NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Whenever you attend an Edna Karr boy’s basketball game, you likely will see not five but six Cougars on the court, including head coach Taurus Howard, who occasionally forgets to stay near his bench.
“I’ve always been like that. Sometimes, I think I’m out there. I’m just glad the referees understand. I don’t mean no harm. I’m just trying to get to my kids, make sure they executing and running the right things,” Howard explained.
Howard’s passion resonates in Algiers. The Cougars’ head coach is an Edna Karr alum, part of the 1994 graduating class, and Howard carries championship pedigree. The Karr alumnus has seven rings: winning the 1994 state championship his senior year, being an assistant coach during the program’s last title in 2007 and claiming five state championships as part of the Cougars’ football staff. Now, Howard is passing the torch to his basketball team.
“I’m just trying to carry on the legacy. They instilled toughness and pride in me. I’m just trying to do the same thing with our kids, and it could take you a long way. That’s our legacy, and that’s our foundation at Karr: play tough, play with pride, play together. and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Karr’s head coach continued.
Coach Howard has been close to bringing a ring back to the Purple and Gold, guiding the Cougars to a semi-final appearance in 2022, and although state championships are the Karr standard, the Cougars continue to improve in the regular season. Karr is coming off its first Catholic League title in only its second season in the district.
“This district is really, really tough. To win the Catholic League district, it’s a big thing, but like I told them when the playoffs started, it don’t matter that we won district. Nobody cares. No team in the playoffs going lay down just because you won district. I told them everybody’s 0-0 now. It don’t matter what you did in the regular season,” Howard concluded.
Taurus Howard of Edna Karr. This week’s coach of the week, presented by Delgado Community College: Step Closer to Unstoppable.
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