Louisiana’s 2025 high school football season was loaded with eye-popping, prolific and even record-breaking performances by players from every corner of the state.
Few, if any, made more of an impact on both sides of the ball than Carencro senior star Chantz Babineaux — particularly considering his workload coming at the Class 5A level and in a strong, always physical District 3-5A.
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The Golden Bears’ four-sport, three-phase standout finished his decorated high school career with a résumé that includes broken school records as a passer, receiver and defender and a senior season among Louisiana’s leaders in both receiving yards and interceptions.
His performance earned him the recognition as Louisiana vs. All Y’all’s first Tre’Davious White Two-Way Player of the Year to go with a recent LSWA Class 5A all-state selection.
“He just was incredible his senior season,” Carencro coach Gavin Peters said. “We were playing Notre Dame in the jamboree, and Monday or Tuesday that week our scout team just absolutely killed our defense and I said, ‘Look, we need a little bit of help over there… I think we’ve got enough depth at the wide receiver position, let’s go ahead and make Chantz a full-time guy in the secondary. And my expectation is you’re out there every play on offense, but if you need a break, just let me know, but you’re never gonna be too tired to play a snap on defense.’ And then the cat goes out there against Notre Dame on Thursday and gets a pick-six on the first defensive drive, and I’m screaming in the headsets, ‘I told y’all I’m a GM!’
“Then he goes out there and has (eight) interceptions and probably had four or five dropped interceptions and numerous pass deflections, and then on the offensive side of the ball he continued to break other records and finished with almost 1,400 yards. You know, if he had been a full-time offensive player or we had played him more on offense, he probably would’ve had 2,000 yards receiving. Just what an incredible year the young man had, and he’s a big part of our basketball program we’re hoping will compete for a district championship there. And then once basketball season is done, he’s gonna be the best player on the baseball team even though he probably hasn’t picked up a baseball bat since last baseball season.”
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Working primarily at corner, Babineaux racked up 51 tackles, eight interceptions, 11 pass breakups and three defensive touchdowns.
He caught 52 passes for 1,336 yards and 15 touchdowns as a pass-catcher, overtaking the program’s career receiving and scoring records despite taking on more prioritized defensive responsibilities this year than ever before.
And the 5-foot-11, 200-pound jack of all trades, who signed with Nicholls State in December, also took snaps at quarterback, where he’d started much of the previous two seasons, and presented a dangerous dual-threat change-of-pace complement to sophomore Carson Gurzi in the role.
Babineaux’s versatility in that way has been astounding from the moment he stepped foot on campus, said Peters, who maintains the graduating star could’ve just as likely developed into a college quarterback as he has a receiver or defensive back.
“When Chantz first got in our program, I said, ‘Man, this kid, some people are gonna offer him to play quarterback, some people are gonna offer him to play receiver, some people are gonna offer him to play in the secondary, and he’ll have his pick,'” Peters said. “We were all very excited about him at the quarterback position. His freshman year, we were in 7-on-7 at St. Thomas More, and he had been playing quarterback in a varsity session because the other kid… wasn’t cleared yet to play early in that summer. So we let Chantz play quarterback, and we saw it easily right away. And then we were going to use the JV session to get him ready to play in the secondary for us that upcoming fall.
“And we’re out there on offense, and Chantz asked, ‘Coach, you think I could get in and play a little bit of receiver?’ And it’s funny because I’m telling an incoming freshman, ‘Man, this is for the younger guys. You got a lot of work in earlier and in the secondary.’ But we had another kid playing every snap of linebacker and running back in that session, and I saw he was very, very tired, and I told Chantz we were gonna put him at running back the very next play. And we ended up running a concept to him to kind of create some separation for the running back up the seam, and he ended up Mossing a guy and scoring a a touchdown. And we ended up playing about four games that day, and I think he ended up with seven touchdowns.”
Other finalists for Louisiana vs. All Y’all’s inaugural Tre’Davious White Two-Way Player of the Year included University Lab senior lineman Lamar Brown, Ouachita Parish’s Wydell Clark Jr., Madison Prep’s Landon Johnson, Iowa junior Kaston Lewis and East Feliciana’s Ryan Moore Jr.
The award is named for former Green Oaks and LSU star Tre’Davious White, who excelled at quarterback and in all three phases for his Giants before going on to decorated college and NFL careers at cornerback.
White’s most well-rounded high school season came as a junior when he passed for 1,710 yards and 20 touchdowns, rushed for 804 yards and eight scores and racked up 45 tackles and four interceptions on defense. Like Babineaux, he was also a multisport standout, even both LSWA Class 3A all-state basketball and football honors in 2012.
The Shreveport native played in 49 games, including 47 starts, during four seasons for home-state LSU from a Freshman All-SEC and third-team Freshman All-America debut in 2013 to a Consensus All-America senior performance in 2016.
He wrapped up 167 tackles, including 11 for loss, and tallied six interceptions and 34 pass breakups during his time in purple and gold and returned 68 punts for 679 yards and three punt-return scores. During his final two years in Baton Rouge, he donned the program’s coveted No. 18 jersey awarded for leadership.
The Buffalo Bills selected White at No. 27 overall in the 2017 NFL Draft, and he has spent eight of his nine professional seasons with the franchise, including this season which White and the Bills will continue into this weekend’s AFC Divisional Round playoffs.