TALLULAH – Levi Washington Jr. is continuing the family tradition, one that involves standing on a sideline every Friday night directing high school football players with a passionate purpose. The new Madison Parish High School head coach is just following in his father’s footsteps, although the path he has cut for himself will be much different.

While Washington’s father, Levi Washington Sr., became a legendary figure in the annals of McCall High in Tallulah, the younger Washington will take over a school that is close by but light years apart from the elder Washington’s squads of days past. Madison finished 3-7 last season and is now looking to pick up the pieces in an attempt to reinvent itself as an offensive juggernaut. The first-year head coach has been an integral part of that transformation as he commands a locker room for the first time.

“It’s exciting to know that my father was a head coach in this city as well,” Washington Jr. said. “Just to know that these kids’ parents either went to school with me or are around the same age, either family or friends or are real, real close. It’s a good thing to be a leader of the children.”

Washington has installed his version of the spread at Madison, where he looks to utilize an array of skill position players to open up the field and complement his team’s speed with trips sets and double doubles. The Jaguars plan to use four receivers on the field a majority of the time with three-year starter Jarvis Williams at quarterback.

“We’re going to run a lot of the spread. We’re going to run a lot of different formations and everything,” Washington said. “We’re going to be a 50-50 run/pass team.”

Williams will be learning his third offensive system in three years, but the junior is beginning to grasp his new coach’s air-it-out style as the season opener approaches Sept. 5 at home against St. Frederick.

“It’s a little disadvantage to me. It’s his third system he’s playing up under,” Washington said of his quarterback. “He’s doing well. He’s grasping information and he’s getting better and better as (time goes on).

Madison will run a 4-2-5 defense built to stop other spread teams from airing the ball out. The Jaguars’ speed on offense will be matched on this side of the ball, and the 4-2-5 allows them to take more chances without a higher risk.

“We’re going to be a little more aggressive. We have a lot of speed so we’re going to take advantage of that,” Washington said. “We have more hybrid linebacker type safety kind of kids. That’s the better defense to put them in the place to be able to get in space and make plays for us.”

The team has a tough hill to climb and the transition won’t be easy. Madison plays four teams that have either played for or won a state championship in the past 10 years, a test Washington hopes will help harden his team as it heads into district play.

“Three of those teams we play them very early in the season. It’s really going to test where we’re at,” he said. “I just think our guys are excited. We had a good offseason. I think they’re excited. The numbers are up and the only thing to do is just go up.”

And while he hasn’t set any personal or team goals quite yet, he does know that success — however it is defined — is what he wants to attain in 2014.

“We just want to be successful and build the program up,” Washington said. “We’re just trying to build this program up and just try to get it going in the right direction.”