BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
Five St. Landry Parish high school football coaches previewed the progress of their teams Tuesday as the start of the 2024 season is slightly more than 72 hours away.
Coaches from Northwest, North Central, Beau Chene, Port Barre and Opelousas high schools described the status of their programs and answered questions asked by members during a noon Opelousas Rotary Club meeting.
Each team that was present is preparing to participate in the annual St. Landry Parish Football Jamboree which will be held at Donald Gardner Stadium Friday night starting at 6 pm.
In a separate interview, the coaches met with St. Landry Now.com and provided their assessments of the scrimmages that involved their teams last Thursday and Friday.
Northwest High
Coach Chris Edwards is the longest tenured football coach in St. Landry Parish, whose team has sufficient experience to make another run through the state playoffs.
The Raiders did that in 2023, reaching the Division II non-select semifinal, which was a program milestone.
Northwest has seven returning players on each side of the ball, but the Raiders have a challenging schedule that includes Eunice, Jennings, Rayne and Barbe High.
“We came up a game short of playing for a championship last year. With our first four games, we might wind up 5-5 or 6-4. That might prepare us for the playoffs, providing we can stay healthy,” Edwards said.
Edwards said a scrimmage involving LaGrange last Thursday allowed his coaches to evaluate the entire roster.
“The big thing was that we came out of it without any injuries. We saw a lot of kids and we were really pleased with what we saw from (St. Edmund tailback transfer) Kevon Johnson. He is going to make a big difference,” Edwards pointed out.
North Central
Head coach Dwight Collins told the Rotarians that 2024 represents a culture change for North Central football.
“We have always had some great athletes, but bringing them together has always been a challenge. We started with just a few in the spring and that number rose to 57. Now there are about 35 out there. This year we have an eighth grader starting at quarterback and you can expect us to be young for a few years. We want to build from the inside out and hope we can put that fire in them,” Collins said.
In a scrimmage with Avoyelles and Buckeye, Collins said he observed his young team undergo growing pains.
“There were a few bright spots. We had a lot of first time starters and once they settled down, they got better,” Collins added.
Port Barre
The Red Devils haven’t taken a regular season snap and so far the team has been overwhelmed with injuries, said head coach Brent Angelle.
“Three of (the injuries) are ACL’s. We are coming off a season that was good by our standards. We return a lot of players, but right now we are looking at how to order more crutches. We’re back in Class 2A now, which is a better fit for us. I think that is going to make us more competitive,” Angelle added.
Port Barre played Oberlin in a scrimmage and Angelle said the results were mixed.
“We have a lot to work on right now. We committed some fundamental mistakes. I guess we were riding high after a good spring and Oberlin was able to drive it right down on us. We’ve been making personnel changes and offensively there are a lot of things to clean up,” Angelle said.
Beau Chene
The Gators are in their first season under head coach Buck Harris.
Harris said he has seen interest in playing football at Beau Chene revived after the program ended the year with 23 players.
“Right now we are up to 67. We are in the middle of changing the atmosphere and we have a number of promising freshmen and young players. We are getting some kids who have played baseball and football at the school and they are good looking athletes,” said Harris.
The Gators scrimmaged Westminster Christian-Lafayette last week.
“I thought I saw some improvement as the scrimmage went on and part of that was we were able to move the football. We got to look at a lot of kids. Westminster came in and they hit us low and hard, which was something that we had to adjust and react to,” Harris said.
Opelousas High
Opelousas returns seven on offense in addition to a good bit of a defense that was significant as the Tigers ran through the 2023 season and captured a Division II non-select championship.
This season the Tigers have six home games and contests with Teurlings Catholic, Edna Kaar, Zachary, Alexandria, Natchitoches Central and Lake Charles College Prep on the schedule.
Head coach Jimmy Zachery, Jr., said this team didn’t play a scheduled scrimmage at Northside on Friday.
“I guess we will find out something (in the Friday jamboree game against Northwest). We haven’t taken any live snaps against someone else since last December in the championship game. I don’t know how much not having a jamboree will hurt us, You want to have that experience going into the season,” said Zachery.
