Lifelong Bond: Friendship helps David Feaster, Mike Schmitt join forces at Prairieville High
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Thirty years ago, the coaching paths of Mike Schmitt and David Feaster first crossed at Natchitoches Central High School, forging a friendship that’s endured ever since.
Schmitt completed his playing career at nearby Northwestern State and began student teaching at Natchitoches Central High. That’s where Schmitt first encountered Feaster, an assistant coach, and when Feaster left to become a head coach at Many High, Schmitt followed to complete his student teaching and served as the school’s junior high football coach.
Schmitt also helped with the varsity program, earning a full-time position on Feaster’s staff for the next two years. Schmitt, a Baton Rouge native, returned home to coach under Sid Edwards at the now-defunct Redemptorist High in ’98 for two years before making his way back to Many High as Feaster’s defensive coordinator.
The town in Sabine Parish was better known as the home of Toledo Bend than it was for the school’s football team until Feaster became head coach in 1996.
“He taught math and coached anything we asked him to do, and we kept him on,” Feaster said of Schmitt. “We had several years where we worked together, and several years after that we parted ways, we still kept up with each other over the years.”
Schmitt’s career took him back south to coach at Live Oak High in Watson, along with stops at Buras and East Ascension, when the former Catholic High offensive lineman spent time coaching at Eaglecrest High in Centennial, Colo. and Cowanesque Valley (Pa.) – compiling an 81-77 record – when he was tasked with starting a Class 5A program at brand-new Prairieville High School in Ascension Parish.
When it came time to building a coaching staff Schmitt turned to Feaster, a topic the two friends had discussed before if the opportunity ever presented itself.
Feaster spent the 2023 season as offensive coordinator at Louisiana Christian, his first foray into college coaching, and helped put together a prolific offense that enabled the Wildcats to finish 9-2, win the Red River Athletic Conference and reach the NAIA playoffs.
As part of Feaster’s dazzling offense was his son Sammy, the team’s top wide receiver and the nation’s leader in yards per catch. The Wildcats were among the conference’s best, averaging 41.1 points and 475 total yards a game.
When head coach Ben Maddox resigned after four years to become defensive line coach at Southeast Missouri State in February, Louisiana Christian turned to former quarterback Ben Laughlin to become head coach. With an offensive background and rapport with quarterbacks, Laughlin retained Feaster with the intention of bringing in his own offense, calling his own plays, and working with the quarterbacks.
Feaster went through spring training and after consideration of coaching a different position, he opted to leave after a fruitful year made memorable by coaching his son. The process of looking for another job didn’t take long when Schmitt, who began at Prairieville on Jan. 8, called to gauge Feaster’s interest in his new start-up program.
“Ben McLaughlin’s a phenomenal new coach and will be great over there,” Feaster said. “We would probably be the ideal guy to work for. But he’s good at the same stuff that I am: Very good playcaller, extremely smart, (has) his own offense. We were excited to work together, but he wanted to run his stuff, and I understood 100 percent. Not to say that I couldn’t coach another position and help out if I really wanted to stay, but that’s stuff I’m really good at it.”
More than 40 years into his coaching career, the 65-year-old Feaster, a native of Mamou, was back in high school.
Prairieville, which welcomed its players on May 31, is scheduled to host its first scrimmage on Aug. 22 against Abramson. The Hurricanes will then travel to Dutchtown for the Aug. 29 jamboree before hosting its first official game against Thrive Academy on Sept. 6.
“When I saw he had the job, I called to congratulate him and thought it would be a great opportunity for him,” Feaster said of Schmitt. “Then my situation happened at LC, and he gave me the opportunity to come here because I felt like I was needed. I could come and put in my offense, coach the quarterbacks, and coach track. It’s everything I’ve done to help build football programs. That’s what they needed me to do here.”
Schmitt couldn’t think of a better person than Feaster for the position.
“Even when I went to Colorado, we never stopped being friends,” he said. “He was a mentor of mine. I appreciated the kind of father-coach he was when I was a young 23-24-year-old. I kind of looked up to him. We’ve always stayed friends and stayed in touch.”
Finding His Own Path
After playing quarterback for his father Bill at Mamou High, Feaster attended and graduated from Louisiana Tech where he did not play football.
Upon graduation, Feaster worked at a church in New Orleans and thought about becoming a youth director.
“I thought about staying in the ministry,” he said. “But I went into coaching. My thought was that maybe I could have more of an impact where guys would see that this is what a grown Christian looks like in real life.”
Feaster said his father didn’t recommend the coaching profession but was very supportive of his decision to pursue his passion in coaching. He’s been the head coach of seven different high schools (188-77 record at six in Louisiana, and one in Texas), and is revered for his ability to call plays for exciting offenses.
“I always trust what Dave runs,” Schmitt said. “He’s kind of running the same stuff when we were at Many years ago, and it’s worked for him. It’s allowed me the freedom to help build the program and the other sports here.”
Many was 7-23 before Feaster’s arrival in ’96 and the program rose to prominence during his eight-year tenure. The Tigers, with Schmitt as defensive coordinator for two years, experienced the school’s best regular season at 9-1 and then surpassed that the following year with a perfect 10-0 record, and their trajectory also included quarterfinal and semifinal appearances.
It became a common theme on Feaster’s coaching journey to take over non-winning situations or in some cases, reclamation projects, build up the program’s numbers, and turn around the school’s fortunes.
“I have five kids and that was one of the reasons I didn’t want to coach in college for the first 40 years,” Feaster said. “Over the years I thought I’d retire at a lot of places. I always go to places without thinking I would leave. Now it’s just me and my wife, and we packed up everything and came here to coach at Prairieville. While I’m here, I’m going to help coach Schmitt and see if we can’t get something going. There’s some great people here. It’s a great community.”
A Great Fit to Start
Because of the nomadic nature of their coaching careers, Schmitt didn’t expect to have someone with Feaster’s knowledge available to help develop Prairieville’s program.
The makeup of the Hurricanes won’t feature many upperclassmen who chose to remain at their current schools in the parish such as Dutchtown, East Ascension, or St. Amant.
Schmitt and Feaster will get the opportunity, though, to mold young men who opted for a different opportunity than they were previously. Moreover, the Hurricanes will draw approximately 80 freshmen who are zoned for the new school, an example of their promising future.
“With David, I knew I had the trust there,” Schmitt said. “With our relationship, we can have those pointed conversations where I can tell him I don’t like what he’s doing. We’re coaching buddies. Just his experience, and the availability of film to see how kids have done it the right way, is going to be beneficial. It’s the applicable knowledge you can’t get with young coaches or guys who haven’t been in the fray before.”
Test Runs to Understand the Landscape
Seemingly, Prairieville presents a unique trial in the career of Feaster, a school that’s morphed from pastureland into a gleaming new campus that figures to serve as the heartbeat of the bustling town of more than 30,000 residents.
Feaster compared the task at Prairieville High very favorably to previous coaching stops at D’Arbonne Woods in Farmerville and Glenbrook Academy in Minden.
He may be more renowned for injecting life and direction at Many, now a Class 2A/Division III state power, and unleashing a powerful offensive attack at Parkway in Bossier City that featured an incredible stretch of quarterback play from Brandon Harris (LSU/North Carolina), Keondre Wudtee (Oklahoma State) and Brandon Rogers (TCU).
Feaster’s best work, though, may have taken place at D’Arbonne Woods and Glenbrook which both emerged as competitive programs that are regulars in their respective divisions of the state playoffs.
D’Arbonne Woods was a school that had become a charter school 4-5 years before Feaster’s arrival. The school had fired the head football coach/athletic director whose influence resulted in a large number of players following him to Union Parish, putting the football program in peril.
“We barely had enough kids to put up a fight and the first year we won a game,” Feaster said.
Because of declining enrollment which forced some of its competition to play eight-man football Glenbrook, also beset by a lack of numbers, played in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools.
When Feaster left D’Arbonne Woods for Glenbrook in ’18, he was greeted by nine players in the weight room which increased to 18 by the start of school.
“We had seventh and eighth graders with us to have enough to practice,” Feaster said. “We did the best we could. We won a game the first year and six the second year. We saved the school.”
Glenbrook was still an MAIS member, falling below the requisite 75 students to join the LHSAA. By the end of Feaster’s four-year stay, the Apaches joined the LHSAA and pushed eventual Division IV state champion Ouachita Christian, losing 28-27 in the state select quarterfinals in ’22.
“A lot of my stops have prepared me for this,” Feaster said. “We have a much greater group of athletes here than we had either one of those (schools), but we never played 5A football the first year. We have enough to put up a fight the first year. I don’t know how many games we’re going to win.”
Method to the Madness
Feaster said his playbook, one that he’s built and added to over a career of four-plus-decades, still contains plays from his playing days under his father at Mamou.
He’s adapted his system to accentuate personnel along the way such as his such penchant for running the toss play under head coach Ronnie Chaumont at Jennings High.
“We didn’t throw the ball much,” he said.
Feaster believes in a fast-paced approach that appeals to skilled kids on offense and can be met with great dismay by defenders who are often left winded and caught off guard by what’s coming next. His quarterbacks have a list of the plays on a wristband, enabling the offense the ability to operate at a fast pace.
“There’s a difference between going fast and being no-huddle,” Schmitt said. “Tempo is what David does. He can be under center and run our stuff. You may be trying to go fast, but it’s not at all that fast. Game management is something we’re going to have to be very good at this first year. Depth is limited, not because of numbers, but because of sheer age.”
Feaster’s offense, based out of the spread, can alternate between the shotgun and being under center. He’s committed to having a tight end, a slot back, and two running backs, but can easily transform into a three-receiver look.
Wing-T formations for sweeps and traps are prevalent, and the traditional I set will have its share of motion and plenty of options depending on what defenses are showing.
“It’s the same stuff,” Feaster said of his offense. “It’s a little different every year. A year ago, I heard whether we could run this offense in college? Would I have to adjust? I said the heck with it and ran it. We were under center, ran the veer, toss and got back in the spread of threw the ball over the place without changing personnel.”
Feaster applied the teachings of former offensive guru Gary Crowton, LSU’s offensive coordinator for three years, along with being exposed to the ‘Air Raid’ concept made popular by long-time offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, who made stops at Kentucky and Auburn in his career.
Crowton, who spent two years as the Chicago Bears’ offensive coordinator, was considered to be on the cutting edge with his usage of the shotgun and empty set formations. Franklin was part of the coaching tree of Hal Mumme and the late Mike Leach, and their ‘Air Raid’ system was in place at Sulphur Springs (Texas) High where Feaster was on staff during the team’s Class 4A state championship.
“We’ll see what we’re really good at, we’ll do whatever we’re best at,” Feaster said. “At first glance, it’s kind of like the rest of them. It’s an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people at an important time in their lives.”