Madison Coleman was a freshman English student at Captain Shreve High School in Shreveport, Louisiana, when an end-of-year business-plan assignment asked her to design a company. She sketched a DJ business. The 17-year-old, known professionally as DJ Maddie Mad, now performs across the city at community events, private functions, and school activities.
Her path from a graded project to working gigs runs through one former teacher, two parents with sharply divided roles, and a Christmas gift that arrived in pieces. Coleman is one of Shreveport’s youngest female professional DJs.
How a Freshman Project Became a Working DJ Career
Coleman’s business plan arrived as one assignment among many in her ninth-grade English class. Students were asked to design a company, write it up, and present it for a final grade. The teacher graded the plans and returned them to the class. She went with a DJ business.
The assignment was framed around building a business in Shreveport, Coleman said. The project, she recalled, “brought me to my hobby.” Her pitch was simple: she liked music, and she wanted other people to like it too. The plan was a local DJ service. The plan was the start. The grade came first.
Two years after the project, Coleman had a working roster. She became the official DJ for the Captain Shreve Gators basketball team, a role she took on inside her own high school. She has also performed at events across the Shreveport area, from community events to private functions to school activities, and the school was one of her clients.
By her own junior year, the work had started to follow her around the building. Classmates knew her as DJ Maddie Mad, the name she uses professionally, and the name now carries weight inside Captain Shreve, where her growing reputation has made her a recognizable figure. She had been working the calendar of gigs for months by then. She attended the junior prom that year without working the event, showing up as a guest.
- Name: Madison Coleman, stage name DJ Maddie Mad
- Age: 17
- School: Captain Shreve High School, Shreveport, Louisiana
- Status: Rising senior, official DJ for the Captain Shreve Gators basketball team
- Origin: Ninth-grade English business-plan project
The Teacher Whose Assignment Sparked the Business
Former Captain Shreve teacher Candice Washington designed the assignment. The project was meant to help students see how their passions could become careers, she said, and to understand that their ideas could be monetized and used as tools for their future beyond the classroom. The work was graded, returned, and largely forgotten by the classroom, until Washington’s phone rang. Coleman’s mother, Shondale Coleman, called her about a year later, Washington recalled. The mother had a specific update to share. ‘My daughter created this business because of that business plan that you had her do,’ the mother told Washington. Washington had not expected the call.
Washington had not seen it coming. “And her mother circled back to me like a year later,” Washington said, recounting the call. The teacher’s assignment had produced a real, paying business out of a graded English class, according to the Shreveport profile of Coleman’s DJ business. The exercise had produced something more durable than a grade. The exercise had outlasted the school year. The exercise kept going.
What Washington intended was a small exercise in entrepreneurship. What she got back was a working DJ business, a school basketball team contract, and a 17-year-old running a client list. The teacher designed the project to be graded; the result was graded and then launched. The plan became a working roster. The plan was still in motion.
The Prom She Did Not DJ
Coleman attended her junior prom as a guest, not as the entertainment. Several classmates were surprised to see her standing on the wrong side of the speakers. Some were a little disappointed she was not working the event.
Kids were shocked to see me just being there as a participant. Some of them were a little disappointed that I wasn’t the DJ. I told them, ‘Guys, I have to enjoy these special moments too.’
That was Madison Coleman, 17, speaking to classmates at Captain Shreve High School. Her reputation has made her a recognizable figure in the building.
Her Parents Built the Back Office
Coleman’s business runs on a tight two-person staff. Her mother, Shondale Coleman, manages the operation; her father, Nathaniel Coleman Jr., handles the technical setup. Mother and daughter describe the role as ‘momager.’
The mother framed it as the obvious move. “When it came to doing her job as a DJ, I said, ‘Well, if you like music, we’ve got to get you the tools,'” Shondale Coleman said. The first tool arrived as a mixing board one Christmas, and the role grew to include scheduling, logistics, and client work. The role has grown to include a regular schedule. The mixing board was the first of the gear.
A lot of people think it’s me, but it’s clearly not. All I know how to do is set it up. The music selection and everything else is all her.
That was Nathaniel Coleman Jr., Coleman’s father, in the Shreveport profile of the family. He drew a clear line between setup and performance: he wires the rig, his daughter runs the music. The mixing board from that first Christmas still anchors the family’s equipment. The operation is still the two parents plus Coleman.
Shondale handles the schedule and the conversations with clients. Technical setup at every gig falls to Nathaniel: he arrives, wires the rig, and hands the booth to Madison. Music selection, programming, and the live read of the room sit with Madison. The split is straightforward: he does setup, she does music. Madison runs the music from the booth.
- Shondale Coleman (mother): Manages the operation, including scheduling, logistics, and client communications.
- Nathaniel Coleman Jr. (father): Handles technical setup of DJ equipment at events.
- Madison Coleman: Owns the music selection, programming, and live performance.
Band Captain by Day, Behind the Decks by Night
Coleman runs a parallel life inside the school walls. She is the captain of the Captain Shreve Gators band, a role she balances against a calendar of paid gigs. Inside the band, she plays both the baritone and the euphonium, two low-brass instruments. Outside the band, she runs a DJ booth that classmates now expect her to set up at school events. She moves between brass rehearsal and DJ gigs in the same week. The two roles sit on the same weekly schedule.
The role of band captain is a separate piece from the DJ work. She holds both at once, with the school year bracketing the calendar of paid gigs. Both roles depend on reading a room.
The school year, like the DJ calendar, has tight weeks. She splits time between band rehearsals, performances, schoolwork, and DJ bookings. Her parents stay on the back office, leaving her free to run the music. The senior year will compress the schedule, with band season, basketball season, and the gig calendar all running in parallel. The schedule has been tight all year. Coleman has not said how she plans to handle the senior year schedule.
A Senior Year With No Setlist Yet
Coleman will be a senior in the fall. She is still deciding what comes next after high school. Music, she has said, will be part of her plans after high school. The band captain seat and the Gators DJ booth will both still be hers in the fall.
The DJ work is part of what she has decided to keep. She has not said what comes after graduation, beyond the certainty that music will stay. The Shreveport bookings, the band captain seat, and the Gators DJ booth are all still hers. “Her love of music continues to fuel her entrepreneurial ambitions,” she has said. For now, that is the working setlist. The brass band and the DJ booth are both in play for the fall.
