Ultimate Team Guy: Carencro’s Chantz Babineaux motivated by team success, not personal achievement
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Carencro High football coach Gavin Peters believed Chantz Babineaux was the best middle school player he had ever seen.
Five years ago, when Babineaux quarterbacked Carencro’s middle school team, he kept on a zone read. The defensive end took the dive, and Babineaux amazed Peters with a dazzling 70-80-yard touchdown run.
“I had heard that a pretty good athlete was coming to Carencro High,” Peters said. “I heard he was a good baseball player, too. When I finally saw him play, he looked like an athlete. Then from that play, I knew we were getting a good quarterback.”
But there’s been so much more to Babineaux over the course of his career, one that’s evolved into a record-setting four seasons, and if he follows his commitment, a college career at Nicholls State.
Babineaux will be remembered for the list of career and individual records he’s established, highlighted by his recent feat of becoming the school’s career leader in points scored with 438. He leaped the school’s most recognizable figure – Kevin Faulk – for the latest collection to his record book achievements, five weeks into his senior season.
The most important thing to Babineaux after last week’s game wasn’t surpassing the top of the school’s Mt. Rushmore, but that Carencro improved to 3-2 overall and 2-0 in District 3-5A play going into tonight’s game at Lafayette High.
“It was Sunday or Monday, and no one told me about it,” Babineaux said. “I saw they posted it, and when I looked and saw Kevin Faulk’s name, and that I had broken one of his records, it just hit me different. I was surprised, in shock. All of the hard work that I’ve put in has shown off. I broke one of the records of somebody that actually meant something here. But I wasn’t even worried about records. I was going out for my senior year, trying to ball out.”
The 6-0, 200-pound Babineaux is one of the state’s top receivers with 30 receptions for 669 yards – 22.3 yards per catch – and seven touchdowns.
But that’s at his secondary position on the field. He’s one of the Bears’ leaders at safety, his primary role, and has picked off three passes and returned two of them for touchdowns.
“This week was the first time he took individual reps at receiver since the summer,” Peters said of Babineaux. “He’s not even been practicing with the receivers and is having this incredible year. That should say something about the kid’s God-given ability.”
Babineaux has been the epitome of the ultra team player since his arrival. He’s started at wide receiver, quarterback, safety, served as the team’s placekicker, and returned punts and kickoffs, a tribute to his selflessness and willingness to bypass driving up his own personal stats in favor of the team’s needs.
“I’m not worried about the numbers,” he said. “I’m worried about us as a team to get better week by week. My goal is for the team to win a state championship. I’m not worried about my numbers.
“I’ve always been that type of person,” he said. “If someone needs help, I always want to be there for them. I want to see my teammates win in every aspect of the game. If I can help my team win in any aspect, then coach just has to tell me wherever they need, and I’ll play it.”
Babineaux entered the program at a time when Carencro had an established quarterback in Chance Caesar, the district’s MVP, and served as his backup. That didn’t hinder him from going out and setting the school’s single-season record for receiving yards with 972, playing a significant role in the Bears’ ability to go 9-3 and reach the Division I select state semifinals against Brother Martin.
With St. Thomas More offering 7-on-7 junior varsity competition the following summer, Peters believed it would be in Babineaux’s best interest to gain additional experience at safety, a position Peters thought his talented rising sophomore would play a bigger role.
“We thought he had a chance to be our starter that fall,” he said. “We saw he could play there. He made some plays. We were trying to get some younger guys reps, and he asked me to play offense and go to wide receiver. I told him to go to running back, and we would throw him a pass and see what he could do. He Moss’d about three guys (in reference to former NFL standout receiver Randy Moss).
“He had about five receiving touchdowns that day,” he said. “I got home and text the entire staff and told them we were building the whole offense around him. He’s our best player and we’re going to get him the ball.”
A significant knee injury to Caesar during the regular season resulted in offseason rehabilitation, slowing his progress for the team’s 7-on-7 schedule that summer.
Peters said Babineaux handled those duties with great poise and wound up becoming the team’s starter for the 2023 season. All he did was complete 150 of 271 passes for 2,695 yards and 29 TDs, leading Carencro to a 9-3 season that ended in the regional round of the playoffs.
All of those marks, which included 929 yards rushing for 3,624 yards of total offense, were single-season records.
“We knew we had a good quarterback for the future,” Peters said.
Babineaux said after a full season at safety as a freshman, his defensive duties were limited to about 20 snaps in ’23 because of his value to the team at quarterback.
He remained at quarterback while freshman Carson Gurzi prepared to take over the position midway through the ’24 season. Babineaux passed for 981 yards and rushed for 519 yards before moving back to receiver and caught 248 yards’ worth of passes, giving Gurzi a prime target to look for during his development.
“The kid didn’t like playing the quarterback position,” Peters said, “but he had to do it for us, and we appreciate him for the time he spent back there.”
Babineaux, who has also handled the team’s placekicking and punting duties and been the holder when the starter was injured, has shown the ability to flourish with a lot on his plate.
Safety was his main spot on the team’s defense, but he’s also played outside linebacker and cornerback, along with handling return duties on special teams.
He wound up with 1,748 total yards, was named to the All-District 3-5A team for the third time, and earned honorable mention status on the Class 5A All-State team, again for the third straight year.
With Gurzi’s ability to lock down the team’s starting quarterback job this season, Carencro was able to line Babineaux out wide in arguably his most natural position on the field and watch him work.
“My focus is mainly on receiver, not on the different positions,” Babineaux said. “That’s really helped. I’m able to just focus on what the receivers are doing and helping the other receivers and quarterbacks out.
“This was my last year, I wanted to go out with a bang,” Babineaux said. “As a senior, I wanted to make sure the young guys understood what the seniors were doing so that when we leave, we will have left it better than we found it. When I came to this place, it was pretty good, but I think we’ve gone above. When I leave this place, it’s going to be good and let the juniors and sophomores carry on that legacy.”
Carencro’s defense was experiencing some problems slowing down the Bears’ first offensive unit in preparation for the team’s jamboree with Notre Dame. Peters approached co-defensive coordinator Jordan Romero about moving Babineaux to defense, which became his chief responsibility ahead of his role on offense.
“We wanted to win some games and make him a primary defensive player,” Peters said. “He’s had more picks this year (three) than our defense combined the last two years.
“He’s definitely put the team above himself,” Peters said. “The kid wants nothing more than to leave this place with a district championship and to compete for a state championship. That’s all that’s missing from his legacy. He’s got plenty of individual accolades. It’s the team accolades that make you legendary.”
Babineaux is the school’s career leader in career passing attempts (413), completions (214), yards (3,697), and touchdowns (37). His 7,127 offensive yards include 1,889 receiving yards and touchdowns (22), both tops in school history, while his receptions (91).
Babineaux, No. 4 in career total yards (5,234, which excludes passing yardage) and No. 7 in all-purpose yardage (3,668), was second in points scored until last week, when he toppled Faulk’s total of 428. He also has six career interceptions.
“I’ve tried to be a 4D player, which was my goal to be that and help out my teammates,” Babineaux said of the different position he’s played. “Watching film was a big part of knowing my plays. I felt I knew them since I was a sophomore, so I didn’t have a problem with that.”
Faulk, a part of the LSU athletic department’s community and outreach team, finished his career at Carencro with 7,612 all-purpose yards (4,877 rushing), part of the 17 career and individual records set during his All-America career. He went on to become LSU’s career rushing leader with 4,557 yards and then played for the New England Patriots for 13 seasons, winning three Super Bowls and earning distinction into the organization’s Hall of Fame in 2016.
Faulk has also been selected to the Halls of Fame at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches and LSU.
Moreover, though, he’s still celebrated as the first quarterback to lead Carencro to a state championship in 1992.
“That’s what Chantz is trying to do,” Peters said. “To help bring a championship back to Carencro High School.”
Peters also championed Babineaux’s cause in the discussion for the school’s greatest football players. It was a no-brainer to begin with Faulk, and then, because of the on-the-field versatility and production, Babineaux should be next in line in the age-old debate, he felt.
“I coached (LSU signee) Micah Eugene at Acadiana in 2010, and this is the best football player I’ve ever coached,” he said of Babineaux. “They like to talk around here about Top 5 and Top 10 players in history of the school. I said, it’s Kevin Faulk and Chantz Babineaux. End of discussion.
“I love players like Lucas Taylor and Damien James,” he said. “I’m not sure anyone has been asked to do all of the things this kid has done. It’s time to give him the elite respect he’s earned. He deserves it. He’s up in the conversation among the best to ever play here.”