Pat Lambert, a Slidell resident, is the new head football coach at Archbishop Hannan.

Lambert, 57, brings a strong coaching background to the Hawks’ program. He has held three previous head coaching jobs so he is no stranger to the ranks. He was the head coach at Frederick High School in Monroe (1975) and served as the Slidell Tigers’ head coach in 1982 before transferring to Northshore High taking over the Panthers’ program for four seasons.

Lambert talked about taking over the reigns of the Hawks.

PAT LAMBERT

“I’m very excited to be a head coach again and I’m excited about the season. Archbishop Hannan has great kids and a great facility so I get a chance to start something new and it should be a lot of fun,” Lambert said.

“It’s a tremendous school with fantastic people. Father Charles (Latour) is doing a wonderful job in the short time he has been here. He understands the importance of athletics. He knows they are students, but he also knows that they are going to be student-athletes with numerous responsibilities,” Lambert added.

Last yea,r Lambert was an assistant coach at Varnado High School and the year before was actually on the Hawks’ staff. Prior to that, he served 10 seasons as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator with the Covington Lions.

The Hawks have 44 players on this year’s roster including just six seniors who will have to provide the leadership both on and off the field.

“The players are working hard trying to improve. The more they learn the better we will be,” Lambert said.

The Hawks turned in a couple of solid defensive performances in last Friday’s False River Jamboree. The Hawks blanked the host False River Gators 7-0 and followed up with an identical 7-0 victory over Ascension Episcopal. The Hawks open their season Saturday hosting the Class 2A Northlake Christian School Wolverines at 4 o’clock. The game is being played at Lakeshore High.

Lambert said he is looking forward to the season and has a great group of coaches on the Hawks’ staff.

“All of them are actually volunteer coaches, which makes it nice for me. They are dedicated hard working coaches,” Lambert said.

Bobby Scelfo will serve as the Hawks’ defensive coordinator. Jimmy Holden who worked with Lambert at CHS will be coaching the offensive line.

Gary and Boomer Nunez return to the staff. Gary is working with the Hawks’ d-line and linebackers, while Boomer coaches the running backs.

Sean Zeigler, the father of freshman starting quarterback Korey Zeigler, will head up football operations and deal with the media for the Hawks.

“Sean is a great guy with the paperwork. He definitely keeps me straight. He’s a guy I can count on when I need almost anything done. He will handle doing stats for us,” Lambert said.

Reuben Dykes, who played defensive back at Covington High when Lambert was coaching there, will serve as the Hawks’ spiritual leader. Dykes is currently attending St. Joseph’s Abbey in Covington and is in training to join the priesthood.

Lambert said his Hawks will be running an option offense and will incorporate some four-wide stuff to spread the field.

“Our philosophy with a small roster is that everyone will learn two positions, one on offense and one on defense to hopefully take care of some of our depth factor. I know a lot of players like to specialize these days, but we are going to be a little old school here and get them to learn two positions. Players get injured and others need a break occasionally so we’ll need somebody else will be able to step in,” Lambert said.

“Some of our guys on offense will have to learn two or three positions and it will be the same on defense. We plan on moving players around and want to try to get the best combinations so we don’t get caught short in the middle of a game when people go down,” Lambert said.

Lambert said it would be important for his players to reach peak conditioning and be able to hydrate themselves.

The Hawks are going to base out of a 4-3 defense.

Lambert graduated from St. Paul’s School in 1970. He played running back and defensive back in high school. He talked about learning from the best as he played for Gene Bennett (deceased) at St. Paul’s and Corky Jacob.

“I learned an awful lot from coach Bennett and coach Jacob. That’s why I am still in this profession and I want to continue to coach and influence my players,” Lambert said.

Lambert was a walk-on wide receiver and a kicker while attending Northeast Louisiana University, which is now the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He graduated from Northeast in 1974 with a BA in social studies and physical education. He is teaching physical education.