Hammonds was bucked off of his rodeo-coaching gig when he moved to Northeast Louisiana. But that’s where he found his next calling.

“I missed coaching, and there are no college rodeo programs around here,” Hammonds said. “So when we moved back to town because we wanted to be closer to family, I called the coach at Northeast Baptist to see if they needed any help. I wasn’t looking to become the new head coach.”

Through a series of events Hammonds was officially named the new Northeast Baptist head football coach in August. And he couldn’t be happier about the opportunity.

While Hammonds primary coaching background involves rodeo, Northeast Baptist’s newest head coach has always had a deep love for football and the strategy it entails. Hammonds made his way to coaching clinics and started studying the strategy aspects of football as a hobby. Now it’s his occupation, as he takes over for a school that, unlike so many schools in the area, has an actual football game in September.

“It’s all just a crazy situation,” Hammonds said. “Everybody at the school, the kids, the teachers and even the kids who aren’t playing football are just so excited. Our situation was wondering if we’d have a football team, and that wasn’t COVID-19 related. They were just wondering if we had enough players to field a team.”

With 12 players in an eight-man football league, the Knights have enough players to compete. Coming off of an 0-7 season, the Knights are part of the Association of Christian Educators of Louisiana (ACEL) and have their first game Friday against Home School of Lake Charles.

“I expect our kids to have some fight,” Hammonds said. “We’re not going to go over there with the mindset of we’ve had some bad years.”

Northeast will play its home games at the West Ouachita Youth Sports Complex this fall.