in all but one season.
Since taking over at his alma mater in 2010, after serving as defensive coordinator there, Curtis posted a 142-32 (.816) record in 13 years and made the playoffs every season.
Many reached the Class AA state finals for the first time under Curtis in 2013, then won its first state championship the following season. The Tigers reached the playoff semifinals in 2016, 2017 and 2018, then lost in the 2019 state finals. They came back to win the 2020 2A championship, fell in the 2021 finals and beat Class 3A Union Parish last month to capture the Division III state crown.
The Tigers are known for their physical style of play, aggressive defense and powerful running game. Curtis is a proponent of an immersive offseason strength and conditioning program, and has a large roster approaching 100 players, highly unusual at a Class 2A school. The Many powerlifting program has produced state champion lifters.
Also regarded as an exceptional history teacher, Curtis is the son of retired Sabine Parish businessman John T. Curtis. The coach’s nephew, Tackett Curtis, has been one of the nation’s top recruits in the Class of 2023 and recently signed with USC.
He is the latest in a string of Many players who have earned college scholarships.
The new NCHS coach is a Many native and played for the Tigers’ 1988 state finalist team.
He was offered an assistant coaching post when Brad Laird took over the Northwestern State program in 2018. Curtis reportedly could not reach agreement with the prior NCHS administration and then-school board leaders to take the NCHS job in 2019. Eloi and NCHS principal Micah Coleman were not in place then.
The school has just finished building a new athletic fieldhouse adjacent to the current football practice field, and has erected a grandstand and press box. There are plans to develop the facility into a home field, in lieu of playing home games at NSU’s Turpin Stadium, as has been done for decades.
Curtis takes over a program previously steered by former Byrd High School assistant James Wilkerson, who was released last month following a 3-7 season. Wilkerson guided the Chiefs to their best year this century in 2021, a 7-4 playoff run, including a 7-0 start until quarterback Brian Young was injured.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com