Pine Prairie High: With renewed energy, Panthers eye more victories

By: TRACEY JAGNEAUX
Sports Editor

The Pine Prairie Panthers come into 2015 hoping to continue the mild success found in last year’s campaign.
Despite the looks of their 3-7 record, the Panthers found a renewed energy that will hopefully carry over to this season. Head coach Yves Prince is counting on a great spring and fall camp to get the Panthers going early.
“I really believe we can do some good things this season,” said Prince. “Last year our players learned that they can play with any team. Now we just have to go out and execute what we have been working on so far this summer.”
The Panthers will get tested earlier this season as they have added some teams to the non-district schedule that are above their class. Beau Chene, Peal River and Tara High Schools are all 4A squads. In addition to those teams, Pine Prairie has intra-parish rival Mamou and area school Bunkie High on the slate.
“We decided to add a little more of a challenge to our non-district schedule this season,” commented Prince. “Getting three or four wins in non-district will go a long way to our ultimate goal, which is to make the playoffs.”
Pine Prairie will once again compete in District 5-3A. The teams in that district are the same teams from the last two seasons, with one exception. Eunice High replaces Livonia, as the Bobcats moved down to Class 3A and the Wildcats moved up to Class 4A.
“We are very familiar with the teams in the district,” stated Prince. “We have been playing them for the last two years, except for Eunice. We know it will be tough, but hopefully we can come out and win a couple of district games and get into the playoffs. We have not won a district game in the history of the program that would be huge.”

Closer look
on offense
The Panthers go to a new offensive scheme with the installation of the split back veer, well known to Acadiana High and John Curtis fans. Pine Prairie looks to Dylan Doucet to captain the offense while running backs Josh Fontenot, Clint Graser, Tucker Deshotel and Gaten Chaddrick will carry the load and control the ground game.

Closer look
on defense
Pine Prairie keeps the 4-2-5 scheme in place for the 2015 season. Veteran defensive linemen Zack Leggett and Corey Anderson will anchor a defense that will be young in the secondary. Linebackers Joshua Fontenot and Tucker Deshotel along with defensive ends Clint Graser and Brant Deville will try to holddown the run game of their opponents.