New season is special one for Benton assistant coach, son
Scott Carroway is entering his 19th year as an assistant football coach at Benton High.
While a new season may not spark the same measure of excitement it did in his early days as a coach, he still can’t wait for it to get started.
“Football is a passion,” Carroway said. “I don’t know about as fired up as we used to be, but I do get excited every year about this time.”
Benton hosts Sterlington in its opener Friday night, but the 2014 season actually gets underway Thursday night. Parkway visits Calvary Baptist in a highly-anticipated opener, and Plain Dealing faces Green Oaks at Northwood Stadium.
In other Friday openers, Airline and Bossier face off at Bossier’s Memorial Stadium and Haughton hosts Woodlawn.
This season will be a special one for Carroway, who is the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. It’s the final one he’ll be able to coach his son, Gage, a senior linebacker.
“It’s been pretty special, you know,” said Carroway, who spent three years as an assistant principal at Benton from 2005 to 2008 before returning to coaching for the 2008-09 school year.
“It’s been the best thing I’ve ever been associated with. It’s the reason I got back into coaching from administration for the opportunity to coach my son. You only get one chance to do that. There’s going to be many opportunities to be an administrator at different places, but you only get one chance to coach your kid, and it’s been good.”
Gage Carroway was an All-Parish selection last season and has been a contributor on the defense since his sophomore season. He’s not the only coach’s son starting on defense, either. Shane Cram, son of assistant Tim Cram, is a junior defensive back.
“It’s pretty tough at times,” Gage Carroway said. “But our dads do a pretty good job of treating us like the other players, if not worse, to make a statement for the team. We don’t get any special treatment, I’ll tell you that.”
Like his dad, Gage is ready to get the season started.
“I’m very excited — finally hitting somebody in another jersey,” he said. “Hitting your teammate gets old after awhile. And we’re just pretty pumped up to show people what we can do.”
Scott Carroway said he and his son don’t talk much high school football at home other than setting aside about an hour and a half on Sundays to watch game film and discuss the schedule for the upcoming week.
“I made the decision a long time ago once we left the school we weren’t going to talk about it much at the house,” he said. “It makes it bearable for him. I could talk about it all the time but I’m sure he wouldn’t want to.”
Plain Dealing also has a son playing for his father. Sophomore defensive back/receiver Keldrick Carper is the son of assistant coach John Johnson.
Carper was a major contributor to the team as a freshman, and Plain Dealing head coach Coy Brotherton expects big things from him this year.
Brotherton is eager to see what’s in store for all of his players, and it starts Thursday night.
“We are excited for the season,” said Brotherton, who enters his fourth year at the helm. “It makes school go by better here in the beginning and everything else. In the past, and other coaches will tell you too, you’re just kind of looking to see how you’ve progressed from the spring and from the summer. That’s kind of the big thing we’re looking at. We’re in a little different situation. We do have some starters coming back. It’s not if our players can play, it’s how much better have they gotten.”
