Naomi B. Jones
March 11, 2008Exhibits
March 13, 2008
His most memorable game was homecoming of his senior year at Terrebonne High School. Not because of the score or his play on that night against cross-town rival H.L. Bourgeois, but because of the atmosphere that surrounded the game.
“It may be cliché, but playing high school football, being the starting quarterback was one of the best experiences of my life,” says 1992 THS graduate Corey Naquin. “It is football in the purest form.”
Coming out of Houma Junior High and experiencing the mentoring of legendary head coach Kelly Pugh, Naquin was the heir apparent to Tigers starting play-caller J.J. Trahan, but a knee injury during practice before the start of his junior year put his career on hold.
“I sat out my entire junior year with that knee injury,” explained Naquin. “It changed my perspective on my life. I realized then that my identity was based on football and, when it was gone, I had to do some reevaluating.”
It was during that year that he began to make strides toward what would be his future calling as a motivational speaker and youth minister. He began volunteering to work with young people at his church and the surrounding community.
Naquin returned from his knee injury a more rounded individual and humble football player.
“I was filled with a great deal of pride to be the starting quarterback,” remembers Naquin. “Running out onto that field with the crowd, the cheerleaders, the band playing, surrounded by your friends, it was a terrific feeling like you’ll never experience again.”
Naquin added that few high school football players take the time to realize how lucky they are to play and represent their school. “It really doesn’t hit you until much later in life, the honor of playing and starting for Terrebonne High,” he said.
After graduation, Naquin received an offer to play football at the U.S. West Point Military Academy but declined, choosing instead to stay closer to home, attending USL now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
There he made the football team as a walk-on but injured his ankle in a pickup basketball game the summer entering his sophomore year. It was then that he decided to give up football with no regrets.
“When I got hurt in college, it wasn’t as devastating as getting hurt in high school because my whole life didn’t revolve around the game,” Naquin said. “Giving up football opened up my time to volunteer with my church at school and youth ministry.”
As a former athlete he found that this gave him a platform to reach teens on a level that they could relate to. “Although I was far from perfect, football opened up the doors to help others stay on the right path and introduce them to God in their life by speaking to local youth groups.”
It was during his last semesters at college and soon after graduation that he began to get paying offers to speak to young people at different churches and events. He was even invited back to Terrebonne High School by his former head coach Pat Key to give motivational speeches to the football team on game day Fridays.
“I’d have 15-minutes to talk to the team about character development and then, afterward, counsel players on an individual basis,” he said.
Naquin moved his family to North Carolina as youth minister of a church and began to speak to the area high school athletes for six years. That was followed by another move to Jacksonville, Fla., where he began Celebration Church Youth Ministries, a church-connected organization that equips middle and high school students to place God first in their lives.
Naquin is now heading home to Louisiana and is in the process of starting a similar organization with a church in Destrehan. He will continue to give motivational speeches to high school athletes in the surrounding area.
Now, 16 years removed from his high school playing days, Naquin knows that it’s the athletes that have the respect of the student body. That’s why he focuses his ministry on sports groups more than other organizations.
“I feel that if you can reach the athletes in a school and get them to live a better life, then you can bring about real change in the hearts and minds of the other students.”
Naquin says that many of the people that made a difference in his life were his coaches. It’s his hope by using life experiences and faith in God; he can coach athletes to become leaders and positive role models for others.
Former Terrebonne High quarterback Corey Naquin, center, has made the transition from leading players on the field to teens in life. The QB-turned-youth minister has found his niche encouraging others. * Photo courtesy of COREY NAQUIN
