One great soccer coach takes over for another at St. Scholastica

Legendary St. Scholastica soccer coach Mike Ortner has decided to hang up his whistle on the heels of his sixth state title win last season.

In only 12 years, Ortner has taken the Doves to nine state championship games, winning six of them. His SSA teams reached at least the state semifinals every season. That is enough success for two coaching careers packed into a dozen short years.

Ortner’s first championship came at the LHSAA Division II before he was able to take the program that still qualifies to be DII into Division I. The success continued.

Hard work and consistency are the staples of his coaching legacy.

“We keep it simple and have (had) great kids that came in and wanted to be part of a winning program and its helped us.”

Ortner will still coach at the club level. As he knows full well, coaching at the high school level is a year-round, low paying grind of a commitment. Stepping away from SSA with help him have more wind in his sails during the spring club season.

Like most coaches, Ortner has a full-time job in order to pay the bills so he can coach in the afternoons and many times late into the evening. He is also a proud father of a three-month old baby who will benefit having her father at home more. Ortner said she wasn’t the reason for the decision. Having a full-time job, coaching club ball and coaching high school became a “quality of life issue” forcing him to choose to walk away. He admits that he will deeply miss the joys of high school and is open to returning to it in the future.

“He was a student of the game. (Ortner) would play anybody regardless of their record or what it would do to his record just to get his kids ready to play those type of teams in the playoffs. Some of us try to get out of the second round each year but it seems that Mike has always got a knack of being able to get to it,” said Dominican head coach Al Silvas.

Mike, the son of hall of fame Jesuit coach Gary Ortner, credits his father’s focus on consistency and hard work for his own foundation as a coach. Attention to detail is definitely the M.O. of both of them. Their success speaks for itself.

SSA may be losing one legend but they are gaining another with in new head coach Matt Jacques, who had retired from coaching high school, His three state championships were won at uptown New Orleans power Isidore Newman.

Jacques could have stayed away and entered the hall of fame one day as well, but the time away from sidelines have ended because the opportunity to take over a great program where he lives on the North Shore was too good to turn down.

“When a school like SSA came open, I had to go and see. Once I went there, I was hooked,” Jacques explained.

Fully aware of the dynasty Ortner built with the Doves, Jacques is excited to add to it.

“Hopefully I can continue his success and write my own story over there.”

Both men stress attention to detail with their teams. If the girls were worried that the quality of coaching would take a dive, they should worry no more. A nationwide search to find a coach would turn up no one better than Matt Jacques.

We interviewed Ortner, Silvas and Jacquet on this week’s episode of Monday Night Futbol. Check out the full show below. God Bless You and Your Family.

https://crescentcitysports.mystagingwebsite.com/podcast-monday-night-futbol-august-13-2018/