Franklinton High school and principal Shane Smith have announced their new football coach after Coach Guy Lecompte left FHS to retire from education.
Dominic "Nick" Saltaformaggio has been selected as the next head football coach for the Demons, pending school board approval.
Last Thursday “Coach LeCompte informed the team of his decision to retire from education,” Smith said. “We wish him and his family the best in retirement. FHS appreciates the time he invested into our program. He and the coaching staff are to be commended for reestablishing many of the principles of success within our program. “ Coach Lecompte led the Demons to a 5-6 record and qualified for the Non Select Division II playoffs as the 20 seed where they fell 35-28 to Cecilia, a game the Demons held a lead in the fourth quarter. The Demons improved considerably in important areas and scored more points than they allowed for the first time since 2015.
The Demons’ choice as the new head football coach, Coach "Salt" as he is generally referred to, graduated from Holy Cross school before graduating from LSU. He began his football career as an assistant coach at Higgins High School before being named head coach at Abbeville. He was the head coach at Chalmette in 2004 going 10-2 before Hurricane Katrina forced him to relocate to Georgia.
In 2008 Coach Salt returned to New Orleans to take the head job at East Jefferson and won a Class 4A state championship there in 2013 over Karr. In 2014 he took the open Hahnville job and stayed for six seasons, amassing a 55-23 record, a Class 5A runner-up title in 2017 and playoff appearances in all of his six seasons there. In 2020 he answered the call to his alma mater, Holy Cross, and coached there for the last three seasons.
FHS principal Shane Smith, who led the Demons to a state championship in 2010 as head football coach and a runner-up spot in 2009, spoke highly of the new Demons football coach. "He is a proven winner. He is passionate about students, education and football. The job he did with East Jefferson we witnessed first hand. He then competed for a championship at Hahnville in 5A four years later. The development of student athletes is important to him. He is ready to immerse himself into the Franklinton community."
Saltaformaggio will be the first football coach at Franklinton who has a state title on his resume as head coach before being hired at Franklinton. He will be the 26th head football coach at FHS.
Saltaformaggio commented, ""There are ten or twelve jobs in the state where everyone understands how important it is, from the administration to the assistants to the community and fans, to work hard and do things the proper way. When I was at East Jefferson we used to go up against Franklinton and we admired what they were doing. We go to know Shane and became friends and this lead us to a place where we could not be prouder to be at. The quality of players are in the locker room. There may not be the quantity, the numbers aren't where we would like them but the culture has been reestablished in the program. We will probably do things a little differently offensively with a little more RPO and more of a 3-4 defense instead of the 3-3-5. When you have an administration and assistants in place that is great, but we aren't here to reinvent the wheel. We have the opportunity to be a special team next season, this is not a rebuild."
