Energy of homecoming not phasing VPHS

By: RHETT MANUEL Sports Editor VILLE PLATTE – Nothing brings juice to our town quite like Ville Platte High homecoming festivities does. It’s a week-long celebration of the school and its alumni, culminating in a game that often feels more like an event than an athletic competition. As eventful as it may be, there’s still business to be taken care of for the football team, who host Port Barre tomorrow night in a district game. “I think we’re handling it well,” head coach Roy Serie said. “Considering all the festivities, we’ve had two good practices so far. It always comes with the added things that you have to keep the kids focused through. But, overall we’ve done pretty well.” It’s homecoming. With those big distractions come equally big expectations. Nobody wants to lose a game on that sort of stage. It’s a trap Serie thinks his team is prepared for following playing in Mamou’s homecoming game last week. “The crowd will be here,” Serie said. “The boys responded well last week, and played well enough to win that game. It just didn’t happen for us. Hopefully, that same energy happens for us this Friday.” It’ll be happening against a winless Port Barre who despite their record present their own unique challenges for Ville Platte. “They’re a team that doesn’t quit,” Serie said. “They’ve played good teams and move the ball well. Their running back and quarterback are both pretty good. We have respect for them and they’re a team we can’t take lightly.” The Bulldogs have found themselves playing much better the past couple weeks, having scored over 30 points in each of those games. Much of that success has to be credited to an increasingly healthy offense where senior quarterback Bastian Veillion is finally getting the chance to get his legs under him and play significant snaps. With Veillion back it’s opened up the playbook for Ville Platte. In the first month of the year, the Bulldogs were primarily a ground-and-pound wing-T team. Upon Veillion’s return, Serie and his staff began installing more passing elements in an effort to fully utilize the team’s assortment of athletes. “Having Bastian healthy and what it is we can do, we want to get our athletes more shots at it,” Serie said. “It opens it up offensively and so we’ve tried to take what teams have given us.”