If you happen to be driving down I-49 today around Mile Marker 34 in St. Landry Parish and wondering what is going on at the Grand Prairie Rest Area (yes, it has its own website!), pay no attention to what may be considered some unusual activity at this location.
It might be a little bit more than just stretching the legs and visiting the little girls’ room.
Nestled by Dubuisson Lake, this spot has a lot more than just a few picnic benches and a giant map indicating “You Are Here.” There’s a full-fledged recreational area available for all sorts of activities.
And if you think football isn’t one of those activities, the Booker T. Washington Lions might be there to prove you wrong.
Travel for high school football games always makes for an interesting itinerary. When to leave? When to arrive? Where to eat? What to bring? Who to bring? Who NOT to bring? (“And don’t forget to bring the tax-exempt form so you can save $200 at Picadilly,” says Captain Shreve coach Jeremy Wilburn.)
When it involves a cross-state trip, it’s almost a certainty that there will be a stop along the way to do some version of a “walk-through,” which is a distant relative of an actual practice but still gets the players away from their AirPods for a little while.
Maybe it will happen at a college or even a high school that has a similar surface to the one upcoming later in the day.
Or maybe at Mile Marker 34.
“Just to get off the bus, move around a little bit, maybe taking a bathroom break,” Lions’ coach Gary Cooper says. “They got a big area over there.”
Of the six Shreveport-Bossier teams still in the playoffs, four will be enjoying the comforts of their normal pre-game routine. Parkway and Loyola will have to travel the short drive from the school to their football stadium while Evangel and Calvary will just walk out of the back door.
For BTW and Captain Shreve … not so much.
Both the Gators and Lions are headed to Baton Rouge. Shreve will take on Catholic High while 4.7 miles away, Booker T. Washington will meet University Lab.
For Shreve, it’s the same song, second verse. Last week the Gators had to travel an extra hour in order to distribute Hammond its collective hat.
It might be getting old, but it beats the alternative.
“The kids love it (going on the road),” Wilburn says. “They have a good time with it. I remember those days when I was in high school and some of the best memories I have were on road trips. I know it will be special for them for the rest of their lives.”
“One of the main things is the kids get to go places and see things they may have never seen before,” Cooper says. “You want kids to have an opportunity to experience that.”
Cooper will tell you that being on the road is not all that bad. Though the Lions were home in the opening round last week, they went on the road in the two previous years.
“For the last couple of years, we’ve been pretty good at it,” Cooper says. “Just get them out of their comfortable environment and do something different. You are away from school, and you are away from them possibly getting in trouble. The traveling part is really not that bad.”
Wilburn and the Gators have to walk about 250 yards from the school to the stadium for their home games, so going 250 miles does present some logistical issues. Obviously, you don’t want to arrive too late – hello Baton Rouge traffic on a Friday afternoon! — but you also want to avoid getting there four hours early, with nothing to do.
And with two charter buses full of players, coaches, trainers, videographers (“lots of people you aren’t used to traveling with you,” Wilburn says), staying organized might be one of the biggest challenges of all.
“Every time you get off the bus, you got to check attendance when they get back on,” Wilburn says. “The last thing you want is to leave somebody in the bathroom.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com