Having finished his first month on the new job, Tucker Carter, Livingston ISD’s new athletic director/head football coach, said it’s been “fast and furious with a lot of moving parts” as he presented a program for the Rotary Club of Livingston Thursday.
Sharing a little about his background, he said his wife of six years, Hayley, is finishing up her contract in the Tyler area and will be a teacher at Timber Creek Elementary School in the fall. He said his biggest influence is his parents and that his father was a coach and teacher.
Carter graduated from Allen High School where he was the quarterback. He then played college football for the University of Texas at San Antonio before becoming a fulltime strength and conditioning coach across various age groups for both boy and girl athletes. He served as the offensive coordinator at Bonham High School and then went to Whitehouse High School where he served as offensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator, powerlifting coach and assistant track coach.
“If you hire the right people, everything will work out. You don’t have to worry about the X’s and O’s. I’m here for the kids – to make them better people, better students and better athletes,” he said, adding that he has already implemented some grade checks. “We want to win every sport, graduate everyone, generate school pride and support all sports.
As for his coaching philosophy, he said he believes in purpose over goals, pouring into kids every single day and holding them accountable.
“The end goal is to see them walk across the stage prepared for something. To do this, you got to love kids – be positive, be professional, build relationships and impact community. We want our kids to take pride in being involved within the community,” Carter said, adding that each sport will have a specific community project on which they will work.
“A big area of focus coming here – we were not doing a good job of sharing athletes. We want combo athletes. We want them to do everything, even if it’s two sports in the same season. We’ll find a way. If they want to do both, we’ll work it out. It’s about building relationships,” he said.
Carter shared what he considers to be the core values.
“Discipline – it’s not something we do to them, but attention to detail to set yourself up for success; toughness – acting different than you feel; belief – having unwavering mentality; and resiliency – adversity happens, how will you respond?
“Every sport is well-represented, and our numbers are going up. I’m excited to be here,” he said in closing.
