By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Curtis Goodwin understands the yearly challenge he faces as the head coach of the I.A. Lewis Rams.
Being a school with only sixth grade students, he’ll always start with an entirely new roster of kids — a vast majority of which had never played any form of organized football before they walk onto campus.
“I get to start with ground zero,” Goodwin said. “We literally start with the line of scrimmage — it was the first thing I taught the kids. We initial it “L.O.S.” The defense goes on this side of the ball and the offense is on this side of the ball. And you can’t move until the ball moves.”
Hired in July of 2023, Goodwin just wrapped up his second season on the sidelines leading I.A. Lewis as the brick and mortar foundation for an historic state championship program in the Ruston High School Bearcats. And it’s these fundamentals — the basic building blocks of the game — that is the main focus, year in and year out, for the sixth grade students.
Of course, it’s a job Goodwin loves, along with his assistants Xavier Brewster, Dutch Russell, Chris Pleasant and Ryan Wills. He absolutely lights up when he gets to talk about his role within the bigger picture of the success of the Bearcats. And it starts with uniting kids that have come from different elementary schools in town: Cypress Springs, Ruston Elementary, and A. E. Phillips — schools he had the chance to go to and pitch football for the first time this spring to incoming sixth graders.
“You could see divisions early on with the kids,” Goodwin said. “We broke that up pretty quickly, as much as we could. I had them all sit together, and we talked about a team concept from day one. They’re going to be a unit, and I instilled in them that they’re not just a unit this year. They’ve got seven years — six more after this one, and you’re going to be brothers. That’s really important for them to understand.”
Ruston High School head coach Jerrod Baugh understands how important Goodwin’s role is to his program’s success. In fact, he’s known Goodwin since his playing days at Ouachita — Baugh was an assistant for the Lions at the time — and brought Goodwin over to Ruston’s program back in 2015.
“I always say this, and people probably don’t believe me, but the coaches at I.A. Lewis and Ruston Junior High are way more important than I am to the success of this football team,” Baugh said. “Their idea about how they feel about sports is formed when you start coaching them. Sure, some play little league, but that’s outside of the school realm. Kids and parents develop their idea about your program and how you’ll develop their kids. And if it’s a bad experience early, then that’s how they feel about the whole thing, and they may not continue to play.
“More importantly, we want the kids to have a good experience and try to develop them mentally and physically to be able to handle things we’re doing (at Ruston High). Curtis and (RJHS head coach Hilton Hay) know that. They know what my expectations for the kids are, and they know what standard they need to be held to.”
Oftentimes, these standards that Goodwin teaches are not football specific: it’s life lessons and mantras — taking care of little things, being responsible for yourself, and getting classwork done on time.
“We want things they can focus on in football but then apply in life, as well,” Goodwin said. “It’s really elevated their maturity leave, and I’m really excited about that. They start being conscious that they’re not just a little kid anymore. That growth is huge, and I’m really happy with that.”
Throughout the summer and fall, Goodwin and Baugh are intentional about finding ways for the Ramcats to feel like they’re part of Bearcat family.
“We like for them to come to (Hoss Garrett Stadium) as much as possible,” Baugh said. “We want to have at least one ballgame a year in our stadium. And we have a junior high recognition night where we bring over sixth, seventh and eighth grade players. We feed them after school and put them in the Cat Box to watch the game. They get to watch our guys warm up, and this year, we introduced them over the loudspeaker and called each one by name. I thought that was really special.”
On Monday, Aug. 19, I. A. Lewis began its seven-game campaign. Again, these are players that may never have put their hand in that grass or tackled anyone else before the summer started. At times, the Rams would have to play older kids in seventh grade. It was rocky at times given the tough schedule. But players flourished throughout the year. Kids like Cooper Stoehr learned to read the field as a linebacker, Cayman Cauley found his confidence in the run game, Kingston Hibbert made drastic improvements and A.J. Nations became the captain of the offense, just to name a few.
“All these kids have grit,” Goodwin said of his entire squad. “I teach about John Wayne, and I explain what grit is — that became kind of a mantra and a phrase they’ll yell “Have grit!” or “That boy’s got grit!” to each other. To see them learn to be tougher and jump up off the ground. They took that on. It’s another growth aspect that I love seeing — their toughness.”
And the Rams’ maturation came to a point with a 20-6 win over Riser on Monday, Sept. 23, capped off by Cauley’s long touchdown run as time expired. It truly was a fitting end to a season of growth and grit, and a great send off for the kids as they prepare to move on to Ruston Junior High.
“They’re now preparing for next year,” Goodwin concluded. “I told them as soon as that clocked stopped (at Riser), you’re now a seventh grader. You’re now moving on. And I ask them to think about where they started and how much they weren’t good at in the beginning. And then I ask them to think about how much growth they’ve had and how much more they’re going to have. It’s really great to see how much they see it.”
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