By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

District 1-5A may not be the toughest in the state, but it never lacks for competitiveness.

Other districts may have better teams – that will be determined come playoff time – but every time you turn around, there’s another game that looks intriguing. Or two. Or three.

“In 1-5A,” Byrd coach Stacy Ballew said, “everybody is competitive.”

This week, the headliner figures to be Parkway taking on Captain Shreve at Lee Hedges Stadium. The Panthers are 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the district while the Gators come in at 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the district.

Both will feature outstanding running games led by feature backs Jamarcea Plater of Shreve and C.J. Dudley of Parkway. Both have highly recruited linemen (L.J. Prudhomme of Shreve and D.D. Oliver of Parkway). If you need a little extra juice, it’s worth noting that Panther head coach Coy Brotherton is a former Shreve assistant.

But who knows? Maybe Haughton (2-5, 1-5) will surprise Evangel (2-5, 2-4) this week. After all, Benton almost pulled off that trick last week. Speaking of Benton, they’ll be taking on Byrd (6-1, 4-1) and the Yellow Jackets figure to be a rather large favorite.

But this is District 1-5A and even after seven weeks, nobody knows anything for sure.

“Especially with all of this onside kicking,” Ballew said.

You can bet that added a little extra practice time to the Jackets preparation. Benton pulled that trick twice last week against Evangel and Ballew says that’s just par for the course in this district.

“I just spent 30 minutes with one of our coaches figuring up what we need to do,” he said. “We’ve got our hands full this week. I know everybody looks at the records, but everybody’s got weapons.

Benton may be 1-6 overall, but the Tigers’ last two games have been decided by a total of two points.

In the other league game, Natchitoches Central (1-6, 0-5) will travel up I-49 to take on district leader Airline (7-0, 5-0).

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com