Shyrone Carey has been on a football team that made the state championship game.

He has played on a team that won a Southeastern Conference and NCAA national title.

And now he hopes to coach a team to the pinnacle of Louisiana high school football.

By Bradley Handwerger / WWL-TV.com

Shyrone Carey, a former LSU and Shaw standout, became a first-time head coach when Carver hired him early in 2008 to lead its program back from Katrina. Carey is 26.

His history might just help him accomplish this as a first-time head coach trying to revive the football program at Carver High, a recovery school district school hit hard by Katrina in August 2005.

“I have a strong love for football and I know Carver football historically has been a program where they have a lot of tradition and a huge following and, so to speak as a city public school, Carver was upper echelon before Hurricane Katrina,” said Carey, who turned 26 in January.

“I thought with the ideas I have and the things I want to set, I think Carver would be a great foundation for me to start.”

Carey’s football career began on the playgrounds of New Orleans. It progressed to Archbishop Shaw on the Westbank, where earned Class 5A all-state honors as a senior. He threw for 2,218 yards and 22 touchdowns that year and was rated as the No. 1 prospect in Louisiana. Shaw made the state championship game in 1997, Carey’s sophomore season.

After originally signing with Tennessee, he changed his commitment to LSU and Nick Saban. Carey remembers being the first recruit visited by Saban when the then-LSU head coach took over in Baton Rouge.

Eight years after graduating from Shaw and two years after finishing his career at LSU, Carey remembers the lessons learned on the field from both Tierney and Saban.

“Paying attention to details. The little things is what I got from the two coaches,” Carey said. “They pay attention to the little bittiest things. That’s what I try to bring to the football thing. Not so much the big picture, but the daily grind it takes to be successful.

“Those guys struck me as always being on top of the details of not just the success off the play, but what made the play work, what made the play from the beginning to the end.”

Now at Alabama, Saban still is proud of his former players, even the ones from LSU. Count Carey in that group.

“Shyrone Carey is certainly a young man who has overcome a lot of adversity in becoming a college graduate,” Saban said. “He was a fine high school and college football player. I’m sure he is going to be a wonderful coach.”

He added, “We are happy for Shyrone and there is really a lot of self gratification for us to see guys like him who came up the hard way and have had success. Now he will have a chance to have an impact on other young people in his community.”

Having an impact won’t come easy. Carver was shut down after Katrina, the flood having decimated the community and ruined the school.

Twenty-nine players were on the team at the end of this spring, the first time the school has fielded a team since before Katrina.

The school began the year in trailers on the old Holy Cross campus in the lower 9th ward. It moved back to its Higgins Blvd. campus, where it finished the school year in modular trailers.

Carey realizes the tough task ahead, but he’s not shying away from it. Instead, he’s approaching it with intensity and passion.

“The hardest thing is just getting guys into football that normally we would have had already,” Carey said. “It’s kind of like we’re starting from scratch. We’ve got to always understand and never get frustrated with the kids because of a lot of the kids really don’t that knowledge of the game right now.”

By Bradley Handwerger / WWL-TV.com

Carver head coach Shyrone Carey knows he won't return the program to glory over night. He's committed to getting the school back on top the right way.

This is where his past comes into play. He can be seen with LSU knit shifts on around campus when he’s not wearing a Carver football T-shirt. At times, he sports his SEC and NCAA championship rings, one on each hand.

And he’s still young, still close enough to his players’ ages that he can understand what they’re going through.

“I think it’s a good situation for him,” O.P. Walker head coach Skip LaMothe said. “He’s an aggressive guy looking to get a first-class program. His personality will help him to connect with the people in that area. (He’ll) be able to relate to the kids in a positive manner. He’s a good role model.

“He basically can tell them where he came from and he can tell them where to go first-hand.”

LaMothe should know. Carey coached with him at Walker this past season, helping guide the Chargers to the 4A semifinals and a 9-5 record.

“I didn’t want to lose him, but I knew it was an opportunity,” LaMothe said. “One of his aspirations was to be a head coach.”

When Carey interviewed at Carver he spoke with Athletics Director Brian Bordainick. Right away Bordainick knew he had a match for the opening.

“The guy is an X’s and O’s genius,” Bordainick said. “The guy has a couple of rings. He has some weight. He’s from the community. He has had success in the community. The kids respect the hell out of him. And he knows what he’s talking about.”

But Carey said he isn’t going to let his past guide his future. Instead, he wants to begin crafting an identity as a head coach.

It all starts at Carver.

“What I do is always keep it professional, always let them understand that at the end of the day, all that doesn’t matter,” Carey said of his playing days. “It’s about here right now. You’re living history — the first team to come back after Hurricane Katrina at a school that has 50 years of tradition.”