Nicholls’ athletic department is doing well … it has its AD to thank for a lot of that

When Nicholls hired Jonathan Terrell as its Athletic Director, we all knew that ‘JT’ was a Colonel – through and through.

But there were concerns from some about whether or not Terrell could lead the athletic department successfully into the future.

And look, those concerns were probably warranted, right? Terrell was hired in June 2020 – dead in the heat of the COVID pandemic. To lead an athletic department is difficult at any time. But to do so during such an uncertain time in our country economically at a school like Nicholls that isn’t exactly flush with infinite resources made the challenge even greater. And to top it off, JT came to Nicholls with experience in sports and coaching, yes, but limited experience in athletic administration. He was a quarterback and receiver at Nicholls in the 90s who then became a coach for a handful of seasons. But outside of that, Terrell spent most of his professional career in sales prior to being hired in Thibodaux.

But we flash forward to the present and Nicholls’ athletic department is headed in the right direction and three years into Terrell’s tenure with the school, we can see some signs that the hires he’s made are beginning to pay off.

Since becoming Nicholls’ AD, Terrell has had to shuffle the deck quite a bit with some moves where we’re seeing progress and others that are too early to call.

In baseball, he replaced Seth Thibodeaux after a long tenure and replaced him with Coach Mike Silva. The results are there. A program that was stuck in the middle is now leading the Southland Conference heading into the final weekend of the season. That was an A+ hire and one that the Colonels hammered out of the park (pun intended).

The same can be said about softball. After Angel Santiago didn’t have his contract renewed, admittedly, it looked like dark times were coming to Nicholls softball. Santiago had a successful run in Thibodaux, but the ending wasn’t great and the program was left in a dark place. But Terrell and his team hired Justin Lewis to lead the program and there has been an outstanding turnaround so far. The Colonels went from the bottom of the conference to the Top 4 in 1 season and they did so with just 1 senior on the entire roster. Another home run hire.

Other hires have been made and in some sports, there hasn’t yet been progress on the field, but we will give it time.

On the basketball side, DoBee Plaisance is no longer with the university and Austin Claunch is off to Alabama. Both present challenges to the programs because both teams had been successful under their previous coaches. But to replace both, Terrell was able to hire Colonels, bringing back Justin Payne for the women and snagging Tevon Saddler for the men.

Both programs have some energy right now and there’s an enthusiasm that both programs are on firm footing.

Where it goes from here, one may never know. At Nicholls, it’s one thing to get great coaches. It’s another to keep them. Retaining Lewis and Silva could become challenges in the future. If Payne or Saddler get hot, retaining them could become issues down the road.

But so far, Terrell has shown more than capable of being the right man to keep the ship running. Through COVID, through a transition period and with a lot of moving parts around the department, one can certainly make the case that the program is better positioned now than it was when Terrell took over. And that’s impressive.

Way to go, JT!

You’d never publicly take credit for the successes, but here’s an atta boy from us on a job well done!