By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
NATCHITOCHES – For a third straight season, the Natchitoches Central Chiefs football program has a new head coach and that’s unsettling.
But with Brad Laird in charge, things are settling down fast.
Laird, who was head coach at Northwestern State for the past six seasons, took over this spring after former Class 2A championship coach Jess Curtis, who built a dynasty at Many, bolted to Lafayette’s Southside High. Curtis stayed only one season in Natchitoches after replacing James Wilkerson, now an assistant at reigning Select Division III champion Calvary Baptist.
NCHS finished 2-8 last season under Curtis but was consistently competitive with its Shreveport-Bossier rivals in District 1-5A, losing in the final minutes at Benton and Haughton, and on the last play to Parkway, among other bitter pills.
Laird was 28-18 as head coach at Ruston High from 2013-16. He helped establish the junior high feeder system that has fueled the Bearcats’ return among state powers in the LHSAA’s highest classification, and he hired current Bearcats’ coach Jerrod Baugh from east Texas. Baugh guided Ruston to the Non-Selection Division I state championship last December.
Since NCHS did not stage spring practice as Laird was building his coaching staff, the Chiefs got their preseason camp started a week ahead of most teams. It’s was a week filled with teaching new schemes and a new practice style. So the Chiefs, exactly 100 strong with freshmen through seniors, are already in full pads as they go through their paces this week on J.D. Garrett Field on campus.
“Just now being able to solidify, in the last couple of weeks, our coaching staff, so right now the biggest things we’re doing is 1) playing with great effort but 2) the install,” said Laird.
“Any time a new coaching staff is involved, you’re going to have schematically things that are different. School’s about to start, football season is about to be here, and these guys have shown their excitement with their work ethic.”
Classes start today for freshmen, Thursday for the students in grades 10-12. But for the team, they’ve learned a lot already as they’ve settled in under Laird and his staff.
For the last seven years, Laird has coached at Northwestern, where the roster was filled with players on scholarship and eager walk-ons hoping to earn scholarship money and playing time. Back in the high school ranks, Laird is enjoying a different motivation from the players, some who he’s watched for years since his son Brock is a senior baseball standout at NCHS.
“That’s what’s fun to watch, because they ultimately choose to come out here and be involved,” he said. “To me the biggest satisfaction is to be able to watch these young men from as early as third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade, and then ultimately when they graduate as seniors, to see how far they’ve come on, and off, the field.”
There’s a bigger picture, something he’s always kept in mind every step of the way since he entered coaching after wrapping up his playing days as a record-breaking QB at NSU after the 1995 season.
It’s obvious as the broad smile on his face and the sparkle in his eyes as he moves through the Eugene Christmas Fieldhouse, watching the Chiefs gear up for their evening practice.
“The field is the same, college or high school, just as long and wide. The hash marks are different, the goalposts are wider at this level,” he said. “There’s so much you can learn on a football field, outside of football, and that hasn’t changed. The opportunity to do this in Natchitoches at this level has been fun and I am looking forward to many more days of this.”
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com