What are one or two of your greatest business and/or community achievements?

My biggest achievements are playing professional football for eight seasons, culminating with a Super Bowl Championship in 2021, and opening a new multipurpose facility for Holy Family Catholic School (HFCS) in 2022. After recognizing the pressing infrastructural needs of HFCS, I partnered with Acadiana Ambulance founder Richard Zuschlag and Chief Administrative Officer Blaise Zuschlag to raise awareness of the issue. Ultimately, our fundraising efforts in the Acadiana community provided a nearly $6 million seed investment to build a new multipurpose facility for the school.

This facility includes seven fully equipped classrooms and a new gymnasium. With this new building, HFCS can continue growing its middle school student population and provide exceptional Catholic education while offering a safe space for all school, athletic, and extracurricular activities. Most importantly, the new facility solidifies HFCS as a community pillar and place of gathering for religious and cultural events on the northside of Lafayette.

What’s your favorite thing about what you do for a living?

The best part about my job is molding the next generation of young, civically engaged, and faithful servant-leaders. As an administrative team, we do our best to follow Christ’s model of sacrifice and steadfast resilience. Whether its substitute teaching, coaching an athletic team, or promoting HFCS in Acadiana and beyond, I enjoy every moment of watching the young boys and girls learn, grow, and achieve more than they originally thought possible.

Building community partnerships with the amazing professional groups of Acadiana, including Bridge Ministry, Acadiana Black Nurses Association, Legatus, Louisiana Department of Health, Lafayette Master Gardeners Club, and 100 Black Men of Acadiana, has been a great joy since moving to Lafayette Parish. Each relationship and connection with these mentorship groups not only adds practical educational value to the students of HFCS, but increases exposure to different professional futures. I personally received great mentorship as a youth, mentorship that inspired me to dream big. It is my great honor to continue that legacy in mentoring the Holy Family Catholic School students.

You went from an NFL career and a Super Bowl win to partnering on a school expansion and restarting your family ranch. What did that transition teach you about purpose after a big chapter ends?

Purpose is the only thing that matters. That experience going from the NFL to early education and into the agricultural industry has taught me that purpose really is the only thing that matters.

It is what defines and motivates me. Having something or someone to believe in that’s bigger than myself – whether that’s an institution, family, or my faith – is what I need in my life to continue moving forward and living purposely.

The easiest transferable skill is organization and discipline. As a professional athlete, you don’t always have to be the most organized person, but you have to show up on time every day. Being in the academic world and or in a school setting, that’s a very natural transition.

One of the other things that I’ve learned from the transition is that a smile matters. It goes a long way, especially with the little kids and parents in garnering trust and confidence. We would show up every single day and try to put a smile on each other’s faces through competition and winning, and that’s something that I bring to Holy Family.