“I was blessed to be raised in Winnfield,” Robert “Robbie” Causey, head coach of Leesville Wampus Cats, told Winnfield’s Kiwanians at their meeting on June 25, 2024. Robbie’s parents, Don and Sheila Causey, long-time members of the Winnfield community, were guests of Kiwanis, as well as Tommy Straughan and Candace Tarver. He enjoyed growing up amid the football tradition here, and cited the examples of his coaches and teachers and their guidance as helping mold him into the man he is today.
Coach Causey coached at various high schools in Louisiana—Eunice, Crowley, Delhi, Jena, Haynesville—before being asked to take a position at Leesville under a new head coach in 1999. He has been in Leesville ever since, coaching football 20 of those 25 years. He served as assistant principal at Leesville Senior High for three years, and principal at Leesville Junior High for two years, but thereafter returned to his first love as an assistant coach at Leesville. He became head coach nine years ago. He feels being part of the Leesville football program is a blessing from God.
Over his years of coaching, Causey has developed his own unique philosophy of coaching: he is “training boys to be men and creating champions for life!” He encourages the boys to strive to do everything better than it has ever been done. He expects his players to train a certain way, play a certain way and walk a certain way, but the football program is greater than the game of football. It is really about relationships of the players with their coaches and teachers, which is a lifelong thing. He strives to know the kids and their families.
Of course, he wants to win games, says Coach Causey, but “I’m not scared of losing games, because I’m teaching kids to overcome adversity.” He challenges the players to know their purpose and has a system of dual leadership, allowing the kids to lead from their first year on the team all the way up.
As he recites the team motto, “T-O-U-G-H,” the gleam of determination in his eyes shows his love and enthusiasm for his mission of developing boys into men. “Trust-Ownership-Unity-Grit-Hard work!”