A coaching legend in the State of Louisiana who graced the sidelines of Soileau-Landry Field has passed away due to complications from cancer at the age of 78.
Dutton Wall, the native of Amite, first came to Ville Platte in 1962. He joined the coaching staff of one of his former coaches, Tony Misita, at Ville Platte High School. After four years on the job, he moved on to his first stint at Welsh.
A year later, he returned to Ville Platte High as an assistant under head coach Max Hamlin. Coach Wall then received his masters’ degree from Ole Miss before making a few other stops on his coaching carousel. He coached at Lutcher and Port Sulphur before returning to Welsh as head coach of the Greyhounds.
With 40 years of coaching in the public school system to his name, Coach Wall retired. Then came a call from Sacred Heart head coach Keith Menard came for Wall to be the Trojans’ defensive coordinator. He was then tabbed to replace Coach Menard as head coach.
“We hired Coach Wall when he left Welsh, and he was moving back to Ville Platte,” said Coach Menard. “It was great for me. I had been coaching for a while, and it was good to get a guy who had been coaching longer and had just the great success that he had. For me to be able to pick his brain and really just use him not only as a defensive coordinator but as a guy who has been a head coach as long as he was just helped me along the way.”
Coach Menard then shared a story about Coach Wall as his defensive coordinator. “His first year with me, we go to Church Point, and we probably threw like 40 passes that night. The game lasted until almost 10:00. He was like, ‘Keith, we didn’t throw 40 passes all last year at Welsh.’”
Back in August, Coach Wall told The Gazette, “Being an assistant coach at Sacred Heart was a nice job, especially since I did not have the responsibility of teaching,” he said. “I would go fishing or whatever and then show up for practice. But, after Keith (Menard) left, I felt it was a good place to be.”
Playing for Coach Wall at Sacred Heart was Derek Fontenot. “Playing for Coach Wall was both an honor and a privilege,” he said. “The value of having him as a coach went much deeper than football. We all learned a lot of football, but I think I speak for everyone when I say he was also a father figure to us. I can’t imagine how many lives he has touched on and off the field.”
“As a young adult, I often reflect on the type of man, husband, and father I want to be,” Fontenot continued. “I look at the select group of men that have influenced me and who I aspire to be like. Coach Wall is one of those men. I’m a better person today for having played football for him, and the Sacred Heart and Ville Platte communities are a better place for having him be a part of it.”
Coach Menard also shared what the loss of Coach Wall meant to him. “That’s a big loss for the community, a big loss for the Ville Platte community, and of course a even greater loss for his family,” he said. “I know his son, Jeptha, real well, and I met his daughter. I know it’s going to be tough for them.”
After his coaching career was over, Coach Wall was inducted into the LHSAA Hall of Fame in 2014 with an overall record of 247 wins, 160 losses and two ties under his belt including 14 district championships and three state runner-ups. He was also a three-time Coach of the Year along with being a successful track and field coach, garnering 11 district championships and one state runner-up title in 1994.
Back in 2014, Coach Wall told The Times Picayune, “The most rewarding thing about being a coach is the admiration you get from the kids and the community, the respect that you get and the relationship you have with the children. One of the most notable positions is a coach, and to have been selected by my peers is an honor. I know it means a great deal to me, but also to my family for the sacrifices they have made so that I’ll be happy and will be able to work. Sometimes I feel selfish for all the time I spent, but it was doing something I love.”
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TONY MARKS