JOURNAL SPORTS
Many Shreveport-Bossier teams have lined up against some of the state’s best programs in non-district games this season.
This week’s Shreveport-Bossier Journal Coaches Roundtable question asked head coaches to remember the best teams they’ve ever lined up against, coaching and/or playing.
AUSTIN BROWN, Northwood: “Best team I’ve coached against is no question, 2017 Edna Karr.
“We walked out of the locker room and the players were running the pre-game all by themselves, no coaches directly involved.
“It was disciplined, efficient and I knew we were in trouble right then. We played them well and tough but it was impressive to see such a well-coached team be able to handle something like that with the discipline and maturity that they did.”
RODNEY GUIN, Calvary: “We played the 1990 Ruston team while I was coaching at Haughton. Have never seen a team with that much talent. Led by Brad Laird and Roymon Malcolm, they were loaded at all positions. And having Chick Childress as the coach didn’t hurt.”
(That team finished unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the USA TODAY Top 25, and Malcolm was one of the country’s top recruits, going to Auburn before a knee injury stymied his career.)
COY BROTHERTON, Parkway: “As far as players I’ve coached against, one year we opened the season with Haughton and Dak Prescott and lost in the playoffs to Jesuit and Deion Jones. Both went on to win Rookie of Year in the NFL.”
JOHN SELLA, Loyola: “I remember playing against a really good West Monroe team in 2003 that had linebackers Luke Sanders (LSU) and Mack Dampier (NSU) and a DB that was heavily recruited. They were all good. They didn’t have a weakness.
“Coaching against that 2013 Parkway team that went to state, with Brandon Harris and a lot of good players that played in college – that offense was tough to stop.
“Also, coaching at Loyola I remember running into a U-High team in 2016 in the quarterfinals that had a ton of eventual college players — that was pretty impressive. Christian Harris was a cornerback and went to Alabama to play linebacker, and is in the NFL. The running back, Mike Hollins, went to Virginia. They had a LB/TE who went to Clemson. Ryan Clark’s son was there.
“I think the whole offensive line signed somewhere. They were really good.”
MATTHEW SEWELL, Haughton: “Best teams I’ve played or coached against were when I was playing here in 2011: C.E. Byrd and West Monroe.
“That was West Monroe’s last state championship team. Xavier Woods was on that team. He’s still in the NFL. That was our first year in 5A and we played them at West Monroe in the second round of the playoffs. They beat us 51-19. That was a real ‘welcome to 5A’ moment.
“As good as West Monroe was, Byrd was just as good or better. They played each other in Week 1 and Byrd won. Byrd was 12-0 until they lost in the semifinals.
“We played them in our first District 1-5A game. We came into that game on a 22-game regular season winning streak and they beat us 48-7. And we weren’t even bad. We won a 5A playoff game. They had Richard Carthon, who I still think is the best Byrd quarterback ever. And (current Green Oaks coach) Nick Peoples on defense. They were so loaded. They got a bad draw with Carencro in the semifinals. “
STACY BALLEW, Byrd (defensive coordinator on that awesome 2011 Yellow Jackets team, and the state finalist 2020 squad): “The most impressive team I’ve coached against was Catholic in the 2020 state championship game. They beat the dog out of us.
“In high school football, you usually see your opponent’s best 11 on the field, and they move them from tight end to fullback and they may put a tight end out at wide receiver and put a wide receiver back at tailback, something like that.
“The better the team is, they’ll have different packages. They’ll actually have four wide receivers. They’ll have their fullback package, their tight end package, their tight end and fullback package. So they have all those packages like college teams do. Catholic had about eight different personnel packages with different personnel.
“We draw up scout cards every week so on the practice field, the scout team can line up in a formation we’ll see and run plays out of it like that week’s opponent. I’m trying to mimic Catholic’s offense with all those different packages and personnel. I wrote down every one of their wide receivers, running backs, fullbacks, tight ends, everything. They probably had 15 different skill guys — and they had two quarterbacks. I assigned every one a color. And so when, when I did all the scout cards, I actually colored them in, so for every kid for Catholic, I assigned a color.
“When we ran their scout offense, instead of having 11 kids in the huddle, I had like 21. Before every snap, I had to say, ‘Don, you’re green. John, you’re brown, Rowan, you’re yellow. Every scout team kid would look at the card and if their color was on there, they had knew they were running that play.
“So here’s the funny part. I had to go to the art room because I didn’t have enough colors. Me and the art teacher actually passed the cards around and we colored all these, which took some time.
“I’ve still got that whole book and it’s unreal. I actually used it when I interviewed for the head job, to show them that I was organized.”
KELLY YANCEY, Magnolia: “Three teams I’ve seen stand out immediately, starting with those Neville teams with Will Campbell at tackle. Haynesville, every year, for years and years, just so fundamentally good. Edna Karr when they started their dynasty, and since. Last year’s team that had close to 20 Division I signees was incredible. All those teams had talent, great coaching and great discipline.”
STEPHEN DENNIS, Benton: “The best team I played against was my senior year at Louisiana College. We lost to a Mary Hardin Baylor team that went on to make it all the way to the D3 semifinals in the national playoff bracket.
“That team featured Jerrell Freeman, a linebacker who ended up playing many years in the NFL. That team was by far the most talented team I ever played against.”