Master of Defense: Jerry Arledge remembered for impact on West Monroe’s program
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
An exciting day in the life of Zachary High football coach David Brewerton ended with a revelation.
Before his head hit the pillow after a day that included him becoming the school’s football coach, Brewerton visualized taking the Broncos to the Louisiana Superdome, where they would oppose West Monroe for the Class 5A state championship.
“I saw our (Z) logo and the WM logo side by side in the Superdome,” he said.
Brewerton was long an admirer of West Monroe’s program under head coach Don Shows and defensive coordinator Jerry Arledge. By that time, the Rebels had risen to supremacy in the state’s top classification, winning five of eight state championships and thus became the standard by which other programs were measured.
“The beginning stages of the program building at Zachary, we tried to use the West Monroe blueprint,” Brewerton said. “I had a lot of respect for those guys and what they were able to build, and how they built it with strong community support. The identity of the city of West Monroe and West Monroe High School went hand in hand, and that’s what I wanted to try and build in Zachary.”
Five years after taking over at Zachary, Brewerton led the Broncos to their first state crown, defeating West Monroe, 27-24 in 2018, signaling a new direction for the program that went on to win four state titles in a seven-year span.
Brewerton never forgot where the template for his program came from and certainly, with Saturday’s passing of the 83-year-old Arledge, will forever hold West Monroe’s former defensive coordinator and head coach in a special place.
“He’s somebody that had an impact on my program,” he said. “There’s no question.”
Arledge, a native of Oil City north of Shreveport, spent a total of 31 years coaching at West Monroe. The former Louisiana Tech offensive guard/linebacker joined Shows’ staff in 1992 and helped the Rebels shake off four decades of rather nondescript football.
West Monroe started an improbable run of eight state championships in 1993 with a 28-21 victory over Destrehan. The Rebels, which had been to the playoffs five times in 40 years, put together an impressive stretch with 16 trips to the Superdome over a 25-year span and were named national champions in 1988 and 2000.
Aldredge, who was a part of 262 of Shows’ 279 wins at the school, became the school’s head coach in 2013 after Shows stepped down because of health issues. He was 96-19-1 with a pair of state runner-up finishes and nine district titles in 10 seasons until relinquishing those duties and remaining as athletic director.
“I had relationships with both Don and Jerry,” North DeSoto football coach Dennis Dunn, who built his own power at Evangel Christian Academy and faced West Monroe seven times. “Jerry was always the perfect gentleman. He was very kind and always gracious, but competitive, nonetheless. We weren’t sharing any secrets with each other because we knew there was a good chance we were going to be playing late in the season. Just a mutual admiration and respect.”
Arledge, who was recognized by the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall for his contributions to amateur football, played at North Caddo High, a place he returned to coach in 1964 after his graduation from Louisiana Tech. He played for head coach Joe Aillet and his position coach George Doherty.
In an era where players took on multiple positions, Arledge was a guard on the offensive line and a linebacker on defense.
Moreover, Arledge earned his master’s from Northwestern State. He joined the Demons coaching staff as a graduate assistant under Williams.
Arledge spent time coaching at Fair Park High in Shreveport in the early 1970s and moved to the college ranks for the next 17 years – 11 at Northwestern on the staff of Williams – and followed Williams to La. Tech for six more seasons until 1986.
After briefly getting out of coaching and with his son, Rob, a two-sport standout at Ruston High, Arledge moved to West Monroe, where Shows had been since 1989.
Rob played his final two seasons at West Monroe and was a senior member of the school’s first state title team in 1993. He later joined the Rebels coaching staff, where Arledge also had the opportunity to coach his grandson, standout defensive lineman Will Blackwell, who went on to become a first-team All-American and win a national championship with LSU in 2007.
“Coaching my son in high school is one of my most precious moments,” Arledge told the Monroe News Star. “He became my sounding board. We were talking football at home all the time, and now having my grandson on the team is very special, too.”
Arledge had built a reputation as a defensive guru, devising schemes that were a part of the equation that helped West Monroe on its ascent.
“Jerry is a great teacher, and the football field is his classroom,” former West Monroe coach John Causey said to the News Star. “Nobody is better at dissecting an offense. He is tremendous at making adjustments on the field and is definitely one of the better defensive coaches at any level.”
The first state crown came a year after Shows brought Arledge aboard.
West Monroe morphed in a dynasty with three consecutive titles in 1996-97-98 – defeating Carencro (24-21), Archbishop Shaw (22-19), and Ruston (32-14) – with the Rebels completing undefeated seasons the latter two years.
The 15-0 team in ’98, which replaced 10 defensive starters, allowed 68 points the entire season, and was recognized as national champions.
Shows, who passed away March 3, 2014, at the age of 74, was complimentary of the Arledge’s coaching methods.
“I wouldn’t say he is so much a pusher as simply a coach who prepares the kids,” he told the News Star. “He teaches fundamentals and techniques as well as anybody anywhere.”
While West Monroe was becoming a state power on one end of North Louisiana, Dunn was doing the same at Shreveport’s newest school.
Over his 14 seasons, Dunn led the Eagles to a 200-39 record and nine state championships with a national championship in 1999.
The two burgeoning programs, which were Class 5A by 1999, finally began to cross paths on a regular basis.
“We had some incredible battles with West Monroe during those years,” said Dunn, who guided North DeSoto to its second Division I non-select state runner-up finish in 2025, and is 268-80 in 27 seasons at the high school level.
A year before, in response to a growing interest in a game between the two teams, Evangel and West Monroe met in a jamboree in 1998 before 23,000 fans at La. Tech’s Joe Aillet Stadium, Dunn said.
Evangel won five state championships in Class 1A over a six-year stretch before the task of facing West Monroe, the state champion in Class 5A in four of the previous six years.
Evangel emerged with a 20-14 victory, but it wouldn’t be the last time they saw West Monroe.
“Here’s what we knew about Jerry Alredge’s defenses,” Dunn said. “He was going to be very sound and very good in the box. He spent most of his time with the down four, and those guys were almost an impenetrable unit. You’d better find a way in space against him because there was not going to be much that you could do in the box and run the football. In the box, there were no weaknesses.”
Another footnote to the game, Dunn said, was that there was a reported record 43,000 fans in the Superdome.
Evangel and West Monroe entered into a home-and-home series in 2001-02 and wound up playing four times in that span, which included dramatic playoff games.
West Monroe won the regular season encounter in 2001, with Evangel avenging that defeat with a 34-27 victory in the state title game. The Eagles won both games the following season, taking a 35-4 win for another state crown.
Dunn recalled one of the more memorable games with West Monroe taking place in Shreveport in the Class 5A state semifinals in 2003. Evangel had approximately 15,000 fans on hand, standing ringed around the playing field because of the sky-high interest in the game, and the Eagles came away with a 26-15 victory.
“It was just a great environment,” Dunn said.
The following year, the two teams were back in New Orleans, and Evangel hung onto a 21-20 victory when the Eagles stopped a two-point try in the final seconds.
Dunn would later become head coach at Louisiana College (now Louisiana Christian) where he a record of 65-45 in 11 seasons. He regularly made recruiting stops to tap into West Monroe’s talent reservoir and called upon Arledge for his opinions on players he believed could help his program.
“I knew what kind of players they had,” he said. Jerry was always kind and made time for our staff. He always wanted to give his guys opportunities to extend their playing career. We were the only D3 school in Louisiana. A lot of high school coaches didn’t understand how good that brand of football was, but he understood.
“Because he had been around the college game, he understood that it was good football, it wasn’t JV college football,” he said. “You had to have good football players to play. We were recruiting who Northwestern and Tech were recruiting. They couldn’t sign everybody. Jerry would always have a diamond; he thought he could play football. We would take those guys and sure enough, he was right.”
Brewerton appreciated the job Shows and Arledge had done in making West Monroe into a bona fide staple in Class 5A. He grew to understand the alignment they helped create between the school and the community that revolved around the Rebels, whether they were at home or traveled.
“What was so intriguing to me about West Monroe was that I loved the atmosphere they created there,” he said. “I loved everything about it. I loved 12,000 people in the stands. I loved Jumbotron, the aura of greatness there. I wanted our kids, our fans, administration, staff to see that as much as they could because that’s what we’re trying to build.
“When you played the Rebels, you were playing that great sense of tradition,” Brewerton said. Their kids walked on the field with a great sense of expectation of winning all of the time. That’s sometimes the hardest thing when you’re building a program to put together. That was always impressive to me, and thankfully we had some great success against those guys, but they laid out the blueprint and vision for how you do that in high school.”
Brewerton helped to create a bridge to the Zachary community, much like he saw at West Monroe. Of course, winning at the highest level is a solution most people can get behind.
The Broncos were no different. Modifications to their home field – the Bronco Corral – didn’t rival West Monroe’s vast seating capacity, but improvements such as a state-of-the-art press box and Jumbotron moved the program forward.
Zachary and West Monroe became playing partners in postseason play four times in six years, highlighted by the state championship in 2018.
The Rebels, with Arledge as head coach, defeated the Broncos, 35-14, in the ’16 semifinals and went on to fall to Landry-Walker the following week.
Zachary returned the favor a year later with a 29-27 triumph on its way to the program’s second state championship, setting the stage for next year’s state title showdown in 2018.
West Monroe rallied from a 20-10 halftime deficit and took a 24-20 lead with 9:26 remaining to be played. Zachary’s offense faced a 3-and-10 from its own 20 when quarterback Keilon Brown caught the Rebels in a back side blitz, connecting with sophomore wide receiver Chris Hilton, who picked up a key block, for an 80-yard catch and run for the go-ahead score, 27-24, with 1:51 left.
“Well, I’m heartbroken. Our kids are heartbroken,” Arledge said afterward. “But that’s the motivating factor, the fear of losing. I think that’s what drives us all. I know it certainly motivates me.”
Zachary’s back-to-back state titles were a testament to the heights the program had reached. Brewerton recalled a postgame interview in which he reiterated having such expectations the day he became the school’s head coach.
“That was something I thought about since Day 1,” he said.
West Monroe, which was undefeated going into the final, hadn’t allowed a point in four playoff games.
“That was kind of always the measuring stick,” Brewerton said. “When you lined up with those guys, you knew how good they were going to be on defense. That was a massive challenge for our (2018) offensive staff, trying to put a plan together to combat some to the things they did. Jerry was a heavy blitzer and he loved to bring the house. You had to make sure you were prepared for those situations.”
Zachary won two home playoff games against West Monroe, 37-34 in the quarterfinal in 2021 and 20-10 regional the following season in what was Arledge’s final game.
“That’s what helps solidify the pieces of the puzzle to trying to have a championship program,” Brewerton said. “It was being able to go into those kinds of games and not only compete with them at a high level, but figuring out a way to win it. When you win one, it’s great, but when you win two, it’s turning into something where your guys are expecting to win those kinds of games. It gets you where you want to be.”
With openings in their 2023 schedules for a Week 5 opponent, Brewerton reached out to Arledge, then the school’s athletic director, for a one-time meeting.
Because of the experience of playing at West Monroe and in front of its rapid fan base and rich tradition, Brewerton felt a road trip would be perfect to continue the growth of his program. His team won, 48-7.
“Most people would not choose to do that,” he said. “I had people on staff that wondered if I was nuts. I just thought it was good for us experience that as much as we could.”
Brewerton and Arledge shared phone conversations over the years. There was a call of concern from Brewerton after a tornado hit the West Monroe area, checking on Arledge, who was always partial to talking about his grandchildren and classic automobiles when talks steered away from football.
“You could see he was a coaching genius, but he had other things going on in his life that kind of gave him balance,” he said. “That’s what kept him in the game for as long as he was.”
Brewerton considered Arledge a valued resource during the infancy stages of his journey as a head coach. There was talk about practice structure and the number of live repetitions first string players should have in practice.
The quandary was at what expense should coaches expose their top-line players to physical contact in practice and potentially run the risk of losing them for games.
Brewerton was in the audience during a speech Shows gave on the subject. Shows leaned on the side of caution against such contact in practice, Brewerton said.
“I remembered him talking about if players got hurt in practice, then you’re an idiot,” he said.
After Shows’ passing, Brewerton wanted clarification on the matter and called Arledge. He shared a different side of Shows, who earned a spot in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame with 345 career wins.
“Jerry started laughing when I mentioned the speech,” Brewerton said. “He said you had Don Shows coaching, then you had coaching conferences, Don Shows. I promise you, there were a whole lot of one-on-ones going on in practice. Jerry was just one of those guys that was always forthcoming with information when you asked.”