South Lafourche quarterback Josh Mack attempts a pass during the team’s spring game against H.L. Bourgeois. Our local prep football teams are busy on the practice fields getting ready for the 2024 season, which begins the first Friday in September.
The Friday Night Lights aren’t here just yet.
But by the time you pick up this newspaper, all of our area’s high school football teams will officially be in full pads practicing to prepare for the 2024 season.
In the past 2 weeks, locals have gotten rolling for the 2024 season. In Louisiana, teams that bypassed spring drills were able to get rolling in late-July, while teams that did spring could roll a week later in early August.
Locally, E.D. White bypassed spring and started 2 weeks ago. For South Lafourche, Central Lafourche and Thibodaux, they took the field last Monday in advance of the new season.
Every local team had a short period in shells, but now, everyone is able to get in full pads and officially get after it to start the year.
“It’s exciting. Everyone is ready,” South Lafourche football coach BJ Young said. “We tell them all of the time, ‘OK, the hard part is done.’ The summer is the hardest part. Now, we’re here. Now, we can get on the field, start putting the team together and start having fun.”
For three of our four Lafourche Parish high school football teams, they’re trying to again make the playoffs in 2024 after making it in 2023.
E.D. White has been the local frontrunners in recent years with several-straight deep playoff pushes.
The Cardinals were the first local team to start their practices this fall after bypassing spring practices, which allowed them to start preseason camp in the final week of July.
Coach Kyle Lasseigne said he is excited about his team, though he concedes that the Cardinals do have some question marks to answer.
E.D. White has several starters back on both sides of the football, but offensively, they’re replacing their starting quarterback, fullback and top wide receiver. The players stepping in have experience and are good players, but Lasseigne said the message to his new faces has been to not try and fill anyone else’s shoes, but to just execute.
“We lost a lot of production,” Lasseigne said. “But we believe in our guys. We have some guys back there that we really like and that we think are more than capable of doing the job.”
Lasseigne said he also likes the guys he has at the line of scrimmage and in the secondary, saying that he thinks the team will be able continue to have a physical advantage like they’ve had in recent years.
In the kicking game, the Cardinals are also set with one of the best kickers in the state in Ty Powell.
At South Lafourche, the Tarpons are trying to start building an annual contender like E.D. White. South Lafourche made the playoffs last season but it’s been several seasons since the Tarpons were able to have back-to-back playoff berths.
But the Tarpons were very young last season and have a lot of key pieces back, including halfback Landin Dardar, receiver Terrance Pitre, several offensive and defensive linemen and also several key members of the secondary.
The Tarpons have to replace quarterback Carson Orgeron, but they will do so with junior Josh Mack, who missed 2023 with an injury, but who had success as a freshman under center when Orgeron was out injured.
At Thibodaux, the Tigers also were young last season and have several key pieces back, especially at the skill positions.
The Tigers played some of their best football of the season in the final stretches of the year last fall, and coach Drey Trosclair said his team had an awesome spring and has momentum going into the fall.
“Year 2 is totally different,” he said. “Last year, the guys were still getting to know me. I was still getting to know them. Now, they all know what’s expected. They know how we want things done. They’re more confident. They’re older. It’s been a night and day difference.”
Trosclair said the Tigers lost some pieces on both sides of the ball, but they have talent and depth at a lot of positions, which he thinks will allow the team to have success.
The lone Lafourche school to miss the playoffs last fall was Central Lafourche, but there are high hopes that the Trojans can be much improved this season after going 1-9 last year.
Central Lafourche had a very small senior class last fall, and they have a huge group of returning starters back on both sides of the ball who have now both experience and also a whole year to get bigger, faster and stronger.
Coach Shelly Vedros said the Trojans have had a good offseason, but the No. 1 key to the Trojans’ season will be keeping players healthy. The Trojans were hampered by injuries in recent years and the team hopes to have better injury luck this fall to better attack a brutal Class 5A district.
Our local teams will continue their fall camps over the next several weeks. Teams will have their scrimmages the week of August 23, their jamborees the week of August 30, and the first Friday of the season will be September 6.
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