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The Purple Knights fell short of winning district and the ultimate goal of winning a state title.
“I only give them two goals”, Valdez confirms. “I’m sorry because some people will say you had a good season but no, it’s ok. We didn’t win district, we didn’t win a state championship so it’s only two goals. I think you can start to dilute things when you start having all this wall art and all of these different things but we’re very specific.”
The Purple Knights’ season ended with a one-point loss to St. Thomas More in the second round of the playoffs.
Valdez admits he was pleased with their fight to the very end, but it was a lesson in needing to finish those types of games, on top.
“Now we have to be able to win those type of games. We lost to Jesuit by a point, lost to St. Thomas More by a point, we lost to Rummel in overtime and we finished the season 7-5. Our record could’ve went a lot prettier if we would fix a couple of mistakes here and there.”
This year, the motto is consistency.
St. Aug returns 15 seniors, and the strength of their team is the offense, which is led by quarterback Vashaun Coulon, who’s entering his second season as the full-time starter.
Valdez considers Coulon the “head coach on the field”.
“We need him to be able to manage and just put us in position to be successful. He doesn’t need to be great. I think we have tremendous skill guys offensively. I think he understands that’s more of his game is to be a manager more than a game-breaker and I think sometimes you have to have those conversations with the quarterback.”
Coulon has the luxury of weapons like Ray’Quan Williams and Miguel Whitley, two top-15 prospects in the state who just received offers from LSU, among other power five programs.
Last season, the duo helped produce an average of 30 points per game.
“We’re about the same person”, says Whitley. “He plays good, he plays fast and that’s just my dog.”
“I’m feeling great about this season”, says Williams. “I feel like we are going to do something this year with everybody on the same page, we’re getting on the same page and we’re getting bigger and we’re working.”
St. Augustine faced adversity head-on, traveling to a practice field every day to key player departures. Now, they enter 2025 with a chip on their shoulder.
“Them being able to handle the adversity of everything that was already in place plus my requirements, and that’s that no one should outwork us.”
St. Aug opens the 2025 regular season on Saturday, September 6th, against McDonogh 35.
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