EDGARD — While a lot of families are close, it is hard to imagine them being closer than that of West St. John head football coach Brandon Walters.

Walters said all of his and wife Rosalind Walters’ five children, which include two young daughters as well three older boys, compete at everything.

“The are very highly competitive, from video games to playing cards to anything,” Walters said. “You name it, they are going to go a it. Pickup games of basketball, sometimes I’ve had to separate them because they go at it so hard.”

Walters said his family’s passion for sports came out recently when they attended a church picnic and got into a pickup game of volleyball.

“They weren’t happy with the way everyone was playing and they showed it,” Walters said. “Everybody was so amazed at how competitive they are even at something like that. They go at it with everything.”

Walters’ two sons, Jabari Walters, 17, and Jamal Walters, 16, are both standout players for Walters’ football team. Jabari is a wide receiver and Jamal is a safety.

As a first year head coach, though in his tenth season at the school, Walters is happy to get the chance to coach his sons.

“I like the fact that I get to be the one to go through these experiences with my sons,” Walters said.

However, Walters said he has been with his children all along the way, not always as a coach, but as a dad.

“They have been playing on recreational teams since they were 7,” Walters said. “I’ve always been involved with them, going to games and going to their practices. They have been around everything I have been doing since that age.”

Over that time Walters said his sons have picked up a natural sense for the game and it shows on the field. Jamal led the team with nine interceptions last season and looks to be on track for more with two interceptions this year. Jabari is one of the team’s best receivers.

“I have been coaching for 17 years now,” Walters said. “So at every school I have been at I bring them along to my at practices, and they have become football junkies I guess.”

Not only do Jabari and Jamal play football for their father, their older brother Jyron Walters, 21, a former quarterback for the University of Northern Colorado and current Tulane student, is an assistant quarterbacks coach for the Rams.

Walters said his dedication to football over the years has definitely rubbed off on his children.

“It has been a fairly easy experience I guess as far as them committing to what I expect of them as players, because they have seen me demand it for so long from so many other kids,” Walters said.

A positive by product of coaching his children is spending time with them that many parents don’t get.

“We have a chance to talk a lot when they are not sleeping in the car,” Walters said. “We get a chance to chat a good bit and build on some man things and some life things.”

Walters said he has always been careful to stress the importance of family with his kids.

“We cook out, we go to different places and we try to do a lot of different things outside of football,” Walters said. “Sometimes, I have to drag them along but still try to do a lot of things together. Between my side of the family and my wife’s side of the family, there is always something going on, and I try to make sure they are involved with it.”

Not only do Jabari and Jamal benefit from going to work with their father every day, they also see their grandfather there. Brandon’s father, Thomas Walters, a minister who has been a social studies teacher at the school for the past five years, teaches the boys as well.

In addition to teaching at West St. John, Thomas Walters also serves as the football team’s chaplain.

In raising his own kids Walters recounts the relationship he has with his father.

“I’ve had a great relationship with my father,” Walters said. “He has always been involved in my life and been to all of my games and practices. I’ve taken that from him and I make sure I do that with my kids.”

There are a few life lessons in particular that stick out that Walters said he learned from his father. He is trying to pass them on to his sons every day.

“Be a man of your word,” Walters said. “Be responsible. Take responsibility for your actions. Show positivity as far as being a man. Some of those things really stuck out as being a man.”

Walters said he tries to live those lessons every day.

“Fortunately I have this opportunity to be able to coach (my sons) and I know at least they are getting the type of instruction as it relates to football and also as it relates to off-the-field stuff,” Walters said. “We preach to the guys that we want to make men out of them for life after football.”