Catholic High New Iberia’s Brent Indest To Retire After 30 Years

When you choose a profession, it's difficult to decide to change course in your life especially after you've been doing that one thing for so long while having so much success as well.

However, that's exactly what Catholic High of New Iberia's head football coach has decided to do on Wednesday as he announced his retirement from high school football coaching after 30 years.

What's coach pursuing outside of football? He says he plans to pursue various business ventures.

According to Eric Narcisse of the Daily Advertiser Indest had this to say regarding his decision. "When I first got into coaching, I never imagined ever getting out," Indest said. "There is never a good time to do this, but as early as August I really began looking at the possibility. That drove me this season to get every inch out of it."

Get every inch out of it he did, he led the Panthers to a 9-3 record this past season while beating the Notre Dame Pios in the Division III State Playoffs before falling in the semifinals.

Indest won his lone State Title as Panthers head man in 2017, again slaying the Notre Dame dragon to upset the Pios in that one as well.

He was also named the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Coach of Year three times in seven years.

"It has been a great seven-year run here at Catholic High," Indest said. "This place is different and that's because it is home. I've always said Catholic High would be my last coaching job and I meant it. I have no interest in coaching anywhere else."

Before Catholic High Indest spent 23 seasons at various schools serving as the head coach including Abbeville (1996-2003 went 60-34), Crowley (2004-06 went 22-11), Kaplan (2008-09 went 14-7), and Carencro (2010-12 went 26-11). While at Catholic-N.I. he finished with a record of 72-13 and has a career record of 191-82.

Here is Brent Indests' official statement on his retirement:

"As of (Wednesday) I am officially retired from the coaching profession. The last 30 years (23 as head coach) have been a truly wonderful, humbling and memorable experience. The relationships I developed with players and coaches will be something that I cherish forever."

He would go onto say, "I have been afforded an opportunity with an area-based business and although I just turned 53 years old, I still feel that this old dog can learn some new tricks. I look forward to being able to spend fall weekends with family and friends as a spectator and fan of the game."

It was one helluva run and he was one of my favorite coaches to cover and interview, I wish him nothing but the best as he begins a new chapter in his life. Congrats on a great career coach.