One step closer

The Evangeline Parish gridiron teams move one step closer to the regular season when they travel to Basile for the annual jamboree. Start time for the jamboree is scheduled for 6 p.m.
For the coaches, the jamboree provides a chance to evaluate players in a “glorified scrimmage” that resembles more of a real contest than the usual fall scrimmage does. With the jamboree the coaches are not on the field as they would be during a regular fall scrimmage. With that, players must now run their offensive and defensive assignments with no extra instructional time directly after each play.
After evaluating the fall scrimmages on film, each of the coaches in the parish have had to tweak personnel and scheme. The jamboree gives them the opportunity to see one more time who can play and where they may best fit the overall team effort.
“We still have not proven that we are battle tested,” stated Sacred Heart Head Coach Josh Harper. “Against Bunkie, we got hit in the mouth hard and just could never get the momentum. We were not ready for the physicality of Bunkie.”
“I know we have the talent to do well this season, but we need to prove it,” Harper continued. “We are coming into the jamboree trying to find the best 11 players out on the field. We need to play cleaner in terms of execution and fight off the complacency that we showed in the scrimmage.”
One of the newest additions to the high school game that will have to be dealt with is the changing of the rule on the play clock. In the past, when the ball was placed down ready for play in any situation, teams had 25 seconds to run a play.
Now, if the ball is set ready to play during live action, teams will have 40 seconds to snap the ball. If the ball becomes dead for any reason, the play clock goes back to 25 seconds.
Basile Head Coach Kevin Bertrand is really interested in seeing how that will work out for his club in the jamboree.
“This is the first time we will see the new rule happen in a game situation,” said Bertrand. “It will be a change not only for the players but for the coaches and referees as well. I want to see how we respond to that rule change and how it will affect us for the rest of the season.”
As for his team’s play in their scrimmage against Dequincy last Thursday, Bertrand was optimistic about the Bearcats’ overall play.
“It was a tale of two scrimmages for us,” commented Bertrand. “The first part of the scrimmage was not very good, but we redeemed ourselves in the second session. I was really please with the way our offense moved the ball and the way we tackled. There are some things that we will need to address this week heading into the jamboree.”
Mamou Head Coach Dwight Collins had the same sentiments about his club after their scrimmage against Westminster this past Friday.
“After we looked at it on film and after seeing it live, we think that we are a little better than we were last year,” said Collins. “The only thing is we need to become more consistent in the things we do, especially in carrying out our assignments.”
“I was pleased in the way we moved the ball on offense,” Collins stated. “We just did not put it in the end zone when we had the opportunities. We are going to have to have more big explosive plays from our skill guys. Defensively, I thought we did a great job of swarm tackling. We will be moving players around to positions we think will fit the team best.”
Following their scrimmage this past Friday with the St. Ed’s Blue Jays, Pine Prairie Head Coach Yves Prince talked about his hope that the Panthers mature faster.
“We have a very young team and you could see that in the way we played against St. Ed’s,” said Prince. “We have a lot of inexperience, especially in the secondary. Overall, I thought we got better as the scrimmage moved on. We still have a ton of work and evaluation to do. Two things we will be stressing this week will be tackling and getting our run game going. The jamboree will give us another chance to see what we have heading into the regular season.”
Ville Platte High Head Coach Jorie Randle praised the effort of his team, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
“For not having a lot of players coming back on defense, I thought we did as well as can be expected on that side of the ball,” commented Randle. “Avoyelles is a good football team that runs it right at you and it seemed that we were able to get hats to the ball. Offensively, we are going to need to make sure that we establish our running game. That will allow us to become a more effective passing team later on in the season. I am anxious to see how we perform in the jamboree and I want to see if we can come out with some intensity.”