South Lafourche High School has a new girls’ soccer coach. He said he’s eager to build the program into a winner during his time with the team.
Colin Skinner has been named the Lady Tarpons’ coach, a move that was announced to By-U Sports last week.
Skinner is a South Lafourche High School graduate and a veteran soccer coach. He was previously an assistant coach at Terrebonne High School and is active at youth levels, serving as the Board President for the Lafourche Soccer League – a role he’s held for 3 years.
Skinner said he’s eager to get working to try and rebuild the Lady Tarpons’ program – a group that’s struggled in recent years but which has a lot of rising talent that could change the momentum going forward.
“First and foremost, I want to thank Principal Samantha Lagarde and AD Justin Galjour on giving me this opportunity,” Skinner said. “I am extremely excited to be able to lead the girls’ soccer program. Being a head coach at the high school level has been a goal of mine for some time and to be able to do it at my Alma Mater makes it that much more rewarding.”
Skinner said his No. 1 goal coming into the position is to work hard to turn the momentum of the program around.
South Lafourche started 3-2 in girls’ soccer in 2023, but then hit a bump, finishing the season poorly on the way to a 4-12-2 overall record.
Last year’s group was experienced and senior-laden in a lot of spots, but Skinner said he believes the future is bright because the Tarpons have a large group of freshmen coming in who have soccer experience, and there will be future classes coming up in future years who all have experience playing soccer – something that he said is key for success going forward.
“There are a lot of young players being developed in our local youth soccer organization that will be coming into our program over the next 5 years,” he said. “As you know our area always has a lot of talented athletes and it’s time for soccer to start tapping into that potential, but we need to get more kids involved at an early age to be successful long term. I have some plans we are working on to help with that going forward.”
Skinner said he owes a lot of thanks to Terrebonne girls’ soccer coach John Hebert, saying that working with Hebert over the past few seasons has helped teach him about the ins and outs of high school soccer and has prepared him to be a head coach at this level.
Skinner said he’s always wanted to come back and coach at South Lafourche, and he feels the timing is right.
“Coaching back home is what I have always wanted,” he said. “There is a special sense of pride and commitment and responsibility that comes with coaching your alma mater and I am ready for the challenge.”
When asked to list goals for the 2024 season, Skinner said he’s being realistic. He knows that the Tarpons have some catching up to do to get back on par with other power programs in the area.
But Skinner said Year 1 is going to be about laying a foundation, getting the girls in positions to succeed with the expectation that brighter days are coming in the very near future.
“I feel like we have a good strategy on how we will approach this season,” Skinner said. “We will start from the bottom and lay down a proper foundation for our program for the long term. Our main objective will be player development. Our girls will be dedicated, they are going to work hard, and they are going to get better every day fundamentally and technically. Our goals for the upcoming season will be to play competitively, play consistant, and to play our way back into the playoffs.”