Jordan Welborn is 16 and a force on a sheet of ice. The Northwood High School sophomore has been promoted to the Shreveport Mudbugs’ varsity hockey team, one year after he was the leading scorer for the JV squad.

Welborn’s mother, Jennifer, says her child has “nothing but hockey in his heart,” but there is a chilling detail to Jordan Welborn’s hockey career: it thrives now partly because of the tragic death of a very good friend.

Welborn is a two-time recipient of a hockey scholarship from the Team Solan Foundation, founded after the death of 13-year-old Zachary Solan Peterson in 2019.

Peterson, a youth hockey goalie, and the forward Welborn “hated each other” on the ice. For one to succeed, the other had to fail.

“It was amazing to see the competitiveness,” Jennifer Welborn said. “Off the ice they were good friends.”

They shared a special bond beyond hockey: they were both adopted from foster care.

Peterson was the second of two teenage boys to take his own life within 72 hours while being held at the Ware Youth Center in Coushatta.

Solan’s parents, Ronnie and Bridget Peterson, longtime fans and supporters of Mudbugs hockey and youth hockey, wasted no time in the wake of Solan’s death.

“It really helped the grieving process,” Ronnie Peterson said. “Quite honestly it can be a distraction at times, which helps.”

A ball hockey tournament was founded in 2019 to raise money for the Foundation. After the third annual event (there was not an event during 2020 due to COVID) held earlier this month, the foundation dished out another round of scholarships. To date, the Team Solan Foundation has distributed more than $25,000 in scholarships to more than 50 players.

“It’s all part of growing the sport,” Peterson said. “You can’t just help out a few people or a few age groups. You have to help a wide range of kids.”

Some scholarships help a family pay high school hockey fees that tally more than $1,400 per player. Some get grants for youth hockey fees, equipment, and even out-of-town hockey camps.

Peterson dreams of sending a player to college through Team Solan.

“Kids from here aren’t terribly likely to play hockey at a super high level,” Peterson said. “But if we could help them play and further their education, it would be great.”

Jordan Welborn may just be the face of Team Solan. He was 2 months old when he attended his first Mudbugs game.

“He learned to walk with a stick in his hand,” Jennifer Welborn said.

At the age of 3, Jordan wanted on the ice.

“We were at a game and the youth hockey teams were playing during an intermission,” Jennifer said. “He said, ‘Go ask them if I need to be on the ice.’ I said, ‘Who am I supposed to ask?’ Jordan said, ‘Go ask Clawed (the team’s mascot)!’”

At the age of 4, Jordan played his first season of youth hockey. His coaches: Bridget Peterson and Charlie Dew (a board member of the Team Solan Foundation).

Nearly a decade later, Jordan Welborn’s heart was ripped out.

“Jordan went through a really dark period after Solan died,” said Jennifer, who has another child who plays sports. “It was really bad. Out of the blue, Bridget called and said Jordan was a recipient of a Team Solan scholarship. It was going to allow Jordan to keep playing hockey. It was overwhelming.”

Jordan has taken advantage of his opportunity – not just by being his team’s leading scorer. He also plays football at Northwood. As a fundraiser, the Falcons sold brick pavers to create a patio area at school.

In addition to “hockey player,” Welborn’s brick includes “SP1.”

Solan Peterson wore No. 1 between the pipes.

On the first day of driver’s education, Welborn carried a Team Solan backpack and placed it in the car.

“He told me, ‘Solan should be doing this with me,’” Jennifer said.

Contact Roy at roylangiii@yahoo.com

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By ROY LANG III, Journal Sports

Every Monday, the Journal will highlight five individual performances from the previous high school football weekend. We begin with a look at some standouts from the jamborees.

Parkway senior Cha’Michael “JR” Williams had a junior year to forget. The linebacker broke his ankle in Week 1 vs. Minden and missed the rest of his season.

Panthers coaches lauded Williams’ dedication in the offseason and he eventually won the starting outside linebacker spot.

Williams enjoyed an outstanding scrimmage against Ouachita and the momentum carried into Parkway’s jamboree against Haughton.

Friday night, Williams’ offered Dirty Red fans a sign of things to come. On one drive, he posted back-to-back sacks on third and fourth downs to end a Buccaneers threat.

James Simon, Calvary

The Cavaliers planned to use a running back-by-committee approach to the 2022 season. The plan remains the same, but after the jamboree, it must be a different committee.

Simon entered the game after teammate Chaz Whitaker was injured after a long run on Calvary’s first possession.

“(Chaz) broke his collarbone and he’s out seven or eight weeks,” Guin told the Journal.

Simon scored twice after he caught short passes from quarterback Bryce Carpenter and worked his way through Union Parish’s defense in the end zone.

“Simon is very talented for a sophomore,” Guin said. “We feel good there.”

Now, Guin will move Julius Moss into the tandem. All Moss did was return a kickoff for a 75-yard touchdown.

“He’s pretty talented as well,” Guin said.

KJ Black, North Caddo

The running back scored on the ground (8 yards) and through the air (45-yard pass) during the Titans’ jamboree against Green Oaks.

“He’s a tremendous athlete with God-given skills,” North Caddo coach John Cavanaugh said.

Cooper DeFatta, Loyola

The quarterback was 6-of-12 for 118 yards in the Flyers’ surprising win on the road against Natchitoches Central.

DeFatta didn’t find the end zone as the Flyers outscored the Chiefs, 7-6, but had a 40-yard touchdown pass to John Carmody called back due to a penalty for an illegal man downfield. He led a game-winning drive after NCHS scored a late TD on a long pass play.

Mason Welch, Northwood

The senior was nearly perfect in the Falcons’ jamboree. The quarterback completed 8 of 9 passes for three touchdowns as Northwood outscored Southwood and BTW by a combined 47-0.

“Mason was on point tonight,” head coach Austin Brown said. “He made a couple of throws from the opposite hash mark that looked like Brett Favre. There was one that was one of the best I’ve ever seen in high school football.”

• ­Harriet Prothro Penrod and John James Marshall contributed to this report

Contact Roy at roylangiii@yahoo.com

File photo courtesy Loyola College Prep

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JOURNAL STAFF

A full slate of high school football jamboree was played Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Northwest Louisiana to help kick off the 2022 season. Below is a list of scores for Shreveport-Bossier Journal schools and some area results as well.

Evangel wrapped up the action with a 14-0 decision over Cedar Creek in the Bayou Jamb at Joe Aillet Stadium in Ruston Saturday night. Peyton Fulghum tossed a pair of touchdown passes, one to Brayden Curry and the other to Andrez Mosley.

Bossier Lions

Airline 27, Benton 14
Bossier 22, Plain Dealing 0
Parkway 13, Haughton 0

Bayou Jamb

Evangel 14, Cedar Creek 0

Caddo Parish

North Caddo 20, Green Oaks 0
Huntington 28, Woodlawn 6
Northwood 34, BTW 0
Northwood 13, Southwood 0

Natchitoches Regional Medical Center Jam

Loyola 7, Natchitoches Central 6
St. Mary’s 24, Lakeview 6

AREA

Bayou Jamb

Ruston 27, West Monroe 6

Cenla

Glenbrook 14, Rosepine 7
Glenbrook 20, Ferriday 0

DeSoto Parish

Mansfield 14, Logansport 12
North DeSoto 13, Logansport 12
North DeSoto 21, Mansfield 0

Pineland

Homer 27, Minden 14
Minden 14, Haynesville 13
Homer 16, Lakeside 12
Haynesville 13, Lakeside 6

Photo by KEVIN PICKENS PHOTOGRAPHY

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

Every high school football team sets goals before the season starts. But not all of those goals are the same.

There’s always a district championship to shoot for. Maybe for a few, there might be dreams of a state championship. 

Booker T. Washington coach Tony Reliford is setting a goal for his team this year, but not the type you might normally expect.

“My first goal is to make sure all these seniors graduate,” the fifth-year coach said. “Those guys have been there for four years and I feel like we owe that to them. I can’t say it’s all about wins and losses because we have struggled the last few years.”

The Lions are coming off a 4-5 year in 2021, winning the opening two games but then losing five of the next six. However, BTW ended it in style with a 38-16 win over Woodlawn.

But this year brings a number of challenges for the Milam Street school. The first is the schedule; with the new-look District 1-4A alignment, there aren’t a whole lot of breaks.

Before that, the Lions will open with home games against Wossman and Bolton before the annual highlight game against Green Oaks in the Soul Bowl.

Then, the District 1-4A gauntlet begins.

“We won four games last year and we’d like to improve on that but with this new (district configuration) it’s going to be tough,” Reliford said. “But we are going to do our best to honor these seniors.”

BTW graduated 18 seniors and has only three returning starters on offense and four on defense. One of the top returning offensive starters is wide receiver Darayvion Eason, but he will miss the opening game of the season with a knee injury.

Reliford is looking for answers on offense, and asked who will make his team go, said “we haven’t found that person yet.”

He’s hoping he has found the answer for now and in the future in freshman Damion O’Neal.

“We don’t want him to try to do too much,” Reliford said. “We want to make him comfortable, but I told him one day to stay with it. He’s going to be a superstar one day. He’s going to need to take it a little bit at a time but he’s going to be special.”

But it will take help from the offensive line. “In order for us to be successful our offensive line is going to have to hold up,” Reliford said. “We only have one starter back but if we can get those guys to gel, we can be competitive and hopefully win a few games.”

Reliford said the defense will be where the Lions make their mark. “That will be our staple,” he said. “We will move people around and get after some people.”

The secondary should be a strength with sophomore middle linebacker Cedric Dennis, free safety Tromarea Tillman, senior cornerback Ladaveon Nelson, senior strong safety Taboyous Anderson and senior CB Kendrick Pratt.

“Hopefully we can get after them up front and hold them on the back end,” he said. “That’s where our leadership is.”

Contact J.J. at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

Photo by JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

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JOURNAL STAFF

Football season is finally here and with so many games being played in northwest Louisiana on Week One, six of them were moved to Thursday night to accommodate the available officials needed to work the games.

Here is a list of games for Week One: (all games start at 7 p.m. unless noted)

Thursday’s games

Loyola at Captain Shreve, at Lee Hedges Stadium

Northwood at Benton

Airline at North DeSoto

Minden at Parkway, Preston Crownover Stadium

Red River at Haughton, Harold E. Harlan Stadium

Bossier at North Caddo, Sanders-Prudhomme Stadium

Logansport at Calvary, Jerry Barker Stadium

Friday’s games

 Pleasant Grove (Texas) vs. Byrd, Lee Hedges Stadium

Green Oaks vs. Southwood, at Northwood, Jerry Burton Memorial Stadium

Wossman at BTW, Leonard C. Barnes Stadium

Neville at Evangel, Rodney Duron Field

Woodlawn at Natchitoches Central, Turpin Stadium

Delta Charter at Plain Dealing

Lake Charles Prep at Magnolia Charter

Battle on the Border, Independence Stadium

Denton Ryan (Texas) vs. Bryant (Ark.), 7:30

Saturday’s games

Battle on the Border

Independence Stadium

Scotlandville vs. McAlester, Okla., 11 a.m.

Huntington vs. Mansfield, 7:30

Photo by KEVIN PICKENS PHOTOGRAPHY

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Royal Alexander/Opinion

It’s hard to believe anything other than that the agency intends to audit the middle class.

In the recent Inflation Reduction Act (which will actually feed the fires of inflation) there is an appropriation of $80 billion to the IRS.  A chunk of this money will go to hiring 87,000 new employees and effectively doubling the current number of agents.

So why does the IRS need 87,000 new, armed agents?

The only reasonable answer that is supported by data is that the Biden Administration intends for the IRS to target the middle class in order to pay for its out-of-control spending which has caused the highest inflation in the last 40 years. 

As Heritage Foundation has observed “Auditing every single taxpayer with annual income over $1 million would require only 25,000 new IRS enforcement agents, but Democrats’ bill calls for 87,000 new agents.  What will all those extra agents be doing?”

The Biden Administration and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have stated, “these (new) resources are absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans.  As we’ve been planning, our investment of these enforcement resources is designed around the Department of the Treasury’s directive that audit rates will not rise relative to recent years for households making under $400,000.”

Do we really believe that?

If we simply consider the sheer magnitude of hiring 87,000 new IRS agents—and what the IRS estimates will be $204 billion in new revenues from enforcement—do we really believe all those new audits and revenues will only involve taxpayers making over $400,000? 

The answer is a resounding and categorical ‘no’!

As Heritage Foundation Tax Expert Rachel Greszler has written: “Despite the Biden Administration’s claims, it’s almost certain that households making less than $400,000 a year would face increased audits under the Democrats’ bill, and that seems to be the true intent of the IRS.”  In support of this conclusion Greszler notes that “according to a 2021 report from the Government Accountability Office, ‘from fiscal years 2010 to 2021, the majority of the additional taxes IRS recommended from audits came from taxpayers with incomes below $200,000.’”

Heritage further states that, when we consider that “only $3.2 billion would go to taxpayer services, despite the IRS answering only 18% of the phone calls it received in 2022.  That’s a mere 9% increase for funding in things like account services, taxpayer education, and filing assistance.”  Instead, “the lion’s share of the new funding, $45.6 billion, will go to enforcement activities like new audits, litigation, asset monitoring, and collections” performed by IRS Special Agents with guns.  (Preston Brashers, Tax Policy Expert, Heritage Foundation).

In a recently posted job opening for a special agent, the IRS specified that applicants should be “willing and able to participate in arrests, execution of search warrants, and other dangerous assignments,” and able to carry “a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.”  However, “after sparking some controversy amid the proposed expansion of the agency, the IRS deleted ‘willing to use deadly force from the job description.” (Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal, August 12, 2022).

But they’ll still be armed and that seems foreboding and ominous to honest, hard-working Americans.

During the U.S. House floor debate on the bill, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., raised additional concerns about arming IRS agents. 

“This bill has new IRS agents and they are armed, and the job description tells them that they need to be required to carry a firearm and expect to use deadly force if necessary,” Boebert said. “Excessive taxation is theft.  You are using the power of the federal government for armed robbery on the taxpayers.”  

The middle class, already struggling under inflation and high food and fuel prices, doesn’t have the resources to pay a lawyer or an accountant to fight the IRS in court, so they will just pay the money and hope that the issue goes away—whether or not they owe the money. 

The realization of this threat to their livelihood and peace of mind doesn’t appear to have yet been internalized by most Americans. 

As U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall once said, “The power to tax is the power to destroy.”

All Americans must join together to stop this attempt to damage the hardworking American middle class through punitive taxation enforced by armed Special Agents.

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Administrative Council Meeting: 3:00 PM – Tuesday, August 30, 2022
City Council Chambers, Bossier City Hall
620 Benton Road, Bossier City, Louisiana

AGENDA

CALL TO ORDER

INVOCATION

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE BY COUNCIL MEMBER DON WILLIAMS

ROLL CALL

ANNOUNCEMENTS

APPROVE MINUTES

APPROVE AGENDA

CEREMONIAL MATTERS/RECOGNITION OF GUESTS

APPEALS/HEARINGS

REPORTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ADJOURN

FOR FULL DETAILS – SEE THE DOCUMENT ATTACHED:

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What do gumbo, outdoor dining, and keeping our community clean all have in common? It’s all part of the inaugural “Dinner Under the Stars” event that will allow diners to savor A Taste of the East Bank. Most importantly, all will be supporting the vitally important mission of Keep Bossier Beautiful.

Several participating restaurants that are providing a feature item for an outdoor dining experience in the East Bank District plaza in downtown Bossier City will be highlighted by the event.

“Dinner Under the Stars”: A Taste of the East Bank is set for Sunday, September 18, from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $45 each and will directly benefit Keep Bossier Beautiful, which works throughout Bossier Parish to decrease litter, enhance recycling and beautify our communities.

Dress is summer casual, and tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite here: https://bit.ly/3Q1sfeU.

Join us for an enchanting evening of “Dinner Under the Stars”: A Taste of the East Bank and support the tireless mission of Keep Bossier Beautiful and its integral place in the communities and schools of Bossier Parish.

Established in 1985, Keep Bossier Beautiful is a non-profit organization whose identity is rooted in the drive to end litter, protect the environment, and beautify the community. Powered by genuine support from local leaders, partners, and volunteers we believe we are making a difference in the lives of our community members, business owners, and those who come here to work and play in our communities.

To get involved in this worthwhile cause, please visit KeepBossierBeautiful.com.

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Bobby Ray Jefferson
December 1, 1932 — August 18, 2022
Visitation: Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022, 1:00-5:00 p.m. at Winnfield Funeral Home, 3701 Hollywood Avenue, Shreveport.

Jonathan A. McMurray
July 13, 1981 — August 25, 2022
Visitation: Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 1:00-2:00 p.m. at Centuries Memorial Funeral Home, 8801 Mansfield Road, Shreveport.
Celebration of Life: Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 2:00 p.m. at Centuries Memorial Funeral Home, 8801 Mansfield Road, Shreveport.

David Lewis Armstrong
November 21, 1948 — August 25, 2022
Visitation: Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, 1:00-2:00 p.m. at Hunter Magnolia Baptist Church, Mansfield.
Memorial Service: Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, 2:00-3:00 p.m. at Hunter Magnolia Baptist Church, Mansfield.

Ruth Agnes Eason
May 25, 1947 — August 24, 2022
Visitation: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, 1:00-2:00 p.m. at Providence Baptist Church, 11708 Providence Road, Shreveport.
Celebration of Life Memorial Service: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, 2:00-3:00 p.m. at Providence Baptist Church, 11708 Providence Road, Shreveport.

Thomas Allen Calhoun
May 9, 1928 — August 24, 2022
Celebration of Life: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, 10:00 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Shreveport, 543 Ockley Drive, Shreveport.
Interment: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Highland Cemetery, Mansfield.

Rev. Robert Earl Golston
March 31, 1945 — August 20, 2022
Funeral Service: Monday, August 29, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Paradise Baptist Church, 1706 Hollywood Avenue, Shreveport.

John Snow, Sr.
June 26, 1928 — August 23, 2022
Funeral Service: Saturday, September 3, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Winnfield Funeral Home, 3701 Hollywood Avenue, Shreveport.

JoBeth Rettig Baggett
June 28, 1928 — August 25, 2022
Visitation: Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 5:00-7:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2500 Southside Drive, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2500 Southside Drive, Shreveport.
Interment: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, following service at Rose Hill Cemetery, 1005 N. Hazel Street, Hope, Ark.

Conrad Emil Soderstrom, Jr.
August 4, 1946 — August 21, 2022
Memorial Service: Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 10:00-11:00 a.m. at St. John’s Episcopal, 1107 Broadway Street, Minden.

Thomas Lanny McConnell
April 3, 1945 — August 19, 2022
Funeral Mass: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, 1:00-2:00 p.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 204 Patton Street, Shreveport.
Reception: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, following Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church Family Center, 204 Patton Street, Shreveport.

The Shreveport-Bossier Journal publishes paid obituaries – unlimited words and a photo, as well as unlimited access – $90. Contact your funeral provider or SBJNewsLa@gmail.com . Must be paid in advance of publication. (Notice of Death shown above are FREE of charge. You may email them to SBJNewsLa@gmail.com)

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By JERRY BYRD Jr., Journal Sports

The Airline Vikings, with first-year head coach Justin Scogin, wasted no time in making a statement in the 69th annual Bossier Lions Club Jamboree Friday night on their homefield. In fact, they made three of them in the first half against the Benton Tigers.

Airline’s offense, led by sophomore Ben Taylor, scored three touchdowns in the first frame en route to a 27-14 surprise over Benton.

Junior running back Tre’ Jackson opened the scoring on the fourth play from scrimmage with a 35-yard touchdown run through the heart of the Benton defense. On their next series, it was Airline’s Kaylin Jackson on a 12-yard touchdown run.

With only two seconds left in the half, Taylor hit Bob Patterson on third and goal from two yards out.

“Ben did a great job,” Scogin said. “He went out and kind of took over the game. He’s a great young kid, just a sophomore. It’s a big environment. He did a great job.”

While the Tigers stumbled out of the gate, Benton’s senior quarterback Gray Walters, with the help of running backs Greg Manning and Ethan Johnson, was able to sustain a drive and get the Tigers on the board with just under two minutes to go in the half.

Walters showed patience and persistence as he found Andy Lim in the endzone on a third and goal from the 13. The two connected on the play before, but Benton was penalized for having linemen downfield.

It was a special night for Benton head coach Reynolds Moore as he had the honor of escorting his daughter, Caroline, who was Benton’s Jamboree Queen.

“That was really special, man,” Moore said. “This is year 10 for us. We’ve done this eight times, I guess. Benton is home, and it’s really cool to be a part of that.” 

Another thing that was special for Benton was the play of both quarterbacks.

“Gray played well in the first half,” Moore said. “We had some issues with a slippery ball. We will get that fixed. Then Jeffery (King) came in the second half and played really well.”

Both Benton and Airline dipped into their quarterback depth in the second half.

King made an immediate impact, leading the Tigers on a nine-play drive which ended with the quarterback running the ball around left end on a gun option keep, which made it 20-14 with 9:37 left.

Airline answered as Taylor completed passes of 15 and 34 yards to Daxton Chavez. Jackson got his second touchdown of the night on a 3-yard run to complete the scoring.

It was the first time Scogin was able to experience a “big-time” high school environment at Viking Stadium.

“It (the environment) was fantastic,” Scogin said. “It’s everything I thought it would be. That’s why I went after this job — for nights like this. And it’s only the jamboree. Holy cow! We’ve had 10,000 people watching us play in a scrimmage and a jamboree. This is what I envisioned when I took the job.”

Bossier over Plain Dealing, 22-0

Bossier’s Lebrandon Davis rushed for two touchdowns in the first half on runs of 2 and 89 yards to give the Bearkats a 16-0 lead at intermission.

Bossier successfully completed both two-point conversions. The first was a pass from Quintarion Scott to Sen’tavian Ball. The second two–point conversion was a 3-yard run by Jayden Goosby.

In the second half, Bossier’s Keyshun Johnson padded the Bearkat lead with a touchdown run inside the Plain Dealing 10-yard line. 

“We have a lot to work on,” Bossier head coach DeAumante Johnson said. “Overall, the kids played well. They executed on a few things. There is so much more we have to work on. But overall, I’m happy.” 

Plain Dealing’s Tyrese Kimble was one of the standouts on both sides of the ball for the Lions, who only had five players dressed out on the sideline when their starting 11 were on the field.

“He is a sophomore who started for us as a freshman,” new Plain Dealing head coach Clint Walker said. “He has come a long way and he has a long way to go. He is a good, tough football player. We just have to learn some of the minute things when it comes to his position.”

Senior Cole Modisette, who played on both the offensive and defensive lines, was another player who caught Walker’s eye Friday night.

Parkway over Haughton, 13-0

Parkway head coach Coy Brotherton has made it clear that he does not like facing his brother, Jason, who is the head coach at Haughton High School, during the regular season. But what about a jamboree setting?

“It’s a little more laid back and not as stressful, for sure,” Coy Brotherton said. “It was fun out here tonight. Twenty-five years ago he was out here playing and I was a ball boy. We never thought we’d be out here 25 years later coaching against each other so it’s pretty special.”

Contact Jerry at sbjjerrybyrd@gmail.com

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

NATCHITOCHES – It’s hard to say if the Loyola Flyers were surprised by their 7-6 win over Natchitoches Central Friday night in the Natchitoches Regional Medical Center Jamboree, but there’s no doubt they were pleased.

One look at the postgame celebration could have told you that.

Yes, jamborees really don’t mean anything in terms of wins and losses, but they can mean something else for the psyche of a team.

“I’m so pleased with them,” Loyola coach Mike Greene said. “I think there was a doubt in our minds playing a (Class) 5A school and they are huge. I don’t think our guys have had the confidence. But I told them Thursday that I expect to go out every week and win.”

Don’t let that comment about playing well against a Class 5A school slip by without recognizing what it means to the Flyers going forward. Loyola will open the regular season Thursday against Class 5A Captain Shreve. “That’s why I wanted to play a game like this,” Greene said.

The Flyers had a number of opportunities to take control of the game but let them slip away. In the opening period, Loyola had a 40-yard touchdown pass from Cooper DeFatta to John Carmody called back for an illegal man downfield and later got inside the Chiefs’ 30 and did not score.

But it took a quick strike touchdown with 8:37 to play by Natchitoches Central – a 70-yard touchdown on a hitch pass – to the give the Flyers a sense of urgency. (Until that point, the Chiefs had run only two plays in Loyola territory.) NCHS missed the extra point to keep it at 6-0.

The Flyers took the kickoff and methodically marched down the field (68 yards on nine plays), getting a 17-yard run by Brooks Rodgers, a 16-yard pass to Ben Brewer and a 21-yard pass to Carmody, to set up a fourth-down, 1-yard touchdown run by Trace Wall.

Sophomore Evan Lirette made the extra point to give the Flyers a 7-6 lead with 5:31 to go.

The issue wasn’t settled, though, until a missed 43-yard field goal by Natchitoches Central with less than two minutes to play.

“We played well and I think we have some confidence,” Greene said. “We’ve got to clean some stuff up. If we had caught a couple of passes, we could have won by three touchdowns. But they really played well.”

DeFatta was 6 of 12 for 118 yards with Rodgers catching three passes for 56 yards. Wall led the Flyers rushing with 41 yards on 16 carries at Northwestern State’s Turpin Stadium.

Contact J.J. at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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BY ROY LANG III, Journal Sports

Not only did Bryce Carpenter and sophomore Abram Wardell have their final audition for their head coach, Rodney Guin, and their Calvary teammates Friday, the quarterbacks also stated their case in front of Landry Lyddy, the Louisiana Tech signal-caller who left a massive hole to fill.

The Cavaliers outscored Union Parish, 24-17, in the jamboree at Jerry Barker Stadium, but it’s unclear whether Guin’s squad got any closer to solving the biggest unanswered question entering the 2022 season.

“They both did some good stuff,” Guin told The Journal. “We will sit down and evaluate it as a staff and see where we go next week. They’re both great kids and work very hard.”

Despite an entire offseason and last week’s scrimmage without Lyddy, the reigning Mr. Football, Guin said there was no leader in the clubhouse before Friday’s final tune-up.

Carpenter, a junior, did throw a pair of touchdowns – dump-offs to running back James Simon — and was able to turn broken plays into big gains. The sophomore Wardell didn’t find the end zone, but showed the ability to create extra time in the pocket and throw on the run.

On pace to break the state career rushing yardage record, Union Parish senior Trey Holly was an issue for Calvary’s defense. The 5-foot-9, 180-pounder ripped off a 60-yard run to begin the game, scored twice and added another 80-yard scamper.

Carpenter and Co. responded to Holly’s first touchdowns with one of their own when Simon, who took over in the backfield after an early injury to Chaz Whitaker, took a short pass and did the rest to help tie the score. The 5-foot-11, 170-pound Carpenter recovered from an interception deep in his own territory and helped Calvary match the Farmers’ subsequent touchdown.

Carpenter retrieved a fumble and found Simon nearby. Again, the sophomore tailback found his way to the end zone to close the first-half scoring.

The Cavaliers’ offense wasn’t needed on the first possession of the second half as Julius Moss took the kickoff 75 yards for a score.

Wardell (5-11, 195) played the second half and completed 5 of 11 passes. He nearly found the end zone, but Aubrey Hermes had the ball fall through his hands at the pylon.

“I wanted to see them against a quality opponent in a game situation,” Guin said. “This was a quality opponent here.”

The Cavaliers open the season at home against Logansport on Thursday.

“We’re excited,” Guin said. “Logansport is a great game and (Tigers head coach) Kevin (Magee) is a great friend of mine.”

Contact Roy at roylangiii@yahoo.com

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By HARRIET PROTHRO PENROD, Journal Sports

Huntington didn’t get going until the second half against Woodlawn. It didn’t take that long for North Caddo against Green Oaks.

In the nightcap of Friday night’s Caddo Jamboree at Independence Stadium, the Raiders came back from a 6-0 halftime deficit to defeat the Knights 28-6 while the Titans scored all of their points in the first half of their 20-0 victory over the Giants in the middle game of the jamboree.

Huntington opened Friday’s action with a 14-8 victory over Woodlawn in the junior varsity contest.

“We started slow, but we settled in,” Huntington coach Steve Dennis said of his team’s play in the closing game. “We’ve got some things we need to clean up – on special teams and with foolish penalties.

“But I like the position we’re in. I like where we are with our culture. We didn’t panic.”

Down 6-0, Huntington wasted little time getting things going in the second half. Kamron Evans hit John Solomon with passes of 41 and 20 yards to set the Raiders up at the Woodlawn 5-yard line. Tre Carter ran it in and Huntington converted the two-point attempt to take an 8-6 lead less than four minutes into the second half.

Less than two minutes later, Justin Moore’s pick six put the Raiders up 14-6. Carter’s second touchdown came on a 3-yard run with 5:13 left and increased the lead to 20-6. With just 2:30 to go, Evans scored on a 2-yard keeper to wrap up the victory.

Woodlawn coach Thedrick Harris was proud of the way his young team played against the Raiders.

“Our team has improved tremendously,” said Harris. “We came out and went toe-to-toe with a great team.”

Woodlawn opens the season at Natchitoches Central on Friday while Huntington takes on Mansfield in one of the Battle on the Border contests on Saturday.

While it took Huntington time to get things going, the same can’t be said for North Caddo. The Titans scored on their first possession of the game on an 8-yard touchdown run by KJ Black to take a 6-0 lead (the two-point attempt failed). Black also scored on a 45-yard touchdown pass from Aiden Brock.

“He’s a tremendous athlete with God-given skills,” North Caddo coach John Cavanaugh said of Black.

Jathan Green finished off the scoring for the Titans with a 39-yard pick six with five minutes left in the first half.

“In the second half, our defense played a whole lot better,” said Green Oaks coach Chadwick Lewis. “We’re a young team making young mistakes. Our defense is going to have to carry us.”

Green Oaks opens the season at Southwood on Friday while North Caddo hosts Bossier on Thursday night.

Contact Harriet at sbjharriet@gmail.com

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JOURNAL STAFF

A year ago, Northwood coach Austin Brown was concerned about his team’s performance in the preseason jamboree because he thought the Falcons didn’t have the correct approach.

Suffice it to say that’s not a problem this year.

The Falcons won their two contests over Southwood and Booker T. Washington by a combined score of 47-0 in the Friday night event that was moved to Messmer Stadium earlier this week.

Northwood defeated Southwood 13-0 in the opener of the three-team jamboree and beat BTW 34-0 in the final matchup. In between, Southwood defeated BTW by a touchdown.

“We talked to the team about how we came out flat last year because we thought there wouldn’t be competition,” Brown said. “We wanted to play to our standard of football, regardless of who it is. I think we did that. Still some mistakes, but fewer than there have been.”

Junior quarterback Mason Welch led the Falcons in completing 8 of 9 passes and three touchdowns. “Mason was on point tonight,” Brown said. He made a couple of throws from the opposite hash mark that looked like Brett Favre. There was one that was one of the best I’ve ever seen in high school football.”

Junior running back Fabien Sanders scored three touchdowns to add to the offensive explosion.

Northwood also got a field goal from Hutson Hearron. “We haven’t done that in a while,” Brown said. “That’s like a moral victory for us.”

Brown said his team is where it needs to be as the season begins Thursday at Benton.

“We feel like we are a better team than we were when we left the jamboree last year,” Brown said. “We are excited and it’s officially Benton week.”

Southwood will open on Friday against Green Oaks and BTW will start its season with a home game against Wossman.

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JOURNAL STAFF

In less than a week, the 2022 high school football season kicks off. Before it does, some of the elite senior football scholar-athletes in Bossier and Caddo parishes will begin a season in the spotlight.

The National Football Foundation, S.M. McNaughton Chapter Preseason Scholar-Athlete Watch List will be released just before game day next week. It will include remarkable high school seniors in the Ark-La-Tex who have been nominated by their coaches. These young men have at least a 3.2 grade point average, have won all-district honors, and are involved in extracurricular activities.

Coaches who haven’t nominated still have time. The deadline has been extended to noon Wednesday.

Nominations can be submitted to NFF board member Doug Ireland by email to sbjdoug@gmail.com or by text to 318-471-2086. No transcripts or recommendation letters are needed; it’s a very simple process.

This Watch List will be updated throughout the season as more nominations are received. 

After each season since 1980, the NFF’s S.M. McNaughton Chapter solicits nominations for its scholarship program, and as many as eight senior scholar-athletes are honored in the spring at a banquet in Shreveport.

This Watch List is designed to provide in-season recognition for not just the ultimate scholarship winners, but all of the young men in the Ark-La-Tex, including Louisiana’s entire 318 area code and Vernon Parish, who are high-achieving senior football players.

The NFF McNaughton Chapter is led by president Leo Sanford, a Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame member and former All-Pro linebacker for the Chicago Cardinals, and a center on the 1958 NFL champion Baltimore Colts.  Other board members are Dennis Bamburg, Jerry Byrd Jr., Toni Goodin, Ireland, Curt Joiner, Bill McConathy, Tag Rome and Terry Slack.

Additionally, KTBS Channel 3 in Shreveport is honoring the memory and legacy of former NFF Board member Bob Griffin, the iconic sportscaster at KSLA and then KTBS for over 50 years, by weekly presentations of a Griffin’s Game Ball to one of the players on the NFF Scholar-Athlete Watch List. The winners will be featured weekly by KTBS, and will be eligible for a separate Griffin’s Game Ball Scholar-Athlete Scholarship at the close of the 2022 season, presented by KTBS.

Griffin, a 2009 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee as a sports journalist, covered Ark-La-Tex high school football in an incredible six decades before he passed away early in 2020. That fall, Griffin’s family members traveled around the area throughout the season presenting Griffin’s Game Balls to winning teams in the “Griffin’s Game of the Week” as he did for years. Because of Griffin’s commitment to the NFF Scholar-Athlete program, the S.M. McNaughton Chapter of the NFF and KTBS have created this partnership to celebrate these outstanding seniors. 

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JOURNAL STAFF

High school football has officially kicked off!

It’s going to be more exciting, week after week, since you can win $250 by picking the winning teams.

Fans have until next Thursday afternoon at 4 to enter the Week One  Shreveport-Bossier Journal High School Football Pick ‘Em Contest. Anyone has the chance to win a $250 prize as the week’s top predictor of local prep football games.

The contests will be conducted weekly during the 10-game high school football season. There is no entry charge, just like there is no cost to subscribe to the Shreveport-Bossier Journal.

Participation is very simple for anyone able to access this link:

https://tinyurl.com/SBJPIckem

The Pick ‘Em portal opens to a menu of game-by-game matchups, with an easy click to pick winning teams for each contest. Two local games will be used as tiebreakers, with participants predicting the total points scored in those games.

It takes 20-30 seconds to sign up and not much longer than that to make your picks.

Entries are open now for the first week’s contest picking the winners from local games on Sept. 1 and 2.

Each week, the entries will remain open until 4 p.m. on the first playing date that week (usually Thursday).

One person will win each week’s $250 prize, to be announced in the Journal early the following week as the subsequent Pick ‘Em Contest launches. All contest decisions by SBJ management are final.

Every participant will receive a FREE subscription to the Journal, if you’re not already signed up for the easily-navigated, convenient 6:55 a.m. daily e-mail.

A panel of Journal writers and local celebrities will also pick the games each week, but won’t be eligible to win the cash prizes. Their individual picks will NOT be publicized, just the week’s final win-loss results and the season’s record for each picker.

It will be fun for participants to compare their weekly records to stellar local sportswriters including Teddy Allen, Jerry Byrd Jr.,  Lee Hiller, Roy Lang III, John James Marshall, Harriet Prothro Penrod and Tony Taglavore. The celebrity picker panel will be revealed next week – with some of Shreveport-Bossier’s best known folks aiming to out-rank the experts, and each other, each week.

Enjoy it all, for FREE, and enter each week’s contest. You could collect $250, maybe more than once!

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By JERRY BYRD JR., Journal Sports

Nobody really wins a jamboree, but they did keep score Thursday night as Captain Shreve hosted Byrd High School at Independence Stadium. If it matters, and to both sides it certainly did, it was the Yellow Jackets who came out on top in all three contests.

It started with the freshmen. Byrd won 19-14.

In the junior varsity contest, Byrd came away with a dramatic 9-6 victory as Jackson Cooper hit a 34-yard field goal as the clock ran out.

It didn’t count on either team’s record, but you couldn’t tell from the celebration by the Yellow Jacket players on the field and Byrd fans in the stands.

Cooper’s walk-off field goal wasn’t the only big play of the night. Running back Malachi Johnson ripped off a 53-yard touchdown run with 4:30 left in the first half.

Captain Shreve answered with 1:02 remaining, scoring on a six-yard touchdown run.

Then it was time for the front liners, and they put on another exciting show, with Byrd prevailing 24-17 in the matchup of District 1-5A favorites.

After Captain Shreve’s drive stalled on the game’s initial possession, the Byrd offense put together a methodical drive which ended with a 3-yard run by quarterback Lake Lambert.

Lambert’s touchdown was set up by an explosive play on an option pitch around the left side to Josh Allen.

Lambert, Byrd’s senior three-year starter, provided a bookend touchdown in the second half with a 20-yard run in the second quarter.

“It felt good to get those touchdown runs,” Lambert said. “That all goes to my offensive line. They blocked it perfectly on that first one. Not a finger was on me. On that second one, maybe two fingers were on me.”

Other Byrd scores: an 8-yard touchdown run by Devon Strickland and a 28-yard field goal from University of Miami commit Abram Murray.

Shreve made the Jackets earn the win.

Gator quarterback Kenyon Terrell answered Lambert’s initial touchdown run with a 4-yard touchdown run of his own.

In the second half, Terrell found Texas Tech commit Marquez Stevenson for an 80-yard touchdown pass.

John Chance kept the Gators kicking with a 34-yard field goal inside of two minutes to cut Byrd’s lead to seven points. Then, CSHS took a shot at getting even.

Shreve’s first-year head coach, Adam Kirby, got in some work by his onside kickoff unit.

The kick was exactly what Kirby wanted, except that among the four players who touched the ball, the last one was on Byrd’s hands unit. After the recovery, the Jackets ran out the clock.

Overall, Byrd second-year head coach Stacy Ballew was pleased with the effort he saw from his Jackets.

“With the older guys I was happy with the way they played, but we have to clean up special teams,” Ballew said. “We did a good job, but on the sidelines it was not as efficient as it needs to be. We also had a couple of missed assignments on defense.”

Ballew was glad the jamboree afforded his team the opportunity to work on situational football, like the hands unit for Shreve’s onside kick.

“Those little things help to prepare you for when it counts,” Ballew said. “I was glad those kids got the opportunity to work on those things.”

As far as the offense was concerned, Ballew liked what he saw up front.

“Our offensive line created some holes, and our backs hit them,” Ballew said. “Lake, along with the other backs, did a good job of running the football.”

With the dress rehearsal out of the way, the Yellow Jackets will turn their attention to East Texas powerhouse Pleasant Grove, who will cross the state line for Byrd’s season opener a week from today, at Lee Hedges Stadium on Shreve’s campus.

It will not be the first game for the Hawks, who open their season tonight at Brock High School in Greenville, Texas.

Captain Shreve will begin the season hosting Loyola College Prep next Thursday, Sept. 1 at Lee Hedges.

Contact Jerry at sbjjerrybyrd@gmail.com

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They say no one ever remembers the scores of a high school football jamboree.

I say:

Jesuit 14, Green Oaks 0

Jesuit 14, Northwood 0

So much for that theory.

OK, so maybe I’m a little different. I remember my senior year high school jamboree pretty clearly all these years later and I’ll get to a couple of reasons why in a moment. (I also remember not getting on the field in my junior year jamboree, but that’s another story.)

You must know that it was a red-letter day for yours truly on that night. First of all, it was my 17^th birthday, so I had my lists of potential R-rated movies already figured out.

Football fortune smiled on me that night as I threw for 103 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another in the two quarters combined. After that performance, I figured I might as well start leaving room for a patch on my letter jacket. Believe me, I ran the numbers on what that would mean over a full season.

To show how the football gods work, that turned out to be 103 yards more than I threw for combined in the next two weeks of the regular season.

The idea of what a football jamboree should be has long since left us. (“Good ol’ days alert!”) What it should be – and once was – is being able to buy a ticket, sit in the stands and watch a bunch of teams play.

In Caddo Parish, that would take place over two nights with two different formats, but the format for Day 1 was always the best: Six teams would play a quarter each. Team 1 would play Team 2, then Team 2 would play Team 3 and so on.

So every team would play back-to-back against a different team … except for Team 1, who would play, sit for two hours and then come back and play Team 6.

You didn’t want to be Team 1.

My senior year, we were Team 1.

There would be a short warmup for the “new” team between quarters and then it was time to tee it up for a quarter. No dancelines. No marching squads. No dramatic entrances through smoke-filled tunnels.

Get ’em out there and get it on.

In the 1970s, all of the Caddo Parish high schools participated, so you could see them all over two nights. Six would play that sort of round-robin the first night and the next night, the others would play the more common format of two teams against each other for a half (which is how Bossier Parish has done it for a few centuries.)

Either way, it worked.

Even though we were “Team 1,” we got a chance to sit in the stands and see what everybody else had and how we stacked up. No headphones, no mommies to come by and check and make sure our electrolytes were in proper order. We sat as a team and watched football at the north end of what is now Lee Hedges Stadium.

They stopped doing this format more for off-the-field reasons than anything else a couple of decades ago and it’s a shame. Newspaper estimates used to put the crowds at between 6-8,000 for these events. The proceeds would be divided among the schools for a nice source of revenue.

Some schools still do the play-in jamborees with a group of teams. But for the most part, it has disintegrated into two schools playing each other, often with a freshman jamboree followed by a JV jamboree and, if anybody is still awake, actual varsity football.

It’s a pretty forgettable night. (For most players.)

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com

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JOURNAL SPORTS

After one high-quality matchup Thursday night, the full slate of high school football jamborees unfolds tonight, with Evangel wrapping up preseason for the local teams on Saturday in Ruston.

Weekend Jamborees

THURSDAY’S SCORE

Byrd 24, Captain Shreve 17

TONIGHT’S SCHEDULE

Caddo Parish Jamborees

at Messmer Stadium
BTW vs. Northwood
BTW vs. Southwood
Northwood vs. Southwood

At Independence Stadium
Huntington vs. Woodlawn, JV 6 p.m.
North Caddo vs. Green Oaks, 6:45
Huntington vs. Woodlawn, 8:00

Bossier Lions Club

At Airline

Airline vs. Benton, 5:45 p.m.
Bossier vs. Plain Dealing, 7:15
Haughton vs. Parkway, 8:45

Landers Dodge Jamboree

At Calvary, Jerry Barker Stadium
Calvary vs. Union Parish, 6 p.m.

Natchitoches Regional Medical Center Jamboree

At Turpin Stadium, Northwestern State

Lakeview vs. St. Mary’s, 6 p.m.
Loyola vs. Natchitoches Central, 8:00

SATURDAY’S CONTEST

Bayou Jamb at Joe Aillet Stadium, Louisiana Tech

Cedar Creek vs. Evangel, 5 p.m.

Photo by JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

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By LEE BRECHEEN, Louisiana Football Magazine

I think the most discussed topic in Louisiana every year besides God, family and our pets is LSU’s starting quarterback.

Some years, the question is, “How much better will he be with a year under his belt?” Joe Burrow got a whole lot better. Others, not too much, if at all.

Then, at times like this year, it’s “Who will win the job?” 

New coach Brian Kelly may know, but he’s not saying – yet. I will shed some light and make a prediction, based on what I hear and what I saw watching the Tigers practice for two hours twice this month, including earlier this week.

But first, some history and info to consider.

In the mid-1980s, there was much talk about Tommy Hodson and Mickey Guidry, both talented Louisiana quarterbacks who were redshirt freshmen. Rookie coach Mike Archer picked Hodson, and Hodson held the job for four years, setting LSU and Southeastern Conference passing records and leading the Tigers to the SEC championship in 1988. He was a spot starter and backup QB in the NFL for a few seasons, and is in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

Mickey Guidry stayed in Baton Rouge. Transfers were uncommon then, although legal, but Guidry stayed.  The prep All-American played a series each half, led LSU to scores on 17 of his 22 series the year the Tigers won the SEC, and got some additional action from time to time. Guidry played pro ball several years overseas and in the Arena League.

There have been many other quarterback competitions through the years. Heck, not even Bert Jones was the clear starter until late in his days at LSU.

This year reminds me of the Hodson-Guidry competition. LSU has three quarterbacks talented enough to start. A fourth, Myles Brennan, was good enough, but not very mobile. He saw the pecking order unfolding and headed out for happiness in the middle of preseason camp.

The Tigers have options. The only one with significant experience has a lot of it, but at Arizona State. Jayden Daniels, who I believe is the speediest QB to ever wear Purple & Gold, may be 4.4 in the 40 fast. He looks faster than Herb Tyler, who I’d say was the fastest LSU QB in my lifetime.

Daniels is smooth, has a really quality arm, and as a productive three-year starter in the Pac 10, he’s seen it all and been under pressure in some big-time venues. He’s capable of winning SEC games, no question.

Garrett Nussmeier, who arrived as a true freshman in 2021, played some last fall, but looked raw. He began rising in the spring under the new staff and this preseason, he looks different, really different, with really good feet and a cannon arm. He’s the son of a former NFL quarterback (Doug, now QB coach for the Dallas Cowboys), he soaks up the game, and he has the field presence you need at that position, especially in the toughest league in the country.

Not to be forgotten, but likely to be redshirted is true freshman Walker Howard, whose dad Jamie was a 1990s Tiger QB. Both father and son were sensational at St. Thomas More in Lafayette. The younger Howard has all the goods.

Ideally, he just needs a redshirt year to settle into the system and SEC-level competition. The battle next year between him, Daniels and Nussmeier will be something to watch. Howard has a chance to take a spot alongside Hodson and Jones (I doubt anybody can approach Joe Burrow’s level at LSU) among the Tigers’ greatest quarterbacks.

Who is THIS year’s QB?

I see Jayden Daniels being a problem in the SEC for anyone trying to defend him in a delay draw. His speed is incredible and makes him a very different weapon, but I also see him needing to work on throwing the ball better in windows once LSU gets down to the red zone.

What I’m not sold on:  his ability using the middle of the field and corners, on touch throws and the over-shoulder throws into tight spaces. To keep a job in this conference for a 12-game season, you can’t settle for field goals inside the 20 and expect to win many games. You have to score touchdowns and eventually you have to throw effectively in those situations to do that.

Nussmeier checks that box with flying colors. Once inside the 20-yard-line, I saw him hitting the tight windows consistently and making the tough over-the-shoulder throws. He repeatedly was finding receivers with ease in the middle of the end zone.

Howard can make all the throws, but he’s a year younger and hasn’t had much time working in practice against high-level defenders, let alone in game competition on Saturdays. That is the only difference I see taking him out of the mix this fall. If needed, he can play because he’s so talented.

Here’s how it unfolds, as I see it. Daniels will get the start for the first game, with his experience giving him the early edge. If he struggles, you will see Nussmeier get his shot early in the opener next Sunday against Florida State. Both will play.

I believe both QB’s will be needed to help this team succeed in a long, tough season in the best conference in the country. They are highly regarded by teammates and coaches for their leadership skills and unselfishness.

I like Nussmeier to win this job, maybe as late as the third or fourth game, because he can make all the throws. I do not see Kelly using a rotation system throughout the season, but early, unless Daniels is lights out.

There are a lot of teams that would love to have three future NFL quarterbacks on their rosters. That’s what Kelly has on his squad as he finalizes his plan for the season opener. I don’t think there’s a wrong answer.

Contact Lee at leebrecheen@aol.com

Photo courtesy of LSU Athletics

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By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports

It didn’t take long for Kansas transfer Miles Fallin to earn the starting quarterback’s job at Northwestern State, but he’s had to wait six years for it.

Fallin will start for the Demons next Saturday when they visit FCS power Montana. NSU coach Brad Laird announced his decision Thursday at the 26^th Annual Independence Bowl-NSU Kickoff Luncheon at Superior’s Steakhouse.

“I’ve told him not to be looking over his shoulder. We’re not going to say, ‘You’ve got this many series, then we’ll run in another quarterback.’ He’s won the job. He’s our quarterback,” said Laird.

Fallin, a 23-year-old California native, threw for 6,887 yards and 61 touchdowns at Santa Clarita’s Canyon High School and was a second-team all-state pick. He earned an MBA but played in only three games in his five years at Kansas.

After landing in Natchitoches in July, he won the competition with Zach Clement, a sophomore who was the starter in four games among the nine he played for the Demons last fall.

Fallin, a 6-5, 220-pounder, went 16-37 for 320 yards and four touchdowns in the Demons’ two preseason scrimmages in NSU’s new “Air Raid” offense installed after Laird brought in a new coordinator in January.

“We’ve seen his consistency leading the team. He’s taken care of the football,” said Laird, “not just in the scrimmages, but throughout August.”

Recruited by former LSU head coach Les Miles for the Jayhawks, Fallin only made three brief appearances at KU and did not see the field last season under coach Lance Leopold.

Clement completed 56 percent of 154 passes for 1,023 yards and six touchdowns for the Demons in 2021, while suffering four interceptions and battling injuries.

Senior Kaleb Fletcher, who opened last season as the starter and filled that role in seven games, completed 64 percent of his 223 passes for 1,313 yards and eight TD’s, and was picked off six times.

Also vying for the job was Jacksonville State transfer Chance Newman, a junior.

“Those guys work with each other, they help each other, and it’s been fun to watch. I think each one has grown from that. Good competition helps you get better,” said Laird.

Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com

Photo by CHRIS REICH, Northwestern State

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Congratulations to BOM’s Henry Burns on being selected as the Bossier City Lions Club Lion of the Year for 2021- 2022. Henry received the award from David Burroughs, Lion’s Club President!

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Charles Ray Bell
August 7, 1996 — August 11, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Good Samaritan Funeral Home, 2200 Laurel Street, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 3:00 p.m. at Good Samaritan Funeral Home, 2200 Laurel Street, Shreveport.

Carla Nichole Morse
October 3, 1971 — August 17, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Good Samaritan Funeral Home, 2200 Laurel Street, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Good Samaritan Funeral Home, 2200 Laurel Street, Shreveport.

JoBeth Rettig Baggett
June 28, 1928 — August 25, 2022
Visitation: Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 5:00-7:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2500 Southside Drive, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2500 Southside Drive, Shreveport.
Interment: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, following service at Rose Hill Cemetery, 1005 N. Hazel Street, Hope, Ark.

Conrad Emil Soderstrom, Jr.
August 4, 1946 — August 21, 2022
Memorial Service: Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 10:00-11:00 a.m. at St. John’s Episcopal, 1107 Broadway Street, Minden.

Kelly Thomas Salter
October 26, 1966 — August 17, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 5:00-7:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 211 Murrell Street, Minden.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1:00-2:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 211 Murrell Street, Minden.

Laren Rockett
October 13, 1948 — August 23, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 12:30-2:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 211 Murrell Street, Minden.
Graveside Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 2:30-3:00 p.m. at Gardens of Memory, 1527 Lewisville Road, Minden.

Dorothy Neal Feron Cook
December 14, 1929 — August 24, 2022
Funeral Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 500 Common Street, Shreveport.
Interment: Friday, August 26, 2022, following service at Forest Park East Cemetery, 3700 St. Vincent Avenue, Shreveport.

Veronica Sherman Washington
July 19, 1958 — August 11, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Good Samaritan Funeral Home, 2200 Laurel Street, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 10:00 a.m. at Mt. Olive Baptist Church of Greenwood, 9860 Greenwood Road, Greenwood.

Gail Janice Moore
October 31, 1949 — August 17, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Good Samaritan Funeral Home, 2200 Laurel Street, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at St. Peter Baptist Church, 533 East Dalzell Street, Shreveport.

Clim McFan, Jr.
July 23, 1969 — August 16, 2022
Graveside Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery, 6915 W. 70th Street, Shreveport.

Cedric Duron Carter
November 4, 1971 — August 15, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Good Samaritan Funeral Home, 2200 Laurel Street, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Good Samaritan Funeral Home, 2200 Laurel Street, Shreveport.

Caroline Ray Jones
August 8, 1954 — August 16, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-5:00 p.m. at Winnfield Funeral Home, 3701 Hollywood Avenue, Shreveport.

Sally Mae Harris
June 27, 1949 — August 19, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Precious Memories Mortuary Chapel, 4017 Greenwood Road, Shreveport.
Celebration of Life: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Galilee Baptist Church, 1500 Pierre Avenue, Shreveport.

Lloyd McCarty
July 15, 1947 — August 12, 2022
Memorial Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 3:00 p.m. at Aulds Funeral Home Chapel, 7849 East Kings Highway, Shreveport.

Thelma Hill
August 2, 1923 — August 14, 2022
Celebration of Life: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Paige Chapel Baptist Church, 7711 Jefferson Paige Road, Shreveport.

Maxine Thornton
September 8, 1960 — August 13, 2022
Graveside Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Roundgrove Memorial Gardens, 2869 Roundgrove Lane, Shreveport.

Ruth (Thomas) Johnson
December 22, 1929 — August 14, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Precious Memories Mortuary Chapel, 4017 Greenwood Road, Shreveport.
Celebration of Life: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Hopewell Baptist Church, 2100 C.E. Galloway Boulevard, Shreveport.

Annie Lou (Johnson) Colquitt
June 30, 1935 — August 16, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Precious Memories Mortuary Chapel, 4017 Greenwood Road, Shreveport.
Celebration of Life: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Precious Memories Mortuary Chapel, 4017 Greenwood Road, Shreveport.

Tracy Louise Chambers
November 19, 1974 — August 19, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Precious Memories Mortuary Chapel, 4017 Greenwood Road, Shreveport.
Graveside Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery, 6915 W. 70th Street, Shreveport.

Thomas Lanny McConnell
April 3, 1945 — August 19, 2022
Funeral Mass: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, 1:00-2:00 p.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 204 Patton Street, Shreveport.
Reception: Wednesday, August 31, 2022, following Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church Family Center, 204 Patton Street, Shreveport.

Wilson J. Lonzo
March 9, 1946 — August 20, 2022
Visitation: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 9:00-10:30 a.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home in Marksville.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m. St. Richards Catholic Church in Hickory Hill.

Franca Cox
November 30, 1948 — August 16, 2022
Visitation: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 12:00-1:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2500 Southside Drive, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2500 Southside Drive, Shreveport.

Sue Ellen Pilgreen
May 17, 1951 — August 22, 2022
Graveside Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Fellowship Baptist Church Cemetery, 6476 LA-151, Dubach.

Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Howard Duncan
July 24, 1949 — August 21, 2022
Funeral Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 2201 Airline Drive, Bossier.
Interment: Friday, August 26, 2022, following service at Hill Crest Memorial Park Cemetery, 601 US-80, Haughton.

E. Ashe Young
September 12, 1931 — August 20, 2022
Funeral Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Osborn Funeral Home, 3631 Southern Avenue, Shreveport.
Interment: Friday, August 26, 2022, following service at Forest Park East Cemetery, 3700 St. Vincent Avenue, Shreveport.

Billie B. Garsee
May 22, 1937 — August 20, 2022
Visitation: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, 705 S. Spruce Street, Vivian.
Graveside Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 12:30 p.m. at Chapelwood Memorial Gardens, Highway 1 North, Vivian.

Bonnie Ruth Greene Keene
July 31, 1955 — August 13, 2022
Memorial Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 2:00 p.m. at Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church, 3647 LA-146, Homer.

Wilbert White
August 2, 1944 — August 17, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-8:00 p.m. at Good Samaritan Funeral Home, 2200 Laurel Street, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at St. Rest Baptist Church, 1664 Garden Street, Shreveport.

Carolyn Webb
June 4, 1938 — August 20, 2022
Memorial Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 2:00 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 500 Common Street, Shreveport.

Larry Benjamin
December 31, 1947 — August 20, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. at Heavenly Gates, 1339 Jewell Street, Shreveport.
Graveside Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 9:00 a.m. at Round Grove Cemetery, 2869 Round Grove Lane, Shreveport.

Sandra Stevenson
March 22, 1946 — August 10, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. at Heavenly Gates, 1339 Jewell Street, Shreveport.
Memorial Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 10:00 a.m. at Heavenly Gates, 1339 Jewell Street, Shreveport.

Felton Jackson
November 4, 1963 — August 15, 2022
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 10:00 a.m. at New Bethel MBC, 3300 Greenwood Road, Shreveport.

Howard King
September 27, 1949 — August 15, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. at Heavenly Gates, 1339 Jewell Street, Shreveport.
Graveside Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Carver Cemetery, Kennie Road, Shreveport.

Barry White
December 7, 1959 — August 17, 2022
Visitation: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. at Heavenly Gates, 1339 Jewell Street, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1:00 p.m. at Greater Zion Baptist Church, 6924 Bethany Street, Shreveport.
Interment: Saturday, August 27, 2022, following service at Galilee Cemetery, Keithville.

Lee Darrow Brown
June 22, 1956 — August 12, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-5:00 p.m. at Shreveport Funeral Home & Cremation Tribute Center, 5307 Alex Lane, Shreveport.
Graveside Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Forbing Union Cemetery, 250 Par Rd 118, Shreveport.

Clifford L. Terry
October 27, 1933 — August 18, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 10:00-11:00 a.m. at Centuries Memorial Funeral Home, 8801 Mansfield Road, Shreveport.
Celebration of Life Graveside: Friday, August 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Centuries Memorial Funeral Home, 8801 Mansfield Road, Shreveport.

Karen Boyce Logan
August 7, 1938 — August 18, 2022
Memorial Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 11:00 a.m. at Belcher Presbyterian Church, 508 Gray Street, Belcher.
Reception: Saturday, August 27, 2022, following service at the home of Stephen and Jann Logan, Gilliam.

Elizabeth Earline Sanders
August 28, 1950 — August 13, 2022
Visitation: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1:00-2:00 p.m. at Holly Springs Cemetery, 854 Hwy 79, Minden.
Memorial Service: Saturday, August 27, 2022, 2:00-3:00 p.m. at Holly Springs Cemetery, 854 Hwy 79, Minden.

John L. Johnson, Jr.
July 14, 1947 — August 11, 2022
Celebration of Life: Friday, August 26, 2022, 3:00 p.m. at New Hope CME Church, 3737 Ninock Street, Shreveport.

Charles Terry Jones
August 17, 1937 — August 9, 2022
Visitation: Friday, August 26, 2022, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 4736 Lyba Street, Shreveport.
Funeral Service: Friday, August 26, 2022, 1:00-2:00 p.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 4736 Lyba Street, Shreveport.

The Shreveport-Bossier Journal publishes paid obituaries – unlimited words and a photo, as well as unlimited access – $90. Contact your funeral provider or SBJNewsLa@gmail.com . Must be paid in advance of publication. (Notice of Death shown above are FREE of charge. You may email them to SBJNewsLa@gmail.com)

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He was born the seventh son of a seventh son, and his jersey number was 16, and if you add 1 and 6 it’s 7, the Biblical number for perfection, and maybe that’s a reach but still, I’m just sayin’.

Len Dawson wasn’t perfect, but he was close enough.

In the Pro Football Hall of Fame both as a quarterback and as a broadcaster, Dawson died in hospice care Wednesday at 87, but he lived as a poster boy for Mid-America Cool in his Ohio hometown and then at Purdue and finally in Kansas City, a poster boy for decency and graciousness, a fearless competitor and an “everyman” on HBO’s Inside the NFL for nearly a quarter-century, just a nice-looking man in a sports coat and mock turtleneck, no telestrator or frame-by-frame breakdown of a controversial play, just a guy you used to watch play, just a guy you watched win a Super Bowl when you were a boy, just a dude talking football.

Poster Boy for the kind of wavy-hair, eye-black cool that seemed a little reckless but still shaved every day, signed autographs, kissed babies, won championships.

He was literally a poster boy in my world. My little-boy room had on its walls four posters, each purposeful figure possessing what I thought was a Super Power: Brooks Robinson (glove), Bob Hayes (speed), Sonny Jurgensen (pot belly! and still getting it done) and Len Dawson (grace and calculated cool).

Thumb tacks held them up then; I got them framed when I got older even though I had no money but by-god they deserved framing. In Dawson’s picture, he’d taken maybe two steps back in his drop, left leg about to step behind his right leg, looking downfield.

Loved it.

But for 40 years, The Greatest Picture of All-Time — also of Len Dawson — wasn’t published. Life magazine took photos of Super Bowl I but didn’t publish a picture of Dawson, taken at halftime, until 15 or so years ago when the magazine published a photo slideshow of that momentous event.

In the picture, Dawson, in the Chiefs’ all-white uniform, is sitting in a folding chair on the concrete floor of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum locker room, helmet off, staring at the floor, a Fresca (they quit making them a couple years ago, dang it) in a bottle by his cleats, a cigarette between his lips while he stares at the concrete, surely contemplating the Green Bay Packers defense, and takes a hit off what looks like a menthol filtered.

I imagine a lot of quarterbacks did that back in the 1960s when they were playing Green Bay, as Dawson and the Chiefs were that day. Kansas City was trailing just 14-10 at the half; in the third quarter, some mean Packer hit Dawson’s arm and a pass fluttered to Willie Wood for an interception and KC lost 35-10.

Think Dawson might have smoked another one post-game? Or two. Or eight?

Of course, I have a copy of that iconic photo, not much bigger than wallet-sized, framed and on a bookshelf.

But I don’t have the poster. Maybe a dozen years ago, sober as a judge but short on space and logic, I had the feeling I needed to mature a bit and put Len Dawson and Sonny Jurgensen by a dumpster. Didn’t have the heart to put them in the dumpster; I was hopeful someone would take them, and maybe they did.

But who throws away Dawson and Jurgensen when they’ve already been with you for 40 years? A stupid person, that’s who. A stupid person named Me.

Regrets, I’ve had a few…

But I can see him still. Super Bowl IV and NFL Films made him eternally famous. Hank Stram calling him “Lenny” and Otis Taylor on the out route for a touchdown and 65 Toss Power Trap all day long, boys. And Lenny in front of the huddle, not a circle huddle but a Lenny Huddle, Lenny alone out front, hands on his hips, five backs and receivers in front of him, five offensive linemen with three-bar facemasks behind them, all looking at Lenny Cool.

Makes me want a cool Fresca.

Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu

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