Back to work

BASILE – No one in Bearcat country was happy with Basile’s 3-8 finish last football season.
The Bearcats had three straight quarterfinal appearances and were 31-5 from 2013 to 2015.
Basile head coach Kevin Bertrand is entering his fourth season with the Bearcats and is confident his team will win again.
“There were four games last year that we lost that we should have won,” he said.
“We had a chance to win at the end and just couldn’t get it done,” Bertrand said. “We talked about it all summer long and that was motivation for them.
“We would have been 7-3 and instead of 3-7.”
The Bearcats did earn a playoff spot, falling to Madison Prep in the first round.
Bertrand said those four regular season close games inclduing a double-overtime loss to St. Edmund will help propel the team into wanting better results in 2017.
“This was the best summer workouts I have ever been around as a coach,” he said. “I like their work ethic and their attitudes.
“We plan to out-work people and see where it takes us.”
Two of the three wins last year came in district play but the Bearcats are moving into a newly alligned District 4-1A.against some old-time rivals.
Joining Basile in the district are Oberlin, Elton, St. Edmund, Hamilton Christian, Merryville, and Grand Lake.
The good news for Coach Bertrand is that he has 15 starters returning from last year’s squad, including eight on offense and seven on defense.
“We have a very small senior class,” Bertrand said. “The bulk of our team are underclassmen but we do have a lot of experience playing so many younger players last season.
“We had to throw a lot of guys to the wolves last year and they weren’t quite ready to start,” he said. “But they did get better as the year went on.”
On offense, the junior Dawson Ashford returns at quarterback. Senior Brett Ledoux and junior Jayion Thomas return as the wide receivers. Senior Darren Chaumont is back at tight end.
The middle of the offensive line returns both guards in junior Gage Johnson and senior Cameron Berzas along with senior center Owen Romero.
There will be new starters at the tackle spots in sophomore Gabe Duplechin and junior Tanner Fontenot.
Joining Ashford in the backfield are junior tailback Andre Reed and sophomore fullback Logan David.
“We are going back to more one-back spread offense,” the coach said. “We don’t have the big bruising back or a huge offensive line this year so we are going to play to our strenghths.”
On defense, Berzas, Chaumont, Romero, Reed, David, Thomas, and Ashford will go both ways.
Berzas and Chaumont are defensive ends and David and Reed are linebackers. Romero is a defensive tackle, with Ashford at strong safety and Thomas at cornerback.
The remainder of the defense includes seniors Jacob McGee and Stormy Comeaux at strong safety and cornerback, respectively. Sophomore Isaiah Caeser is the free safety and sophomore Isaac Cortez starts at defensive tackle.
“We look to our defense to step up, keep the games close to give our offense a chance.”
Despite returning a number of starters off of last year’s ball club, Bertrand still knows the youth of his team.
“We are still a young team,” said Bertrand. “We have a small senior class. Fortunately or unfortunately, we had a number of sophomores be our starters last year. I expect that they will now know how to handle the battles. They should know now why we failed in the games we did last year and how to succeed.”
“I expect them to get over those adverse situations and get the wins when we have the upper hand,” he continued.
For Basile, leadership will be a huge key going into the 2017 season. Bertrand will not only look to his seniors for that leadership role, but also to those underclassmen that have a substantial amount of playing time.
“Even though not all of our senior class starts, they have already assumed that leadership role,” stated Bertrand. “At first I was worried about that, but so far this summer and this fall they have exceeded my expectations. They are the first one’s to volunteer, the first one’s to clean up, the last one’s to leave. Our senior class has really gone above and beyond. I cannot be prouder of our senior class.