By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
Just because Calvary had a week off, it doesn’t mean the Cavaliers had the week off.
“We really didn’t do anything different,” Calvary coach Rodney Guin said. “Our practice time didn’t change, our practice schedule didn’t change and we did a walk through on Thursday like we normally do the day before a game.”
Except there was no game, since Calvary was one of eight teams in the Division III (select) to advance to the second round by virtue of its seeding.
Whenever a team has a bye in the postseason, the question of “rest vs. rust” seems to come up. But ask that to Guin and he will tell you that’s no contest.
Rust is not a concern; rest is always welcome.
“It’s been good for us,” Guin said. “We have had a couple of kids who were banged up a little bit, so it helped them. We go up and down the field in practice like we do every day (during the season). We got to work on stuff that we don’t really work on during the year. A lot of situational stuff that might come up.”
No worries about being about of sync or the ol’ football calendar getting out of whack with suddenly having a Friday night with nothing to do?
“No, I’m not worried about that,” Guin said. “I think we will be fine. We treat it like a game week … without a game.”
The Cavaliers have been about as fine as they could be for the first 10 weeks of the season and will head into Friday’s second round playoff game against Holy Savior Menard as the No. 2 seed in the Division III (select) playoffs with a 10-0 record.
They won’t be the only local team having to get back on the field after a week off. Airline, the No. 4 seed in the Division I (non-select) playoffs will take on 13th seeded Southside (Youngsville) at Airline Stadium, and Captain Shreve, the No. 2 in the Division 1 (select), will take on 18th-seeded Rummel (Metairie) at Independence Stadium.
Evangel will be the lone team on the road when it travels to Archbishop Shaw (Marrero) in the Division II (select) playoffs.
The Cavaliers will be heavily favored in their matchup with the Menard Eagles, which defeated Houma Christian 23-8 last week. Calvary has played only two games that were closer than 20 points this season, both to teams in higher classifications that are still in the playoffs (Westgate, Wossman).
And through it all, the Cavaliers are as healthy as they were before the season began.
“We are in good shape right now,” Guin said. “We’ve got every single kid healthy who dressed out Week 1 and played. That’s crazy. I don’t know if I’ve ever had that. Not even JV guys. Not one single guy out with an injury.”
The winner of the Menard-Calvary game will play in the quarterfinals against the winner of two Baton Rouge schools – Dunham and Parkview Baptist. Those two teams met in the opening week of the season with Parkview winning 52-46.
It was Dunham that knocked Calvary out of the playoffs a year ago in the quarterfinals.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com
