RESERVE — What a whirlwind few months it has been for Chris Lachney.

In the space of just a few weeks, the Slidell native’s life changed completely.

In December, he helped the Riverside Academy football team win its first Louisiana High School Athletic Association state title.

Just days later, he was named the team’s head coach, replacing Bill Stubbs who announced his retirement.

As if that weren’t enough excitement, he got married, taking fellow Riverside Academy teacher and assistant softball coach Tori Sheppard as his bride on Jan. 12.

He absolutely refused to rank the three in importance.

“The funniest part of that whole whirlwind of a month is, in the last month, everybody that I meet, everybody that I talk to congratulates me,” Lachney said.
“And I don’t know what they’re congratulating me for. I just say ‘thank you.’ Whichever one they mean, I appreciate.”

It’s all good, he quickly added.

Neither knew the other before coming to Riverside.

Lachney arrived in 2012 to be Stubbs’ defensive coordinator. He had been the head football coach at Pope John Paul II, and even coached Stubbs’ youngest son there after Hurricane Katrina wiped out Salmen. He later was an assistant coach at Brother Martin.

When Stubbs was lured out of retirement to coach the Rebels in 2012, he pulled in Lachney.

Sheppard (she is now legally Lachney, but will be referred to as Sheppard in this story) is originally from Houston and earned a scholarship to play softball at Southeastern Louisiana University. She came to Riverside in 2015 to be the marketing director and assist with the girls softball team.

She also taught physical education to the younger students.

It wasn’t exactly love at first sight, although Lachney was rather impressed with the way Sheppard managed to round up the little kids .

Sheppard said she respected Lachney’s coaching style.

“He just loves what he’s doing,” she said.

As they both taught P.E. classes in the gymnasium, their paths would occasionally cross.

“Obviously, I interacted with her,” Lachney said.

“Not for a long time,” added Sheppard.

In fact, other teachers saw the spark well before they did.

“After the fact, teachers were telling us, ‘Y’all liked each other way before y’all knew it,’” Sheppard said.

One day Stubbs called Lachney into his office and shut the door.

“In five years he never sat me down,” Lachney said. “I didn’t know what was going on. He asked me what was going on with her. I said, ‘Nothing, Coach. Nothing’s going on.’”

To which Stubbs replied, “Well then you’re stupid.”

“That kind of knocked some sense in me,” Lachney said.

Last spring, Lachney popped the question during a weekend trip to L’Auberge Casino and Resort in Lake Charles. He had planned to do it in Sulphur, splitting the difference between his family in Slidell and her family in Houston so they could all be there.

It was supposed to coincide with the Lady Rebels’ trip to the annual State Tournament in Sulphur, but the team fell short of that goal.

“That was the plan until we got knocked out of the second round of the playoffs last year,” he said.

Sheppard said she did everything to thwart his plan.

“I didn’t want to be anywhere near Sulphur that weekend,” she said. “I was fighting him the entire time.”

Fortunately for both of them, it all worked out.

Then the couple planned a destination wedding aboard a cruise ship, picking a date in between the two seasons.

Now Lachney is getting ready for spring football in preparation for his first season as head coach of the Rebels.

Sheppard is about to ramp up her third season coaching the softball team. Her season begins Feb. 21.

“It’s always football season at our house,” Sheppard said.

Lachney said having a fellow teacher and coach for a wife helps him tremendously.

“She takes care of my players better than I ever could and vice versa,” he said. “I can talk to her players better than she can. That’s just how it works. Apart from just being an amusing anecdote, it really helps you. At least it helps me. She’ll have a conversation with a player where that player can’t come talk to me but will go talk to her. She can bring it to me in such a way that I’ll react a little differently.”