Lessons from a State Champion

A Football Thread

This thread is not just about football

Back in 2008 I was the defensive coordinator of a class 4A Louisiana football team

We were fortunate enough to play and win a state championship

Here are 5 lessons I learned on the road to that championship

Lesson 1 - Surround yourself with greatness

In 2008, we had an amazing head coach, the best offensive coordinator in the state, the best player, a great coaching staff, & great speed at nearly every position

I consider myself a good coach but no one wins without a great team

Lesson 2 - Train to beat the best

We knew we had a special team that truly had state championship aspirations so, as a coach, I always reminded the players that we weren’t practicing just to beat our next opponent

We were preparing to beat the best team in the state

That team was Bastrop High School

Bastrop had won four straight state championships and had the number one receiver in the state (LSU commit and future NY Giant) playing QB

All spring, summer, and fall we approached every workout as if we were lining up against the Rams

Lesson 3 - Prepare for worst case scenario

As a defensive coach, my job was to prepare our players for what they’d see that week

I liked to take it a step further by anticipating game plan changes, trick plays, etc

I truly believe we were the smartest defense in the state

Lesson 4 - Overcome adversity

In about the 6th or so game of the season

We faced our district rival, Shaw, and played our worst game of the season

It could not have come at a worse time because Shaw had been to two straight state championships

It was awful

I believe we had 7 turnovers and missed a routine extra point and lost by 1

Defensively we had two takeaways (one for a touchdown) but we came away with the loss, 28-27

The team was devastated

But also refocused

We were blessed to get our revenge in the state championship

We ended up playing the only team we lost to in the last game of the season

I’m happy to report that we had zero turnovers in that game and missed zero extra points

The final score was 28-7 and in the end we hoisted the trophy & handed them their third straight loss in the SC

Lesson 5 - Luck favors the prepared

Over the course of the year, we faced our share of adversity

Ineligible players, injuries, young starters, long travel in the playoffs, etc

I could write a twenty page thread on just the adversity we saw that year

But this one is about luck

A can not tell you how many times the ball “bounced our way” during that season

We had 5 defensive touchdowns that year, averaged 3 takeaways per game, averaged 42 points per game, etc

One prime example was in the semifinal game

We had just given up a touchdown to the Bastrop Rams in a back and forth shootout

The Rams lined up their stud receiver on the left side to throw the fade

We lined up our best player over him and we were sure we’d see a jump ball

We’ll never know who would’ve won the contest

As when the QB went to throw the ball, it slipped out of his hand & we recovered the fumble

That two point conversion attempt failed & we went on to win the game 35-34

Luck favored the team that made the commitment 8 months prior to beat the 4 time state champions

And we did

Players of note that we played and beat that year were Rueben Randle, Tharold Simon, Dak Prescott, Curtis Welch, and many more

I love football because the lessons we learn in the sport, also apply to real life

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