‘He’s Not Satisfied’

Kenny Wright didn’t sugarcoat the moment for Aidan Anding.

Ahead of Ruston’s matchup with Zachary in the Division I Non-select state championship, Wright, Ruston’s cornerbacks coach, met with Anding for the crucial team scout process with some news for the standout defensive back.

The assignment was covering future LSU tight end Trey’Dez Green in the state championship game, a matchup that could dictate whether the Bearcats would be state champions or get torched by a physical specimen (6-7, 226 pounds) the high school game hadn’t come across in some time.

“He just kept telling me, ‘It’s about to get real. All eyes are going to be on you. You’ve got the top assignment with Trey’Dez,’” Anding recalled Wright telling him. “After that game, I knew it was going to start getting real.”

When the moment arrived on Dec. 9, 2023, Anding and the Bearcats delivered, shutting down Zachary and Green better than anyone in the perfect moment to return home as champions with a 31-17 win.

From his crucial punt return touchdown before the end of the first half to a fourth-down pass breakup over Green in the fourth quarter, Anding shined on the brightest stage, capping off the first varsity football season of his life.

It confirmed what Wright already knew: Anding is one-of-one when it comes to performing in big moments.

“We knew it was going to be Aidan and him (Green), and we left him out there and just wanted him to make a play. And that was with a bad hip and all,” Wright said. “He landed on his tailbone in the second quarter, and he fought through it. Some people never knew it because I told him I needed him, and he let me know there was no way he was coming out.

“He’s wired differently — from the old school,” Wright added. “He always wants to work. He has the attitude that if he’s not working hard, he fears somebody’s getting better than him. He has that type of drive. Not that he doesn’t want you to get better than him and he wants to always be prepared every moment.”

Wright and Anding were right about that fateful evening in December 2023 because from that point on, the life of Ruston’s standout corner would change forever.

Before the 2023 football season began, Anding’s first and only football offer came from Louisiana Tech on June 12, 2023.

By the end of December, Anding was named first team All-State by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association in Class 5A with 34 tackles, 4 interceptions, 10 pass breakups, 2 sacks, and a blocked field goal.

By the end of January, he received his second Division-I offer from the University of Miami, starting a recruiting frenzy.

And now, exactly one year later from his first offer, Anding is rated as a top 15 recruit in the state with 18 offers, including nine Power Four offers, taking official visits to his top choices at Miami, Texas, and Arkansas, among a host of options.

But if you ask Anding about how much his life has turned on its head, he’ll tell you there’s still work to do.

For him, becoming one of the top recruits in the state doesn’t mean the job is finished and he can relax going into his senior year, knowing his future is set. Instead, it’s more fuel to a fire that never seems to flicker out. “I feel like I still haven’t made a statement,” Anding said. “People see offers and think, ‘Oh, he’s really good then.’ But having the offers doesn’t mean anything. I truly believe I have more to show people.”

How does a high school athlete with about as bright a future as anyone could ask for stay committed to the grind like Anding?

It may sound cheesy, but the people closest to him say it’s the only way he knows how to be.

Early potential

Ryan Bond could see Anding was going to be special early on in high school.

After coming over to coach Ruston High basketball from Weston High, Bond remembers seeing a young Anding with a quick twitch that others much older than him didn’t possess.

“I wish we were an 8-12 school so he could have come over and gotten minutes with us,” Bond said. “When he was a freshman, there were some upperclassmen above him in the pecking order. But the first couple games we got him in, it was obvious he had to start.”

The flashes revealed themselves to Wright on the football field as well, when he coached Anding in junior high.

Wright, a former star defensive back at RHS himself, saw a raw athlete who needed fine tuning. But with time, he could tell a special player was within Anding’s potential.

“I always knew he had the talent. He’s along, rangy guy. The main thing this time last year was getting him out here and getting him acquainted to play the cornerback position — body movement, pad level, technique. Once I knew he got that, I knew it was just a matter of time before he took off,” Wright said.

When Anding decided to come back to football for his junior year, Wright expected there would be some level of learning curve to get him back into full speed and assignment understanding.

But there wasn’t much to clean up, another sign for Wright that Anding could be in for a special year.

“The first summer he was out here, you would have sworn he’d been out here the last four years with the team the way he was leading them,” Wright said. “He’s a hard worker. I have to keep him off the field sometimes. After they lost the semifinal game in basketball, the next day he wanted to come out here and work out. That’s a good thing. He’s a dog. He likes to work hard.” That drive and almost natural ability to fold himself into whatever sport he’s focused on endears Anding to his coaches. Potential is one thing. But to take it and match it with unmatched work ethic is a special combination, one that Bond, Wright, and Ruston football coach Jerrod Baugh don’t take for granted.

“He got out here last spring, and I thought he was really comfortable to be a basketball guy out on the football field,” Baugh said. “But you can still tell him running around out here the confidence level he has and the comfort level in what it is we’re doing. He’s a really smart kid for one thing, and now you can tell how comfortable, how smart of a football player he is. That’s been really good to see.”

The ‘why’

Every athlete has one – the motivation to achieve his best and keep him from staying complacent.

For Anding, it’s his mother, Candace.

Growing up in a single-parent household, raised by his mother, Anding wants this moment to be in service of the woman who protected him and put him on the path of success — not chasing after NIL deals or fickle promises that come and go in recruiting. It’s for her. It’s why he can’t stop now, no matter how much praise gets thrown on him by national recruiting sites and scouts.

“My momma is my ‘why,’” Anding said. “We haven’t always had it. She’s been a single parent, and she never gave up on me or any of my siblings. She never treated us any differently than each other. Me quitting on a play is basically me quitting on her.”

Bond watched up close h o w family shaped Anding’s outlook, pouring into him that the work is never truly finished. With strong roots keeping him grounded in shaky times to be a top recruit, Bond can see Anding’s motivation comes from a pure place.

“They’re great people,” Bond said of Anding’s family. “They want everybody to succeed. He’s grown up around that. He’s a product of his upbringing.”

Even as offers from Miami, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Baylor, Texas, and more came flying in during Anding’s basketball season, Bond never saw his lead point guard stray from the program’s goals and work habits. And to go with his All-State football honors, Anding was named LSWA 5A All-State for basketball as well.

But Double-A, the name Bond affectionately uses when shouting to him in games, didn’t fold up shop and call it a day.

“The offers didn’t change his outlook or approach to practice. It didn’t change anything about him,” Bond said. “If anything, he focused even more. He wants more. Everything he does, he puts his all into it. Nobody on our campus is going to outwork him. He’s not satisfied. He wants more.”

Anding’s goals go beyond potentially playing in the ACC or SEC after high school. He wants to play in the NFL and set his mother up for the comfort she deserves.

To get there, Anding knows he must stay the course — even if it means losing friends or a typical social life other high school or college teammates might enjoy. His mother sacrificed more than he could ever know. He knows it’s his time to return the favor.

“I always want to outlast the opponent. If I can outlast them, I can accomplish more than them,” Anding said. “And if I do get burnt out or feel tired, I just come back to my ‘why’ of why I’m doing all this. That’s why I don’t want to stop getting better.”

It also helps when two of your football coaches, Wright and RHS defensive coordinator Kyle Williams, combine for more than 20 years of NFL experience — both familiar with the challenges of high-profile recruitments.

Anding leans on Wright, who played at Northwestern State and the University of Arkansas after his prep career, for advice ahead of college visits of what to look for.

Wright challenges Anding, and other potential recruits at Ruston, to recognize the college game is a different animal compared to making your way on a high school roster.

But he knows Anding is starting to figure out the process better than most.

“I tell guys, ‘Once you get to that level, everybody is good. What am I going to do to separate myself ?’ And so, along with his natural ability, he just grabbed onto that idea,” Wright said.

Anding, looking to announce his commitment before the start of the season, continues to train this summer on agility, core strength, and speed to keep his performance at a high level.

Until his time at RHS is finished, Anding won’t stop working, no matter what spotlight is thrown on him. And if you’re wondering how far he can go, it’s best not to come up with an answer. It’s only a box on someone who doesn’t believe in a ceiling.

“To me, the sky’s the limit. I never want to limit myself,” Anding said. “I don’t want to just have interceptions. I want people to not have a catch against me. In fact, I really want a team to not even put a receiver on my side of the field. I don’t even want to be targeted. That’s how I feel.

“In basketball, whenever someone asks me how many points I’m going to have, I never say because I don’t want to limit what I can do. Or they ask me how far I am going to jump, and I never say a number. That limits what I think I can be. The person I always want to beat is myself.'

Anding will be back in action Aug. 23 when the Bearcats take the field again against C.E. Byrd in a scrimmage on the road.

The first regular season game is Sept. 6 at home against Acadiana High at Hoss Garrett Stadium.