Interview With Dallas Carter Coach

I had a chance to interview Carter High School Head Football Coach Allen Wilson this week.  Coach Wilson is in his 5th season at Carter, where his team is 2-0 for the 2006 football season. 

Prior to becoming football coach/athletic director at Carter, Coach Wilson spent 11 successful seasons at Tyler John Tyler High School.  At John Tyler, Wilson's 1994 team culminated an undefeated season by winning the Class 5A state title.  Wilson began his head coaching career in Paris, Texas, leading Paris High School to a Class 4A state title in 1988. Carter faces Plano Senior High Friday night at Plano.

DSB:  Coach Wilson, you face the toughest pre-district schedule you have had since moving to Carter.  Is that to get you prepared for a playoff run?

AW:   I think so.  This is a chance to play some good football teams.  Hopefully we will come through these game injury free entering district play.

DSB:  What is the difference in the players you coach today versus those that you coached in the 80's and 90's.

AW:   Football is not as important to them.  It's a different time.  There are so many other things.  In the 70's you had what…2 or 3 channels?  Now they have 250 channels.  There's the Internet, so many things.  The world has gotten smaller.  In the 70's football was it.  It's still important to the coaches and to the parents, but not as important to the kids.

DSB:  In the 1980's your Paris teams built a state wide reputation in Class 4A, and in the 90's, your John Tyler teams built the same type reputation in 5A.  What will it take for Carter to get there?

AW:   Playoffs…we've gotten there, but we haven't stayed long.  We've got to go 3 or 4 rounds to make ourselves known. 

DSB:  So again, the pre-district schedule will help with that.

AW:   It will help the kids understand the effort that it's going to take.  The games get tougher, and the players get tougher.

DSB:  What was it like lining up against John Tyler last week?

AW:   Like anybody else, they are a great opponent.  One thing J.T. does is expose your weaknesses.  They exposed ours, so now we have to go back and look at it.

DSB:  Finally coach, do you ever find yourself in a game, wishing that you had Shawn Williams playing cornerback, out on the island, shutting down his side of the field?

AW  (Laughter) Well…(more laughter)…we wish we had all of our players…great players from the past, out on the field all at the same time.    

I played one season of varsity football for Coach Wilson at Paris High School in 1990.  We won a district title, the last one captured by a Paris football team.  Coach Wilson left for John Tyler prior to my senior year, and football in my hometown has never been the same.