OAKDALE- With every coaching change, the newly hired coach brings his own influences, philosophy, and brand to the table. That is the case with newly hired head football coach at Oakdale, Destin Dieterich.
His biggest influence came from his own family in the person of his father-in-law Hall of Fame coach Dutton Wall.
Not only is Wall Dieterich’s father-in-law, he is also Dieterich’s former football coach at Welsh.
“There’s probably not a whole lot of coaching decisions I made that he didn’t influence,” said Dieterich. “I know a lot of things I would do differently, but it’s always there where I think what would he think about this decision.”
He continued, “It’s been a huge influence not only on my coaching career but on my whole life being related to him.”
Another influence on Dieterich is current head coach at Notre Dame Louis Cook. Dieterich was an assistant for Cook during his second stint as head coach at Crowley.
“It doesn’t matter who it is,” Dieterich said. “I think everybody that you coach with, even if it’s head coaches or assistants, affect you in some way. You meet so many people with different experiences. You take a lot of little things from a lot of people no matter who you coach with.”
While most of Dieterich’s time coaching has been as a coordinator, he spent three seasons as head coach in Erath.
Before taking the head job in Erath, he spent seven years combined as a coordinator at Lafayette High and St. Martinville.
“I knew during that seven year window I wanted to be a head coach,” he explained. “So, I started preparing and changing my approach from just being a coordinator to where I needed to be more well-rounded. And I needed to learn a lot of other things and how different parts work.”
Dieterich admits his time in Erath did not “work out.” He said, “I knew they hadn’t had a great deal of a winning tradition, so I really didn’t think the expectations were going to be as high as they wound up being.”
Ten years later he is head coach again now at Oakdale. “It feels real good,” he expressed. “It really has become more humbling than anything. So many people through Facebook chimed in, and I realized what kind of influence I’ve had on different people who are not 30 or 35-years-old. It’s very gratifying, and I’m excited.”
Dieterich explained why he thinks he got the job at Oakdale. “I think they saw my experience and a lot of my work ethic, and I think they listened to a lot of what I had to say during the interview process. I think they knew it was going to be a change.”
He is not coming into the job blind as he spent last season as an assistant coach under Randall Gordon.
Dieterich said, “Learning the kids and learning the school were the two biggest things because each place is different. I would say, realistically, it was an advantage.”
Now as head coach of the Warriors, Dieterich will instill his coaching philosophy that is built on fundamentals.
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