JOURNAL SPORTS
The season is done for 10 of our 19 local high school football teams after 10 weeks. The remaining nine enter the LHSAA’s postseason tournaments, four divisions in both Select and Non-Select competition.
Each team has its own story, and there are subplots in every instance.
As coaches take stock of their teams’ regular-season performance, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal Coaches Roundtable question this week was pretty basic: what is the biggest surprise, the most rewarding development or event your team has provided?
DENNY DURON, Evangel – “The most pleasant surprise for me this year has been the leadership that is developed within our team. We are not a rah-rah, hyped-up squad. These kids have bought into hardnose assignment-centered football and it has made all the difference.
“I am so proud of the way they are playing.”
COY BROTHERTON, Parkway – “Faculty members’ kids contributing to big wins. As a former coach’s kid and brother, I know the pressure you feel sometimes and to see our biggest two wins come on the hands of two Parkway coaches kids is awesome.
“Peyton Rayner had the fourth-down stop to beat Airline. His dad is a longtime assistant coach and current assistant principal.
“We won the Shreve game on a walk-off field goal by Thad Smith, whose mom teaches algebra and coaches cross country. That’s the biggest surprise and most rewarding part of the season.”
AUSTIN BROWN, Northwood – “There really haven’t been many surprises. They have been a good group to coach and the seniors have taken ownership of the team. They have really done a good job of leading and as a result, we’ve made progress from day one to now and we’ve had a very good season.”
JOHN SELLA, Loyola – “I’ve been so impressed by our offensive line this year — Ryan Sipes, Johnny Roberts, Ian Wallace, Cade Kirby, and Bennett Lawson.
“None of them were starters on the offensive line for us last year and to be able to mesh so well and be that good up front with five new starters is pretty dang good.”
JUSTIN SCOGIN, Airline – “A few people come to mind when you think about this one, but the Moore brothers to me are a great fit.
“Max, who we moved from O-line to D-line in the spring, has really came into his own at noseguard. His brother Matt started out on offense and had a lot of success before having to be moved to linebacker late in the season.
“Both are great kids that never question what you do — they just get after it. They’ve had plenty of opportunities to feel slighted, but they’re such good teammates. They do whatever they can to help the team.”
JEREMY WILBURN, Captain Shreve – “There’s been a collective maturity, accepting ownership of every aspect of what we’re doing, and that’s a significant improvement since last season. When we have things to address, off tape or otherwise, the players correct it. When that begins happening, that’s when the program is heading in the right direction.
‘We’ve had some situations in games when kids have gotten frustrated, and you can hear the players addressing it before the coaches have a chance to get involved. Often it’s been some of our younger guys showing leadership that way. The seniors have been really good at buy-in, and younger guys have gotten on board much sooner than you might expect.
“The team has a collective grit, the ability to take care of business with enthusiasm. Instead of looking at it as, ‘this is another practice we have to get through,’ they’re looking at it as ‘this is another practice where we have an opportunity to get better.’ I can’t speak to that enough. We’ve plowed through a lot of adversity and shown a lot of resiliency, a lot of toughness, and they’ve taken ownership of all of it. That’s what I am most proud of.”
MATTHEW SEWELL, Haughton – “A pleasant surprise for us was our trio of senior skill players. We had three senior receivers/tight ends (Carter Couvillion, CJ Johns, and Jayden Lackey) that had not played much at the varsity level going into this season.
“We didn’t know what kind of production to expect from them, but really needed one of them to step up and make an impact. Turns out all three of them did. They played their tails off each week, blocked extremely well, and combined for 32 receptions for 510 yards and 6 touchdowns.”
“They were all a big part of our success on offense, and all three are great representatives of our program.”
STEPHEN DENNIS, Benton – “Probably the development of our defensive line. We came into the year with a lot of guys that had not played very many varsity snaps, and we ended the year with a two-man rotation at most spots along the D-line that will all be back next year!!
“I am very excited about the future of that position group.”