Hall-of-fame coach hired to lead Chipmunks’ rise

by Ron Brocato

By Ron Brocato, Sports
Clarion Herald

For the past decade, Louisiana Division I high school volleyball has been dominated by just two schools: Dominican and Mount Carmel of District 8-I.

Under the leadership of head coach Jessica Chatellier, Dominican enters the season as a four-time state champion.

But prior to the 2020 season, Mount Carmel, coached by now-athletic director April Hagadone, won six straight D-I championships.

The last school not named Dominican or Mount Carmel to win at the state level was St. Joseph’s Academy of Baton Rouge in 2013.

But another 8-I school, tired of being an unheralded stepsister to the reigning champion, wants to change that conversation: Archbishop Chapelle.

And its AD, Dale LaCour, has brought in hall-of-fame coach Jodee Pulizzano to change the narrative.

Over a 32-year career as the volleyball coach at Ben Franklin High School, Pulizzano has accrued 984 coaching victories to go with her teams’ six Division II state championships between 1993 and 2003. And by leading the Falcons to 22 district championships and ultimate success at the state level, she was recently inducted into the Louisiana Volleyball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame.

Today she is wearing Chipmunks green. And that’s the only color she thinks about.
Asked about the dominance of her team’s superior district opponents, Pulizzano said she has a simple goal and knows how to achieve it.

“My game plan is that I’m not worried about those two schools,” she said. “My concern is about Chapelle and to give the kids confidence and make them better players and better people. And I think that if you take care of things in-house and trust the process, all that other stuff (wins on the court) will come.”

LaCour is confident his school’s newest head coach will place volleyball on the level attained by the school’s state championship softball team to end the 2023-24 school year and the bowling program that also has a state title (2021).

“We hired a hall-of-fame coach because the players want to come here to win district,” LaCour said. “Six years ago, if you would have said we were going to win a softball championship, people would have laughed because we won only seven games. But it doesn’t take much to be successful – a couple of players and a good coach, and you can make a run. We’ve done it in softball and bowling, and there’s no reason why volleyball can’t do it, too. That’s what Jodee’s here for.”

An outspoken advocate

A fixture in the high school volleyball community, well- respected by her coaching peers, Pulizzano has been an advocate of girls’ athletics and outspoken about improving teachers’ working conditions during her years in the Orleans Parish Public School system.

That possibly led to her departure from Ben Franklin after more than three decades of teaching. That is of little concern to the administration and athletic department of Chapelle.

“I’ve known Jodee since 1995 when she was coaching the New Orleans Express (club team) with my wife,” LaCour said. “All three of my daughters played for her. Her father and I go to the Stations of the Cross together, and one of her nieces plays with my daughter on her club team.

“When she became available and we made the decision to move volleyball in a different direction, our principal told me to put together a list of candidates. And when I saw that Jodee was available, that list was cut short,” LaCour said.

A physical education teacher who prepped at Lutheran High and made the University of New Orleans volleyball team as a walk-on, Pulizzano received her first coaching job offer from Redeemer-Seton. But she didn’t take it. Instead, she interviewed at Ben Franklin.

“I interviewed with parents at Ben Franklin but was hesitant to take the job,” she said. “I told my mother that I didn’t want to go to a school that wasn’t known for athletics. I wanted to coach and win. My mother told me, ‘Jodee, what you do with it is what matters; just make the most of your situation and don’t worry about anyone else.’”

The Ben Franklin parents were not in the market for a coach to lead them to the top of their sport. They just wanted their children to be happy playing sports. They didn’t realize that within three years, Pulizzano would lead the school to its first state championship.

Built from ground up

“I was 21 years old, a baby, in a school you could not recruit for because not every athlete can pass the classes at Ben Franklin,” she said. “You just have to take the kids you get, and hopefully they want to invest the time and commitment. Volleyball is a smart sport, so even though the athletes may not be the best, they had the IQ that enabled them to get better. They understood the game and did the things to help themselves improve.”

In an archdiocesan school like Chapelle, Pulizzano will have that same quality of student-athlete with which to mold a winning program.

“Our volleyball program has advanced to the state quarterfinals in the last three years,” LaCour pointed out. “When you win 20 games and finish in the top eight in the state, that’s a pretty good athletic program.”

And he feels that Pulizzano’s ability to help student-athletes improve will heighten the standards of competition he and the Chipmunks are looking for.

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