Local powers to be challenged in 2015 season

Local to be featured on The Ultimate Fighter

September 9, 2015

Nicholls scores big commitments

September 9, 2015

By day, I tell stories about local sports. All of the headlines and editorial content that you see across the pages of this section are the fruits of my weekly labor.

But what most folks don’t know is that by night, I’m still heavily invested in what’s going on around the local athletic scene.

Even when I’m not formally on the clock, I’m likely to be in a basketball gym or somewhere behind an outfield fence catching a few innings of a random ball game.

That’s what I do. Local athletics are a huge passion of both myself and also my friends. When we aren’t at games, we’re likely texting one another in group messages – discussing all of the hot-button topics that are going on around the area.

So with all of that said, I had a longtime friend of mine call this week while I was driving to work. Naturally, he wanted to talk sports. In the middle of the conversation, he asked me about prep football and the 2015 season – the topic that is on almost everyone’s minds around our community, which has a deep love for Friday night lights. After giving him a few generalized comments, he then asked me who I thought the best teams would be this fall.

That’s when it hit me: I have absolutely, positively no stinkin’ idea! For the first time in seven football seasons with this newspaper, I have no inkling where the true contenders lie.

And that excites me.

Prep football in this area is exciting, but it’s also pretty predictable. Throughout my time as a sports reporter locally, the same handful of teams have succeeded, while others have mostly enjoyed just modest – if any success.

In Class 5A, Thibodaux historically sits at the head of the table, while Central Lafourche, H.L. Bourgeois and Terrebonne lag a bit behind and struggle.

In Class 4A, South Lafourche, South Terrebonne and Vandebilt usually are strong, while Ellender, Morgan City and Assumption fight for any wins that they can get.

In Class 3A, E.D. White is usually strong, which mirrors Class 1A where fellow private schools CCA and Houma Christian always contend, as well.

But when one takes a quick peak around local fieldhouses this fall, it doesn’t take long to realize that the days of old are gone. For the first time in quite a while, there are real winds of change blowing that can greatly alter the winners, losers and playoff contenders in local prep football.

Let’s start with H.L. Bourgeois.

Emotions are high around the Braves program right now as first-year coach Carey Melvin takes over the struggling program that hasn’t had any sustained success since the mid-2000s.

But under Melvin, the Braves have a new attitude, and they think that they can win big. The team proved it on jamboree night when they walloped South Terrebonne 27-0 in the shortened game – something that the Braves haven’t done to the inter-parish rival in a long, long time.

A veteran coach once told me that the teams he feared most were those with first-year coaches, because student-athletes always get excited about change. The Braves have that excitement factor roaring through their program this fall. Combine that with a roster filled with returnees, and I can see a world where H.L. Bourgeois has a good season – maybe even their first winning campaign in almost a decade. Melvin is a good coach, and I think he’s going to take that program to the next level.

The same can be said about what’s going on at Central Lafourche. With veteran coach Keith Menard entering his third season, the Trojans look bigger, faster and stronger than they have in years past. Like H.L. Bourgeois, Central Lafourche dominated its jamboree in an 18-0 shutout over a pretty good Brusly team.

Menard has won everywhere he’s ever been, so it’s only a matter of time before he gets the Trojans program into the playoffs. After two-straight four-win seasons, that time just might be now. Of course, the drawback for Central Lafourche is a brutal River Parish-based district. But heck, they beat Hahnville just two years ago, so why can’t they do it again? Like I said above, it’s only a matter of time before Menard gets it done.

While the Braves and Trojans look to surge upward, a few traditional powers might have a rough go in 2015 to complete the local transformation.

South Terrebonne won 11 games in 2014, but lost 17 out of 22 starters off that group. The Gators are young, and aren’t ready. They won’t be nearly as strong this year as they were last year. The same can be said to a lesser extent for Thibodaux, who has a ton of starters to replace off last year’s group that made it to the second round of the Class 5A Playoffs. Likewise, South Lafourche’s roster is experienced, but its quarterback is out for the season with injuries he sustained in a wreck. In the jamboree, the Tarpons got creamed, and no one yet knows if they’ll ever bounce back after Allen’s injury.