Jacob Jones is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Barry Goldwater High School for AZPreps365.com

PHOENIX - Frank Lautt’s football journey has taken him to a country where he was able to share the sport he loves to teach and changed the mindset of his coaching lifestyle.

Lautt, who began his coaching career at Alhambra High School in 1995, was living the standard life of a high school football coach. 

All that changed in 2016 when Lautt announced he would leave the position of a head football coach at Alhambra after 21 years in the position.

Shortly after Lautt chose to take over the football program of the Chambéry Eagles, located in southern France. 

It also meant that Lautt and his family would have to pack their bags for a coaching experience on the other side of the globe. But Lautt, who was born in Orléans, France, and taught French at Alhambra for 30 years embraced the opportunity to teach and grow the sport of football in a country hungry for the opportunity. 

“It was it's an experience,” Lautt said. “It's not inbred like it is here in the US, but it's spreading and that was s one of my goals, to help them spread it over there so that we can build the sport like throughout the world, not just here but everywhere.” 

It was also there that Lautt would begin teaching more than just football, especially to one of his former players.

Wilber Rivera, who played under Lautt at Alhambra for three years, joined him on the trip to a country where only spoke small parts of their language. That's also where Lautt stepped in to help.

“When I got there, just coaching in general, in a different language, it's kind of hard,” Rivera said. “But being with Coach allowed me to have a translator of french and english. So it really helped us in the long run because it made us actually put our knowledge together and help because we were on the same team.”

One of the things that surprised Lautt once he got to France is how immersed people were with American football and the NFL.

That was one of Lautt’s biggest accomplishments: being able to expand knowledge and popularity of the game he loves.

“We were so surprised when I went there. A lot of they know all about the NFL, they know all about coaches, and even the ones that aren't involved in soccer know about football,” Lautt said.

But Lautt’s calling brought him back to Arizona high school football, and in 2019 he announced that he would take over the program at Barry Goldwater High School. 

“They had called me to see if I was interested in coming back and I said ‘absolutely’  because I love Arizona high school football and working with all these high schools,” Lautt said.

Not only did Lautt take the job, he brought some of his former coaches that he worked with in the French football program. 

This also means that coach Lautt has taken on a larger responsibility than just coaching, he’s now the team’s full-time translator.

Senior linebacker Azahel Armenta says he appreciates the different communication that the diverse coaching staff brings and that its only brought success to their team.

“Even with a language barrier, if there was one, we've been doing a lot of team exercises and team building and especially out here and in the weight room and everything so I feel like he's brought us together like like closer because of the culture here,” Armenta said.