Holden is Berwick's new football coach

Berwick High School has a new football coach who comes to the school with some impressive credentials.

Eric Holden, who was announced as the school’s new football coach at Thursday’s St. Mary Parish School Board meeting, has held the position since April 1.

During his football career, he has made stops at Christian Life Academy where he helped lead the team to a Class 1A state runner-up finish in 2008. He also spent time at Louisiana football power Evangel Christian Academy and was the defensive coordinator for Southern Lab’s Division IV state runner-up team in 2014.

He spent this past fall as defensive coordinator at Port Allen, following ex-Southern Lab head football coach Nick Mitchell to the suburban Baton Rouge community.

In taking the Berwick job, Holden said he wanted to get back to a smaller environment, noting memories from Lake Charles where he is originally from.

“The whole city would shut down (on game night), and they would paint the storefront windows with whatever mascot (in their town). … That was something as a young child that I just loved, and so the opportunity to come to Berwick kind of fulfilled that dream of wanting to be in that environment,” Holden said.

During his time at Christian Life, Holden served as offensive coordinator and defensive back coach. He also served as head coach during the 2005 season when Hurricane Katrina struck south Louisiana. He was the defensive backs coach at Evangel and was the defensive coordinator at Southern Lab. He also coached at Tara High during his career and spent time in the military.

In his newest position, Holden takes over a program that has been coached the past five years by Craig Brodie. Brodie announced in early February that he was relinquishing his post as head football coach and would retire at the end of the school year.

Brodie will remain as athletic director until the end of the school year before Holden takes over that position, Holden said. Holden also will teach physical education at Berwick.

In his five seasons at Berwick, Brodie compiled an 8-41 record and nearly made the postseason this year for the first time since 1996, but fell to North Vermilion in a must-win finale. The Panthers concluded the 2015 season with a 3-7 mark.

Holden said things have been great thus far in his short time at the school.

“The kids have been great,” he said. “The parents have been great. The administration’s been great, and I think the infrastructure that coach Brodie has put in place here is incredible. I think he’s a great coach. He’s a great man.”

Holden said Brodie has helped him with the transition.

“I love the guy,” Holden said. “He’s a great coach.”

As for where he started in his new position, Holden said, “I guess the first thing we started with is making sure we had a healthy understanding of who we are, and then moving forward from there.”

Regarding his philosophies, Holden said the Panthers will run a spread offense.

“We’ll spread the field, and we’ll run and pass when it’s necessary,” he said. “We’re going to be balanced. Won’t see a lot of tight end sets, but at times when we have to do it, we’ll do it.”

On defense, Holden said the Panthers will be multiple.

“Needs will dictate what we do,” he said. “There will be a system in place on both sides of the ball, so that we understand what we’re doing (and) where we’re going.”

Holden also inherits a talented group that includes three years’ worth of junior high parish championship players.

“We do have a bunch of talented kids,” he said. “They’re young. They definitely are talented. A lot of them are still in baseball, so I really haven’t had an opportunity to sit down and evaluate every one of them, but I’m looking forward to it.”

The Panthers will start spring practice May 2 and will have an intrasquad spring game.