The tradition continues

It is a tradition like no other in high school football.
For the sixteenth time in the history of Evangeline Parish football, the Sacred Heart Trojans and the Ville Platte High Bulldogs will take to the field for a chance at the Tee Cotton Bowl trophy and the title of City Champions.
This year’s edition will take place tomorrow night at Memorial Field on the Ville Platte High campus. Game time is set for 7:10 p.m., with pre-game activities going on all day long.
The Tee Cotton Bowl is and has always been a game that highlights the concept of two rival teams pushing each other to become better players on the field and better people off of the field. This year is no exception.
Since its inception in 2000, the game has evolved into a nationally and internationally recognized event. That recognition comes because of the values and ideas of unity that have been instilled by cofounders Tim and Jacob Fontenot.
The game itself is and should be the focal point of all the events that surround the Tee Cotton Bowl. The beliefs embodied in the concepts of the Tee Cotton Bowl are imbedded in the game and permeate out into the community, showing us that the term rivalry should be reserved for people without a common mission. For there are no rivals in the T-Cotton Bowl, rather people fighting for the common goal of making each other better.
“This is a unique game in the fact we have two teams battling to be victorious, but not to the point of the humiliation of their opponent,” stated Ville Platte head coach Jorie Randle. “No other game sees the sportsmanship and camaraderie exhibited by two teams battling their rear ends off to win. Most of the time when the stakes are this high, you have some animosity between the teams. But not in this game.”
“I have been around a lot of rivalry games, but this one is extra special,” agreed Sacred Heart head coach Josh Harper. “In a game that sees two schools separated by less than a mile, you would think the atmosphere would be a lot more strained. But, this game is different in that the two teams really get along. Don’t get me wrong, the competitive juices flow when the lights come on. But, with all of the intensity flying around, the game never gets heated in a negative way.”
The game has been one of streaks for both schools. The first seven contests belonged in the Sacred Heart win column. Ville Platte High found their own groove, taking home the trophy over the next six seasons.
In 2013, the game was halted because the mission and beliefs of the Tee Cotton Bowl were marginalized by people who had lost focus on what the game truly meant: the unity of a community.
Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed and in 2017 “The Game” was reborn. In the two years since the revitalization of the Tee Cotton Bowl, Sacred Heart has had the upper hand, winning both contests.
With a few exceptions, the game itself has been a very competitive, hard fought contest. Two of the fifteen previous games were not decided in regulation, with the 2005 game needing three overtimes before a winner could be declared. Six of the contests have been decided by 14 points or less.
This year, the two teams seem to be evenly matched. Both the Trojans and the Bulldogs had good showings in the Evangeline Parish jamboree this past Friday night, with Sacred Heart defeating Pine Prairie 20-0 and tying Mamou 6-6. Ville Platte put together an impressive second half against Basile to take down the Bearcats 20-13 after trailing 13-0 with five minutes to go in the first half.
Sacred Heart comes into the game having to replace some key pieces on both sides of the ball due to heavy graduation losses. That fact presented itself two weeks ago when the Trojans took on Bunkie in the fall scrimmage. In fact, Harper described his team’s play as “not living up to our potential.”
But, after the performance of the team in the jamboree, Harper had very positive things to say about his club.
“I thought we improved tremendously from the scrimmage,” stated Harper. “We definitely executed better on both sides of the ball. Don’t get me wrong we are not nearly where we want to be, but it is still early. Against Pine Prairie, we looked solid. Against Mamou, we played well for the first part, but then reverted back to our lack of execution in the second half.”
“We still have to clean things up on the offensive line and in the secondary on defense,” he continued. “If we want to run the ball with any success, we are going to have to make sure we are staying on our blocks, kicking out players the right way and take care of the backside defenders.”
Despite the “cleaning up” that has to take place up front offensively, the Trojans still ran the ball very effectively. In the two contests combined, Sacred Heart toted the ball for 280 yards on 34 rushing attempts.
Because they were running the ball with success, the Trojans only attempted two passes the entire night. However, one of those passes, a 25 yard pitch and catch from Ethan Karonika to Tyler Perron, hit pay dirt.
“We stayed as simple as possible during the jamboree and tried not to show a whole lot,” said Harper. “But, we will have to spread carries around more and rep up our passing game a lot more this week. We will definitely need to be as balance as possible against Ville Platte.”
Meanwhile, the Ville Platte Bulldogs return a ton of experience and talent on the offensive side of the ball. That was very evident in the fall scrimmage and in the jamboree. The Bulldogs used that talent to roll up 136 yards of rushing on 23 carries against Basile.
When Ville Platte did call upon the passing game, they did it with efficiency and with the big strike in mind. Out of the two passes completed by the Bulldogs, one went for 34 yards and the other for 15 yards.
Defensively, the Bulldogs gave a little to the potent Basile attack allowing 114 yards on the ground in the first half. Nevertheless, the young, inexperienced unit shut down the Bearcats in the second half, holding them to only 68 rushing yards.
However, after the jamboree, Randle was quick to praise something he feels is more valuable in the long run to his team.
“I was just so impressed with the resiliency of our team,” stated Randle. “We know that it is going to be a long season and it would have been easy for us to hang our head at halftime, but we answered the bell in the second half. I was proud of the fight we had in us and how we came out swinging in the latter part of the game.”
“Once we went into the film room and took a look at ourselves thoroughly, we still see where we can improve,” he continued. “We are looking to get a little better play up front. Our offensive line will have to continue to gel and give our backs some chances to get going north and south. Defensively, we are finding people who want to play. We can see the improvement every day and in our defense and we just want to make sure that it continues.”
Both coaches are impressed with the other’s squads. According to Harper and Randle, the game may come down to who makes the least mistakes and who can control the ball.
“Ville Platte is a big physical team,” commented Harper. “They play really hard and have some good size every where on the field. The biggest thing for us is not turning over the ball and give them any extra possessions. It is going to be very hard to stop the weapons they have. Our job this week is to remain focused and to weather the storm, because I know they are going to come fired up to get the trophy back.”
“Coach Harper and his staff do a tremendous job of getting their players ready to play,” said Randle. “The are a very disciplined team and do not make a ton of mistakes. Their players know their assignments and execute them well. It is going to be a tough game for us. We need to make sure that we do a good job in the trenches and control the line of scrimmage. This will be a game of highs and lows, it will be up to us to stay level and stay the course no matter what happens.”
Games come and go, but one can bet that regardless of what goes down tomorrow night, the players will always remember this one for the rest of their lives.