GF Media Day 2023 Preview: St. Thomas Aquinas High School (Hammond, LA)

“I want to continue the foundation for the younger people to come, I want them to come into a program that is already built on winning.”

The next Gridiron Football Media preview is on the St. Thomas Aquinas High School led by head coach Shane Mulhern. In the previous season, the St. Thomas Aquinas Falcons went 3-2 in district play and ended up making the playoffs. This season, the Falcons plan on working hard and trying to improve and do better than last season.

Talking to Coach Mulhern, we gained some insight on what his plans are for the upcoming season.

“Your culture and your identity are everything, I think that’s the foundation to which you can build success.”

St. Thomas Aquinas HC Shane Mulhern – When asked about coming to St. Thomas Aquinas

Coach Mulhern comes from a variety of different places as he is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was recently the defensive coordinator at St. Stanislaus in Mississippi. He has been a lot of places including a college stint at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, but he has also enjoyed the city of Hammond.

“Hammond has just been absolutely tremendous to my family and I. To get the opportunity to be in the building at St. Thomas so early in the offseason, they gave me opportunity to be there in January, so I was able to kind of lay some things into place in our off-season training, upgrading our facilities, renovation to our locker room, was able to double the size of our weight room, new uniforms, new helmets.”

St. Thomas Aquinas HC Shane Mulhern – When asked about the community and first offseason with the program

“Hammond really has kind of rallied around the vision that we have for this football program, and they love the school community of STA and my wife and I both and my staff are so proud to represent them in this opportunity.”

St. Thomas Aquinas HC Shane Mulhern – When asked about the community

Immediately, Mulhern wants to establish a winning culture starting with his first year at St. Thomas Aquinas.

“I want to see us test our culture and test everything we’ve done this offseason against some of the best competition in the country which is Louisiana football and I’m excited to see how our kids respond. I can’t wait for them to kind of write their own story with what we’ve tried to teach them and how we’ve tried to show them to represent a successful program on a Friday night.”

St. Thomas Aquinas HC Shane Mulhern – When asked about the upcoming season and vision of the program

We were able to interview some players from the St. Thomas Aquinas. Senior ATH Cace Reed and Junior OL/DL Ryan Jackson talked about how they are getting ready for this upcoming season.

“Having others to rely on me and being able to be in that position is something else and I really like that.”

OL/DL Ryan Jackson – When asked about playing center on the OL.

“Goal is to create a foundation for the years to come with a great season and to make it as far as possible.”

OL/DL Ryan Jackson – When asked about his goals for the upcoming season

Sometimes players will need to play both sides of the ball. Talking with Ryan Jackson and Cace Reed, they both gave us their insight about playing both sides of the ball.

“I can get a point of view on both sides of the ball and DLine helps with mobility.”

OL/DL Ryan Jackson – When asked what he likes about playing DL

“It gives the defense to have to deal with so much stuff they don’t know if I’m going to lineup at running back or quarterback or lineup on the outside, they got to gameplan for a lot of stuff.”

ATH Cace Reed – When asked about being a jack of all trades

“Slot receiver, I enjoy making DBs look silly.”

ATH Cace Reed – When asked about what position he likes the most

Each team and player come into the season with a certain goal that want to accomplish.

“I want to continue the foundation for the younger people to come. I want them to able to come into a program that’s already built on winning.”

ATH Cace Reed – When asked about his goals for the upcoming season

“I love the energy that Coach Mulhern and Coach Warren came in with.”

ATH Cace Reed – When asked about his coaches

The Falcons will kickoff the regular season at home on Friday against Riverside Academy.

That wraps up all of our coverage from Gridiron Football’s Media Day. We appreciate all the schools that came in and participated! To read all of our GF Media Day previews, CLICK HERE!