Parish Jamboree set for tomorrow night in Basile

BY: TRACEY JAGNEAUX
Sports Editor

A number of gridiron fans across the parish have been anxiously awaiting the start of the 2015 high school football season. For those fans, the wait is over.
Tomorrow night four of the five Evangeline Parish football teams will get a chance to showcase their teams in the parish jamboree to be held at Basile High School.
The games, formatted for two 15 minute halves, will begin at 6 p.m. with the Pine Prairie Panthers taking on the Ville Platte Bulldogs.
The second game between the Mamou Demons and the Basile Bearcats will start approximately 15 minutes after the first contest is complete.
Even though the jamboree is not an official game to be recorded in the final season win or loss total, it does offer the participating squads the opportunity to fine tune things before the regular season kicks off.
It is as close to a real game situation as you can get.
Pine Prairie will come into the jamboree after participating in a four team scrimmage at Tioga last week.
“I thought the scrimmage went well,” said Panther Head Coach Yves Prince. “We moved the ball well on offense, taking the first possession down to about the ten. We also had some really long runs that were called back because of penalties. Defensively, we played out of position, especially in the secondary.”
For Basile Head Coach Kevin Bertrand, the scrimmage against DeQuincy last Thursday was a good test for his squad, especially his young offense.
“One thing that I really liked about our team in the scrimmage was that we got after it,” stated Bertrand. “From the start to the finish we executed extremely well. I thought the running game moved the chains. We need to work on pass protection this coming week.”
Ville Platte is coming off a very physical game against Lake Arthur in their jamboree and head coach Jorie Randall is looking for the same from his Bulldogs.
“I thought we came to play against Lake Arthur,” stated Randall. “I wanted to play those guys because of the physicality they bring. It gave us a chance to see who was ready to play. We have some young players to look at and this was a good way to find out if they are ready.”
Mamou head coach Brian Brumfield was pleased with the effort of his Demons in the scrimmage despite being behind.
“We are just now getting out feet under us,” commented Brumfield. “The coaching staff is new and we are still putting in our base stuff. Still, I thought our kids played hard and gave a tremendous effort.”