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Central Lafourche head football coach Keith Menard thought he had one heck of a football team last year.
The Trojans started 4-0 and were riding here than they’d been in a long time – fresh off a shootout victory over rival South Lafourche.
But then District 7-5A happened and Central didn’t win again.
Welcome to prep football in the Houma-Thibodaux area – a place where district play is an absolute grind every, single week.
The area is home to three leagues – District 7-5A, District 7-4A and District 8-1A and coaches in all three say that you can’t ever take a Friday night off during the season, because if you do, you’re going to get beat.
“Every, single game is a battle,” Central Lafourche coach Keith Menard said of the Class 7-5A grind. “If you don’t play your best, you’re going to get beat. There aren’t any easy games. Everyone has playmakers and everyone has guys who can beat you. The level of talent is second to none.”
That makes for some exciting Friday nights in the fall.
Let’s start in 7-5A.
In the local Class 5-A district, the schedule is a grind.
The league is a mixture of River Parish schools with Lafourche and Terrebonne schools. The sum of its parts is one of the best leagues in Louisiana.
The powerhouse of the league is Destrehan – the multi-year defending district champion and an annual contender to win the Class 5A State Championship.
But Hahnville is always a bear, too, and East St. John is known to produce college-level talent, as well.
Historically, the Bayou/River District is owned by the river, but lately, the local schools have caught up. Thibodaux has scored several victories over River Parish schools in the past few years, as has Central Lafourche.
Terrebonne and H.L. Bourgeois have also made significant strides – each coming off of playoff seasons.
“I think with this district, you look at your schedule and you see right away that every, single team has a few guys that you’d consider to be special talents,” Terrebonne coach Gary Hill said at Terrebonne General’s Media Day in July. “Bourgeois has gotten better. Chris (Dugas) does a great job at Thibodaux. Keith (Menard) has things going well at Central. Of course, we know the river schools always have talent at their disposal. It’s, I believe, one of the most competitive leagues in the district. I’d put our first place team up against anyone and I’d put our last place team every year against any other last place team because top-to-bottom, we have quality football teams.”
The same can be said in District 7-4A – another league filled with parity and squads with playoff aspirations as 2017 approaches.
The king of the Class 7-4A jungle right now is Assumption – the two-time reigning champions of the league.
But on paper, it sure looks like the Mustangs are going to have a lot of challengers to their throne.
Vandebilt is loaded from top-to-bottom with quarterback Andrew Robison back and a two-headed monster and running back in Michael LeCompte and Brennan Rogers – two of the better players in the area.
But coach Jeremy Atwell said he’s also excited about the Terriers’ defense – a unit which has several key players back with a lot of depth.
“I think this is a group that has potential to be one of the best that we’ve had in my time here on that side of the ball,” Atwell said. “I like our size and I like our skill. I think we have some athletic playmakers who can really do some things on the back-end – that’s something we’ve not always had here.”
Also expected to challenge is South Lafourche – a team that would probably have as many players as anyone on a preseason All-District team if such a thing existed.
The Tarpons return college-bound seniors like halfback Corbin Allen, offensive lineman Chad Cheramie, linebacker Jeremy Rogers and defensive lineman Jacob Danos – all some of the top players in the area.
Depth will be a concern for South Lafourche, according to first-year coach Blake Forsythe.
Speaking of college-level talent, Ellender is also expected to be a tough out – even after losing more than 10 seniors to college this past season.
South Terrebonne is an underdog, but that’s not a role the school has had often in the past 20 years – a time when they’ve been one of the most successful programs in the area.
“It was a tough year for us (last year), but the kids never gave up,” Gators coach Richard Curlin said. “I think we will be older now, and I think the kids have a lot more experience.”
In Class 1A, the title is also expected to be wide open with CCA and Houma Christian both expected to challenge Varnado to be among the top dogs in District 8-1A.
CCA coach Randy Boquet said he’s annually impressed at how much Class 1A has evolved in the past decade. The classification now boasts several highly talented teams.
“We don’t have the numbers, of course,” Boquet said. “But if you look at some of the teams in this classification, I think it’s easy to see right away that there’s some really quality football being played out there around the state of Louisiana every, single Friday night.”
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