JOURNAL SPORTS
The Shreveport-Bossier Journal Coaches Roundtable is back for Year 5, involving a lot of local high school coaching veterans along with a couple of new leaders who will field weekly questions about strategy, philosophy, great and not-so-great memories, and how they defend their homes from getting rolled on Homecoming week.
The coaches’ insight is refreshing and adds to our understanding of what goes on not just under the lights on game night, but through the season and around the calendar.
The opening question for 2026 focuses on how coaches select the players who walk out for the opening coin toss, and serve as liasons on the field with game officials while playing a major leadership role within the team.
We asked, “Coach, how do you determine who your captains are? Is it a game-by-game honor, a season-long duty, and are there any criteria involved?”
Justin Scogin, Airline: “We always do the seniors and break them up in twos between offense and defense. Usually after all the seniors have had an opportunity to walk out and be a captain, we pick a certain few for the remaining games and the playoffs. Our main criterion is they have to be a senior. Those guys have been in our program and represent it well.”
LaVelle Wilson, Woodlawn: “My seniors are captains, different seniors for different games. The main criteria is just leading by example every day — and being consistent.”
Coy Brotherton, Parkway: “We as coaches choose 4-6 leaders to be captains for the year. This year we chose defensive end Rod Johnson, running back Braxxton Black, offensive tackle Thomas Staton, wide receiver Gary Burney. This year our fifth captain was actually a non-senior in junior safety Dallas Loche.
“Those are year-long captains but we also have four game captains each week. For that we pick a year-long captain, rotate a senior, and choose the offensive and defensive players of the game from the week before. “
Gary Cooper, Booker T. Washington: “I try to give all my seniors opportunities to do things such as interviews, media days, etc,, so I will rotate captains per game. It’s those guys’ last year of high school football so I want them all to experience as much as possible. These experiences will be long-lasting memories for them. They will be selected numerically, four at a time. “
John Sella, Loyola: “We don’t have set team captains during the season. Each senior gets a turn to go out there for the coin toss as a captain before the game and then at the end of the season the players vote on 3-4 permanent team captains for life.”
MATTHEW SEWELL, Haughton: “We vote on captains at the beginning of fall camp every year. We always let the players vote. Doesn’t have to be a senior. They can vote for anyone. For the most part, they always get it right.
“We’ve made a tradition of announcing them at the end of community night each year and it’s always a cool moment. We have six this season:
Quarterback Taylor Weathersby, wide receiver Ethan Johnso, offensive lineman Jaden Keith, defensive lineman Sage Kinney, linebacker Isaac Jennings and defensive back Kyron Turner.”