One day at practice, a Zachary High player asked Johnny Nagle about next season. He got a folksy, yet predictably blunt answer.
“He asked if I was going to be at all the games next year and I told him no,” Nagle recalled. “If I was going to do that, I might as well keep coaching.”
Not many coaches on any level can say their final game is a championship game. But the 73-year-old Nagle can and for that he is thankful.
Sixth-seeded Zachary (12-1) meets top-seeded Ruston (13-0) in the Division I nonselect title game that concludes the LHSAA Prep Classic at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Caesars Superdome.
Win or lose, Nagle’s 48-year football coaching career comes to a close. And he’s OK with that. In the spring, he’ll help coach the Broncos golf team to close his teaching/coaching career with 15 years at Zachary.
“I always had people tell me that you’ll know when it’s time and I did,” Nagle said. “Every morning I get up at 3:30 a.m., fix breakfast, fix my lunch and go off to school.
“I love coaching. But it's time for me to go on and do some other things … like spend time with my sons and my grandson. And travel … I’d like to do that.”
This week is a big one for the Nagle family in multiple ways. Friday night/Saturday Nagle was honored during the Broncos’ semifinal win over Dutchdown. There were hugs exchanged and selfies taken.
Hours later, word came that Tulane coach Willie Fritz was headed to Houston. Nagle’s oldest son, Slade, was named the Green Wave’s interim coach. Slade Nagle has been Tulane’s offensive coordinator.
“That is pretty cool,” Nagle confided, when asked about his older son. “I have no idea what will happen next. I tell my kids when they make a decision on something to let me know. I’m proud of them and support them.”
Now for full disclosure. I made sure to get a selfie with Nagle on Saturday.
Why? Because I first met Nagle in 1981 when I was covering Nicholls State for the Daily Comet. We have several mutual friends, and I know his story pretty well.
Nagle played cornerback at LSU from 1969-71. LSU teammate John McCann, a former coach and well-known school administrator locally, urged Nagle to try coaching.
The late Sonny Jackson hired Nagle as an assistant at Central High and then at Nicholls State, where he stayed five years. That career jump start led to a series of stops as a college assistant coach — at Texas State, McNeese and Northwestern State.
During Johnny Nagle's 13 years at McNeese, Slade Nagle was a star quarterback at Barbe and went on to play at North Carolina. His younger son Austin, now private baseball instructor, was a Barbe baseball star and Louisiana’s Mr. Baseball.
I crossed paths with Nagle over the years since he recruited south Louisiana and Baton Rouge.
Trust me, folksy and politely blunt is something Nagle has done for decades. Years ago, I remember quizzing him about several local players.
His answer, “Good players … we’re not recruiting them. They don’t have the grades or the ACT score. That’s just how it is.”
In 2020, I wrote about Nagle battling cancer through the pandemic. No surprise to me … he won.
Now Nagle looks forward to watching his 11-year-old grandson play baseball in Lake Charles, seeing some Zachary games and whatever comes next.
Congrats coach, you’ve earned it.