Jamboree week is here!

Athletes are afraid to compete now and it’s OUR fault as sports fans

August 22, 2018

A trip to the north

August 22, 2018

By the time you get this newspaper, we will be a day or two away from high school football jamborees.

In other words, let’s play some football!

Coaches around the Houma-Thibodaux area say that their teams are ready for competition after long, diligent offseasons on the gridiron.

Several shared their stories this past week at TGMC’s Tri-Parish Media Day — an event which allows media to interact with the head football and volleyball coaches in the area.

Each coach had their own, unique list of goals for the year, but the common theme among all is excitement to get back out on the field in live competition.

“I think our guys are getting antsy and are ready to hit someone in a different colored jersey,” H.L. Bourgeois coach Ryan Fournier said. “The excitement is there. The kids have put in a lot of work and now, we’re all just in that phase where we’re just anxious to get started.”

Fournier is in a club of his own for the 2018 season. He’s the only rookie head coach in the area after 10 of the other 11 guys were retained for another season.

Fournier, a longtime assistant coach, replaced Carey Melvin, who resigned this past offseason. At Media Day, he said he believes he’s ready for this opportunity, but quickly added that there are a lot of “opening-day” nerves and jitters present, as well.

The Braves struggled last year, but are trying to re-gain the playoff form they enjoyed a couple seasons ago.

“I’m terrified,” Fournier said with a laugh when asked if he was nervous about his first game. “I sit and I go through all of these crazy scenarios in my head about what it will be like or what I will do if certain things happen. I know that once that day comes, it will all fall into place, but there is definitely a lot of nervous energy there — that’s putting it mildly.”

But while Fournier sweats out the final days before his debut, veteran coaches have a similar message — they’re often anxious in the days leading up to the season, too.

Central Lafourche coach Keith Menard said he likes his team, but knows that they’re up against a gauntlet by being in District 7-5A — a league which consists of Hahnville, Destrehan, East St. John, Terrebonne, Thibodaux and others.

The Trojans won three games last year, but missed the playoffs.

Thibodaux coach Chris Dugas shared similar sentiments, calling the league the “SEC West.”

“We open up with tough non-district games to start the year, then we open up play in the SEC West,” Dugas said with a laugh. “Every week is just a battle. And on our bye week, we decide, ‘OK, let’s call up those Purple Knights over at St. Aug.’ So our schedule is brutal. You look at me now and the hair is salt and pepper. By the end of the season, the pepper may be empty and it just may be salt on my head, if you know what I’m saying.”

Away from the Class 5A district, local coaches in Class 4A said they think the league is wide open.

Ellender coach David McCormick said the focus of his offseason has been on conditioning and working to ensure that his team finishes strong late in games. The Patriots faded in the fourth quarter of several games, costing them a shot at a winning season.

For others in the league, the theme is the same: it’s impossible to predict who is going to be first or last in the league.

“I think there is a lot of competition,” E.D. White coach Chris Bergeron said. “Every week, you’re facing talented athletes and opponents who are well coached. It’s always a fun league to play through.”

And for others, the focus is on maintaining health.

In class 1A, both Covenant Christian Academy and Houma Christian believe that they can have successes, but both know that the margin for error is slim.

CCA coach Randy Boquet said teamwork and maintaining health are the two biggest goals that the Lions have to conquer to be successful in 2018.

Houma Christian coach Chuck Battaglia went a step farther and illustrated exactly how difficult it is to coach a team with a smaller roster.

“If someone gets hurt, we’re losing two starters most of the time — one on offense and one on defense,” Battaglia said. “And I think what people don’t realize is that it limits the coaching that we can do. It’s harder to make adjustments because we just don’t have the time with the kids on the sidelines that other teams have. We have to do things a little bit differently during the week to prepare for that.”

VOLLEYBALL ALSO GETS MEDIA DAY LOVE

Football gets a lot of the press, but local volleyball is sizzling hot, too.

Several local teams made the Pontchartrain Center last year and many more are expected to have a chance this year, as well.

H.L. Bourgeois coach Peter Verret said the growth of the sport locally is amazing and is a huge source of pride for him as he approaches his final few seasons as a coach.

“It’s just tremendous,” Verret said. “It makes me proud. The old coaches like myself, Coach Didier and Coach Fussell and some of the others, we may go away, but the success of the teams is here and isn’t changing.”

The Lady Braves are one of the area’s top teams annually, though Verret said this year’s H.L. Bourgeois team will be young.