By LORI LYONS, Written for the LSWA
Had Frank Monica been just a little bit taller, the history of sports in Louisiana — especially in the River Parishes — might have been changed completely.
As an All-State third baseman at the long-gone Leon Godchaux High School in Reserve, then at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, it was Monica’s dream to be a major league baseball player. But at 5-foot-8, he was too short.
Instead, he became a coach. A really good one, at both the high school and college levels, for more than 50 years, accumulating 284 wins and three state championships at three different schools in football, 114 wins as a baseball coach, and even a couple of wins coaching junior varsity basketball.
Had Monica achieved his original dream, Louisiana probably still would have gained a baseball legend, but hundreds of young boys would not have become men under the tutelage of this stern taskmaster who believed in using sports to teach life lessons — who believed in discipline and work ethic and got generations of athletes to give more than they thought they had to give.
And there might not be a legacy of coaches who learned their craft beside him and went on to become successful coaches — including his own two sons and a nephew.
And the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame might not have this deserving member of the 2024 inductee class as the winningest coach in the River Parishes and one of the most successful coaches in the state. He is part of the 12-member Class of 2024 to be honored this weekend, beginning Thursday, in Natchitoches.
“My first reaction was, my God. I’m very humble,” the 71-year-old Monica said. “I didn’t feel like I belonged with that cast of people. It’s quite an honor. It’s the ultimate honor to cap off a career. That was the furthest thing from my mind when I got into coaching. I never even thought of that as a player or a coach.”
It’s no secret that baseball was Monica’s first love, and he played it passionately at the school everyone called “Reserve.” He also was an All-State guard and linebacker under legendary River Parishes coach Joe Keller, who thought water breaks and working out in shorts were for weaklings.
“He was a man of few words, but he was like Merrill Lynch,” Monica said. “When he spoke, everybody listened to him. Everybody’s stirrup socks had to the be same. Everybody’s sideburns had to be the same.”
It was Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Ray Didier (2017) who recruited Monica to play baseball for Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, which did not yet have a football team. Didier also was known for his hard-nosed discipline.
“He took it to another level,” Monica said.
Monica went there as a shortstop, but played all four years as the starting third baseman.
“My first game was at the University of Houston,” Monica recalled. “I’m in the lineup as a freshman and I didn’t even make 18 yet. I was a nervous wreck.”
He got over it though, and played 172 games as a Colonel, including the 1970 College Division World Series.
After his professional dreams were dashed, Monica spent the 1971 season as a graduate assistant then returned to the River Parishes to be an assistant under Lou St. Amant at his former archrival, Lutcher.
In 1975, the Bulldogs won a football state championship, then St. Amant left for what was then Northeast Louisiana University (now the University of Louisiana at Monroe). The 26-year-old Monica got a knock on his door in the middle of the night.
“It was two school board members,” Monica recalled. “They said, ‘Congratulations! You’re the new head football coach!’ I said, ‘Get out of here. I don’t want it.’ One thing led to another and I guess they talked me into it.”
Monica spent eight years as the head football and baseball coach at Lutcher, winning the school’s second state football title in 1978 against Haughton.
Like his predecessor, Monica left Lutcher for a chance to coach at the college level. He was an assistant at Tulane from 1979-82 under Larry Smith and Vince Gibson, earning a memorable trip to the Liberty Bowl in 1979 and the Hall of Fame Bowl in 1980.
When Gibson was let go in 1982, Monica went back to the River Parishes and high school. He spent one year at Riverside Academy and promptly won the 1983 state title.
The following spring, Jesuit came calling and Monica went there for five years, helping the Blue Jays to four playoff appearances. Then Greg Davis was hired at Tulane and Monica returned to college for six seasons.
“If I had a choice,” Monica said. “I’d take high school. The field is still 100 yards long and 53 yards wide. But in high school, you get right in the middle of it. You sleep in your own bed at night. Recruiting was different then. We only had 12 weekends off a year. Two nights a week I slept on the floor of my office rather than leave at 11 o’clock at night and be back for 6, I loved recruiting because of the people I met — even the ones that didn’t commit — but it was demanding. I was very proud when Tulane went 12-0 (in 1998) because, even though I wasn’t there, 30 of those guys I recruited and most of them were from Louisiana.”
In 1997, Tulane shuffled coaches again and Monica found himself in need of another job. He again returned to the River Parishes, to St. Charles Catholic, where the legend was cemented.
Monica spent three seasons as the Comets baseball coach then took over the football team in 2000. Over the next 21 years, Monica built St. Charles into a powerhouse program, earning 12 state semifinals appearances and six state finals appearances. His Comets won a state title in 2011.
And he did it not with a slew of marquee players who went on to NFL careers, but with a lot of really good high school players who believed in Monica’s work ethic.
“They weren’t the biggest guys,” Monica said. “They were just a bunch of good guys. They’re successful people. You go to weddings and see some of your former players and they’re doing extremely well — you wonder if you had something to do with that.”
Contact Lori at lolomojo@aol.com