The 2007 football season was one to remember for the Benton High Tigers and their coach, Mitch Downey.

Moving into Class 4A for the first time in the history of a school that didn't even have a football team when I started my sports writing career, the Tigers were 12-2 and reached the state semifinals before falling to two-time state champion Bastrop.

Two Benton players, junior running back Casey Henderson and offensive guard Cody Fain, are first-team selections on the Louisiana Sports Writers Association All-State team, and Downey is the LSWA "Coach of the Year" for the third time in the last nine years.

In 17 years since the Louisiana High School Athletic Association added a fifth class in football, Downey is the only coach, in any class, to be selected "Coach of the Year" three times.

That is especially remarkable considering the fact that Benton has never reached the state finals.

Dennis Dunn coached Evangel teams that won nine state titles, but he was "Coach of the Year" only once -- after the first championship. J.T. Curtis, Jr., the winningest coach in Louisiana history, has coached John Curtis teams that won 22 state titles, but he has been "Coach of the Year" only once since 1985. Don Shows has coached West Monroe teams that won six state titles and were runnersup to Evangel four times, but he has been "Coach of the Year" only twice since he launched his coaching career at Jonesboro-Hodge in 1977.

While other schools had more talent, the writers obviously felt that Downey did a better job with the available talent -- three times.

The only other Bossier Parish coaches who were selected "Coach of the Year" once were Will Marston of Haughton in 1990 and Joe Caldwell of Plain Dealing in 1972.

Hey, it could be worse. Neighboring Webster Parish and nearby DeSoto Parish have never produced a "Coach of the Year" in football.

Ten Caddo Parish coaches have won the award, the latest being Byrd's Mike Suggs in 2002, but the only one who won it twice, Lee Hedges, had a stadium named after him.

Curtis and Haynesville's Alton "Red" Franklin, Louisiana's winningest all-time coaches, won the awards often enough early in their careers to lead the list with five and four, respectively. Franklin was shut out from 1991 through 1995, when some of his best teams made a 69-2 run that included one win over West Monroe and three over Evangel. The Golden Tornado compiled winning streaks of 40 and 41 games during that run.

Downey joins a group of seven three-time winners that includes Shows. The others are Lewis Cook, Carroll Delahoussaye, Dutton Wall, Tim Detillier and Jack Salter. Downey is the only member of the group who didn't coach a team that reached the Superdome.

Six of those nine (all except Downey, Franklin and Shows) were South Louisiana coaches.

Whether you are talking about "Coach of the Year" or making the All-State team, the cards are stacked against anybody from North Louisiana because of the distribution of votes.

Consider this: Ruston's L.J. "Hoss" Garrett, who was the first Louisiana coach to win 200 games and held the record for many years at 270, was never selected "Coach of the Year."

Another legendary North Louisiana coach, Neville's Bill Ruple, barely made it. He was one of four recipients in 1962, the first year the sports writers selected a "Coach of the Year." That was also the last year of Ruple's remarkable 18-year Hall of Fame coaching career at Neville.

All of the Hall of Fame coaches who never won "Coach of the Year" weren't from North Louisiana schools. The list includes "Big Fuzzy" Brown of Istrouma, Gernon Brown of Jesuit (New Orleans), Joe Keller of Reserve, Perry Angle of Baker, Shannon Suarez of Sulphur and Bossier City product Johnny Robertson of Ferriday, to mention a few. In most cases, the award didn't exist during their careers, or at the peak of their careers.

Racer Holstead of Tallulah, who was never "Coach of the Year," ranked third behind Curtis and Franklin on the list of Louisiana coaching winners with 310 victories coming into the 2007 season, but his LHSAA career ended in the 1960s and he spent the remainder in the Louisiana Independent School Assn. Garrett retired in the late 1960s after switching from the Notre Dame Box to the T-formation with a team that included future LSU and NFL standouts Bert Jones and Andy Hamilton.

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