by Lee Brecheen
March 16, 2010 - I love going up to Ruston and Grambling Louisiana, seems like every time I go, you can hear, see, and almost smell football in the air. The excitement, and passion for football in these parts are second to none. The history among these parts is second to none. This is the area of the state, that has the late great Eddie Robinson at Grambling, the Great Terry Bradshaw played QB at Louisiana Tech, the Great QB Bert Jones once upon a time played for Ruston high school, and NFL Hall of famer Fred Dean as well. I will share my travel experiences, with you for the schools I went to, Ruston high school, Cedar Creek high school, Grambling high school, Grambling College, and Louisiana Tech College.
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| Coach Billy Laird - Ruston |
I had a blast hanging out with long time coach and head coach of Ruston high school Billy Laird. When you hang out with Billy, you learn really fast. This man has been around football for more than 30 years, and loves every bit
of it. I have a lot of respect for coach for the love he has for the kids that he coaches, and was very helpful to me in getting pictures of the kids and talking to his players. When you look at the walls you see the Fred Deans, Bert Jones, Kyle Williams, and many more that have played at Ruston High school over the years. I found out that coach Laird coached QB Bobby Hebert at Northwestern State back in the day. Billy also helped run camps for Northwestern State, when he was coach, and famous players like Joe Ferguson QB , and Terry Bradshaw would come by to help back in the 1980”s, when these great QB’s where still playing NFL ball.
Grambling high school which is located on the campus of Grambling College, did not have a head coach, when I went to the school but principal Williams, who coached back in the great championship days at Ruston high school under the great legend coach Chick Childress, who is one of Louisiana’s all time greats. Coach Williams was able to help me get the kids out of class to take pictures, and I enjoyed talking to him about the old days, when he was in coaching. Williams coached at Ruston high school and coached Rodney Young, the late Roymon Malcolm, Bobby Williams, and Charles Green, who all signed DIV 1 scholarships off one team, but get this all four played Running back and rotated. Ladies and gentleman to me this Ruston team, was the most talented backfield I’ve ever seen from one team ever. Young was 6-2, 210 played for LSU, Malcolm was 6-3, 205, played for Auburn, Green was 6-3, 190, played for Nebraska, and Bobby Williams was 6-1, 225, and played for LSU. Grambling high school is short on numbers, but theirs plenty of team speed to be competitive, when a coach is named soon.
Grambling College has a head coach by the name of Rod Broadway, who has won a few Championships in a short time for Grambling. I enjoyed talking to coach about the talent in the state, and his days at Duke and Florida Gators under Steve Spurrier, who coach Broadway coached with for over 12 years combined. I meet many of the players who I knew from Louisiana and some not from Louisiana. I enjoyed talking to the players and coaches, and taking pictures of the returning letterman for Grambling. Theirs some really good talent back for Grambling, and I think they will be the team to beat again in the SWAC. The key is the offensive line has to really improve from a depth standpoint, and from a point of replacing 3 really good starters from 2009 season. A lot of people don’t realize this, but coach Broadway recruited Louisiana for Florida, and was the defensive line coach for Steve Spurriers National Championship team, which had Louisiana native Ike Hilliard , and QB Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerrfull. Broadway coached at Florida from 1995 to 2001.
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| Coach Sonny Dykes - LA Tech |
Louisiana Tech has a new head coach in Sonny Dykes, who I enjoyed meeting with, and learned some really amazing things. I knew his dad was the former head coach of Texas Tech , but what I did not know was NFL great Wide Receiver Wes Welker, who played at Texas Tech, walked on a day after signing day, because a big recruit backed out of a scholarship, which allowed Welker to walk on, not a scholarship ,but to just get a opportunity to play football. Wes was about 5-8, 160 out of high school. I thought that was a amazing story by coach Dykes who recruited Wes to play at Texas Tech. Sonny came over from the PAC 10 Arizona Wildcats, who had their best season in many years. I like Dykes approach; he’s laid back and seems very comfortable in his new job, and you can tell he knows what he’s doing.
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| Coach Corweyn Aldredge - Cedar Creek |
The head coach, Corweyn Aldredge, at Cedar Creek high school has big time passion for high school football, and was a great host when I went to the school. This former MISS State Bulldog, in his day was one heck of a Tight End in the SEC. He now teaches young men how to play the game. His son might be the best player on the whole Northwestern State college football team. He’s Justin Aldredge, who stands 6-0, weighs 225 and runs in the low 4.5 forty. Justin plays H Back for Northwestern State, and sometimes lines up as an athletic Tight end, like a Shannon Sharpe, who once did that for the Denver Broncos. Coach Aldredge has some really good talent coming back to compete for 2010 at the skill positions. OG/DT Josh Cox (6-3, 285) is a big time sleeper for them as well. What’s amazing about this family is the head coach is a former College star, and so is his son, but the coaches daughter is the national leader in the Javelin with a national best 158 feet throw going into the 2010 season in track. This kid is committed to the Texas A&M track team for next year. I had a chance to meet her, and she can’t be more than 5-2 or 5-3 and maybe 115 pounds. This is a big time athletic family, I don’t know of many families outside of the Booty’s from Shreveport, and the Manning’s in New Orleans that have this much God given talent.
Again I wasn’t able to make all schools in one day, but will finish that another time. I have to tell this to the readers, to appreciate football in North Louisiana, you have to go see it to believe it, every time I go see it, I'm more and more a believer every time I go up and meet the great players and coaches in North Louisiana.
In my next Story I will talk about my trip to Northwestern State College.
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