Into the Woods Football’s

New Head Coach Brings Life Lessons To The Field

JOSHUA MANES Spotlight Editor @TheManesEvent

Lessons learned both on and off the field shape young athletes as they grow. For Carlos Woods, the newly named head coach of Brahmas football, each stop along his path helped mold him into the man he is, and the coach he wants to be.

Woods has a professional pedigree and tutelage under legendary coaches Tony Dungy and Joe Paterno, his lessons for the game started years before ever stepping onto a field.

Growing up, Woods’ stepfather, Michael Smith, was in the Navy.

Smith’s lessons of discipline and

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“He is the epitome of what hard work is and seeing the fruits of his labor,” Woods said. “It taught me how to be hands on.”

That idea of hard work paying off showed in Woods’ start in football. In seventh grade, Woods didn’t make the team. Woods said that at that point, he made a deal with himself. He would either make the team the following year, or he would quit.

Woods remembers being one of the last players to learn his fate with the team in eighth grade. According to Woods, coach Lacklin would call each player into his office and let them know.

“He will look you in the eye, man to a young man say you made the team or you didn't make the team,” Woods said.

Woods made the team, and even though he didn’t play often that season, the lessons he learned from Lacklin have carried over just like those he learned from his stepfather.

“I'm very direct. I'm as transparent as they come,” Woods said.

When Woods took the head coaching job, one of the first things he did was enact an open door policy and began meeting with players oneon-one. Those meetings weren’t about football, but to find out about the players’ school and homelife.

“Those things to me are essential to just getting an understanding for each player,” Woods said. “Football comes and goes, it’s just a small part of our life.”

Heading into high school, it was a different part of Woods’ that life had to go to make room for football.

Since elementary school, Woods had played the saxophone. Heading into the start of his ninth grade year, he met with the band director and the football coach. Woods was told that both practiced at the same time and he would have to make a decision.

While he loved music, Woods chose football. That decision eventually resulted in him earning a scholarship to Delaware State University, where he played football and wrestled.

Woods’ first coaching job came as a graduate assistant at Penn State University in 2005. Here, under the late coach Joe Paterno, Woods learned how to bring a team together. The entire team would eat dinner together Monday - Thursday, and would then be joined the families of the coaches and staff on Fridays.

“It was beautiful to see. You would see linebackers and running backs, receivers with offensive linemen. It was family,” Woods said. “And I said if I ever have a program where I could do that I'd love to emulate that because I just like it brought the team so close together.”

After almost two years at PSU, Woods moved on to the NFL as an assistant with the Indianapolis Colts and head coach Tony Dungy, receiving a Super Bowl ring from the 2006 victory.

[see COACH on pg. 12]