Usually you have to wait for the championship games at the end of the year to watch back-to-back high school football games when the state title contests between the different classifications are held consecutively at one designated stadium traditionally reserved for college or professional teams. Last season, I spent a whole weekend in early December camped out at Mississippi Memorial Stadium watching each state championship game. It actually started on Friday morning around 11 for the IA title match up between Durant and Mount Olive, and then ended around 10:30 Saturday Night with South Panola defeating Meridian for the 6A championship.
The following weekend I spent seveb quality hours in the Superdome for the Louisiana State Championships. Despite having only seen the final two games, I didn’t get out until well after midnight after Acadiana High School of Lafayette upset the heavily favored West Monroe Rebels 21-14 in the 5A championship. Unlike Saints games with no alcohol being served, let’s just say there was a lot of coke and popcorn involved.
This year you don’t have to wait until the final weekend of the season to watch back to back high school football games in person. The Allstate Sugar Bowl is hosting their inaugural prep classic this evening with a doubleheader between New Orleans area schools and Lafayette area schools, and a couple of participants in the 2010 state championship games will be making a quick return trip to the Superdome. In the opener, 2A runner up John Curtis Christian of Kenner takes on consistent playoff contender Westgate of New Iberia. John Curtis is a small school powerhouse that produces numerous big time college prospects. It will be interesting to see how they match up against a school in a classification three times larger that is also a quality program. Curtis has already gotten off to an impressive start shutting out 2010 4A Champ Franklinton 34-0. Westgate fell in their opener to Breaux Bridge 35-10.
In the finale, Acadiana returns to the Dome and takes on St. Paul’s of Covington, who they knocked out of the state playoffs last year 41-20, giving the Wolves their only loss of the season. Acadiana was victorious in their opener against Northside of Lafayette 36-13, while St. Paul’s defeated 4A runner up and New Orleans public school powerhouse Edna Karr 38-7.
According to the listings on Scout.com, most of the college prospects from tonight’s games come from John Curtis with the highest rated recruit being LSU commit TE Dillon Gordon, who is ranked #9 in the whole state. Other Curtis prospects include DT Marcel Andry (undecided) and OLB Torrey Bell (Mississippi State). I was a little surprised to not see anybody from St. Paul’s listed considering how successful they have been, but I do see that they return a over 1000 yard rusher in 6-2, 220 lb Dylan Long so it will be interesting to see how well he does.
It will be a perfect night for high school football, and to an extent I am disappointed I will be watching it all indoors. However, I am confident that while standing on the platform outside of the Superdome, I will still catch a whiff of that crisp, early autumn air we are experiencing this week which compliments the sport so well.
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