By TEDDY ALLEN, Journal Sports
He’s played in eight games and made four tackles, one solo, but you’ll have to look hard to find anyone who is happier about playing in the 46th Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl than Jake St. Andre.
“A lot of people have messaged me or called to tell me they’ll be there,” said University of Louisiana-Lafayette redshirt freshman linebacker St. Andre, two years ago a first-team All-State linebacker for the Haughton Bucs and the program’s all-time leading tackler. “Quite a few Haughton and Bossier people have contacted me; my old coaches from Haughton told me they plan on coming.”
The first person to text St. Andre when it was announced the Ragin’ Cajuns (6-6) would take on Houston (7-5) in Independence Stadium at 2 p.m. Friday was Jason Brotherton, his old high school head coach.
“He might have been more excited about us being in the game than I was,” said St. Andre, the enthusiasm evident in his voice. “So many of my friends and family will be there. My grandfather (former Airline High and BPCC basketball coach Joe St. Andre) is going to be able to be there. It’s just going to be an awesome experience, playing in front of the people in your home city in a college game.”
Another first for St. Andre Friday will be playing in Independence Stadium. Haughton played Southwood, who plays its home games there, all three times of St. Andre’s high school career at Haughton’s Harold E. Harlan Stadium, a quirk of the schedule and of the pandemic season in 2020.
“I was joking with my dad the other day that I had to wait to go to college before I got to play in our hometown’s high school stadium,” he said. “I got to see my brother play there; I was the little kid in the locker room and running on the field. But I’ve never gotten to play a real game there.”
That changes Friday when St. Andre and the Ragin’ Cajuns try to end their season with a winning record, something they came closer to already accomplishing than their .500 record shows. They lost on the last play of the game to both Sun Belt champ Troy and runner-up South Alabama, and lost on the road, 21-17, to a 4-8 University of Louisiana-Monroe team when the Warhawks scored a touchdown late, then held the Ragin’ Cajuns.
“That’s a tough one, to look back at the scores in various points in those games, then see we were neck-and-neck the whole way through,” said the kinesiology major. “A bounce here or there changes the outcome of any of those games. I think we’re definitely better than our record shows.
“Now,” he said, “we’ve got to send the seniors out the right way.”
A couple of those seniors are linebackers Jourdan Quibodeaux and Kris Moncrief, first and third on the team in tackles, “super-productive players,” said St. Andre of guys he is learning from.
“We’ve got great leadership from them,” he said. “They take pride in leading the team as a whole; our team thinks the world of them both.”
Sophomore K.C. Ossia, fifth on the team in tackles, and junior Jasper Williams, the team’s 12th leading tackler, round out a quartet that St. Andre says “have done a great job all year.”
St. Andre was District 1-5A Defensive Player of the Year after his senior season at Haughton. Since, when he hasn’t been playing on special teams for the Ragin’ Cajuns, he’s been in the weight room, doing extra work on the practice field, keeping up in the classroom, understanding what he says is the “development” part of the process “that’s been preached to me since I got here and for the last two years.”
He might not have known it at the time, but he’s been on this Football Development Road since birth. His uncle Dustin played quarterback at Southern Miss and with Cleveland in the NFL. His father coached and his grandfather coached. His other grandfather, Bossier High and Northwestern State pass-catching great Mike Almond, 1979’s “Mr. Irrelevant” when he was drafted by Pittsburgh, is a member of NSU’s exclusive N-Club Hall of Fame. His big brother is former Demons’ quarterback J.D. Almond.
“It was something I was always around,” St. Andre said of sports. “I grew up in the middle of it. Whatever I was doing, seems like there was always a ball in my hands. I’m thankful I got to grow up around the game.”
He is also grateful for his college choice, and grateful he got to play high school at a place that, football-wise, is like Haughton.
“It’s similar in a lot of ways; both fan bases are awesome,” he said about playing “Between the Pines” and at Cajun Field. “The people support you and do a lot of little things for you at UL, just like they did at Haughton High. They give everything a local ‘feel’ that everybody takes pride in. We have a good time every time we play at home.”
Friday in the I-Bowl, St. Andre gets to do that again. For the first time.
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu or on Twitter @MamaLuvsManning