The last of our three new Zachary high football coaches is Chris McNamara, who is new to Zachary but not new to many on the ZHS coaching staff.
McNamara started his coaching career at Chalmette in 2003 and 2004. After Hurricane Katrina, McNamara was forced out of Chalmette and was the defensive coordinator for coach David Brewerton at Livonia.
โWe hit it off immediately,โ McNamara said. After Livonia, McNamara moved to Jefferson Parish and then home to Chalmette. Through all those moves, Brewerton and the other coaches with him at Livonia were on McNamaraโs mind.
Before we get into all that, McNamara got his education and prepped at Holy Cross, where he played football and threw the discus. From there he moved on to Northwestern State and finished at UNO.
McNamara is quick to point out that he has been to every state championship game Zachary has played in but the first one in 2015. Based on some of the near-misses at Livonia, Brewerton banned McNamara from the 2015 title game where the Broncos beat John Ehret. After the jinx was broken, McNamara has been at all the other Broncos trips to the Superdome and notes that โyou can see me and my son with our hands up in the end zone on the catch by Hilton against West Monroe (2018) that was in ถถา๕h.โ
He notes that he saw Brewerton after the 2015 championship โat the Poydras exit to the Superdome.โ
McNamaraโs son Cooper, who recently graduated from Chalmette, wanted to graduate with his friends, which was one of the reasons his move to Zachary was delayed. McNamara and his wife, Yvette, moved to Zachary in June, and he loves it. When asked why he has kept this relationship with Brewerton and made the move to Zachary, McNamara replied, โItโs the way he handles things, how players, parents and coaches respond to him, how he lets the coaches do their jobs and the management of the program just draws you in.โ
Though he was previously a defensive coach, he will be working with the H-backs this year. He has three seniors that he is excited because they bring different qualities to the position.
โWe have some big bodies and two smaller younger guys that are physical and will know what their job is going to be,โ he said.
When he is done with football, he will be working with his other passion, wrestling. He is keenly aware of the positive attributes of wrestling for crossover to football.
โI had a kid at Chalmette that was a smaller linebacker type that wrestled at 165 pounds but when he was on the football field, he never missed a tackle and made it to the finals in wrestling his senior year,โ McNamara relayed.
McNamaraโs passion for wrestling goes beyond football as he has a passion for the expansion of wrestling to girls.
โWhen we started the girls program, I had the second largest program in the state and finished third at the state tournament this year,โ he said.
McNamara had 80 wrestlers that included 18 girls in his wrestling program last year. โI stepped away from football for two years because wrestling really exploded and I focused on that,โ McNamara explained. His boys finished seventh overall last year with two finalists.
He stresses, โI am a strong family man, and I believe in building relationships with the kids by letting them know I care so we can have the fun and tough conversations with a level of trust.โ