The dominance of the basketball program at Scotlandville Magnet High School has been no secret over the years. The boys’ basketball team has been to ten straight state championships, and has won six of them, including their championship win on March 9 against the St. Augustine Purple Knights.
Who has been the mastermind behind this success? None other than Hornets’ head coach Carlos Sample, who has built a dynasty at Scotlandville.
Before Sample was a coach, he was a point guard for the Southern University Jaguars from 1987 to 1990. Over the three seasons, he has averaged 16.3 points per game, 5 assists, and 2 steals. “I think that I was kind of a fiery player, and kind of led by example and that’s the same thing that I want to do as far as coaching is concerned. Lead by example, show that I give 130% and I expect the team to give 130% in return,” said Sample.
Sample says that since he played basketball from five years old to college, a lot of coaches have had a chance to influence him. Out of all of them however, he says that his high school coach, and also Grambling basketball Hall of Famer Howard Davis, has influenced him the most.
“He saw some things in me that people didn’t see. He made me believe that I could be better than what I was in the ninth grade and he had a lot of faith in me just as far as being a better person.”
Sample won his sixth championship in a ten-year span, but with no seniors on the team and the loss of JaVonte Smart to LSU, there was no shortage of doubters for the Hornet’s this year.
“It’s my job to keep that focus and just [crossing] out what happened in the previous year. This was a new year, and you have to bring your game every day and practice because these young men will be seniors and we’re trying to go to the next level in college as well.”
Despite all of the success that Sample has had at Scotlandville, he didn’t deny that he has thought about coaching at a higher level.
“Right now, I am content,” he says. “Coaching on a college level, a lot of things go into play. Is it the right time? Is it the right place? Is it best for my family? It’s not just me. I have my wife and twins to think about [when it comes] to making that decision.” He later says, “Timing is everything, and if that opportunity presents itself, I think I’ll jump at it.”
Sample says in five to ten years from now, he is uncertain about where he’ll be coaching basketball. “That’s a good question,” he laughs. “Hopefully continuing to win championships, whether it be on a high school level or the college level, or NBA level. I think I’ll be around basketball … Just as long as I have the energy, the passion for the game, I think I’ll be a basketball coach five to ten years from now.”
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Scotlandville’s Sample; A BR Legend: Hornets’ Head Coach the Only Coach in Louisiana History to visit Ten Straight Title Games
March 20, 2019
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