Parish coaches join for kickoff dinner

OPELOUSAS – The 17th annual St. Landry Parish football jamboree will be held on Aug. 29 at Donald Gardner Stadium in Opelousas.
The jamboree’s first games were held at Eunice High School in 1997 with the six public schools facing each other in two 10-minute half contests.
Tuesday night, this year’s group of coaches compared teams and talked about the upcoming football season.
North Central will take on Port Barre at 6 p.m., followed by Beau Chene - Eunice at 7:15 p.m.
Opelousas High and host team Northwest will conclude the jamboree at 8:45 p.m.
Admission is $7.
North Central (1-10, 0-5) head coach Jacobi Thierry said while his team is limited in numbers, they are full of spirit.
“The numbers are short but they give us everything they have,” the coach said. “Hopefully we will have a good season.”
Port Barre (6-5, 2-3) head coach Mac Mistric said he is thrilled how hard his team is working to prepare for the season.
“We have some guys who can play a little bit and then we fall off tremendously,” Mistric said. “We are excited and the kids have worked hard.”
Beau Chene (2-8, 1-5) head coach Josh Guidry said he is expecting a turnaround season for his Gators.
Guidry said he has no returning starters on offense and just two returning on the defensive side.
“We are going with a split-back veer this year as we feel that gives us our best chance to compete,” Guidry said. “We are going to try and shorten the game and play good defense.
“We will play the 4-2-5 on defense as we think our secondary are our best guys.”
Eunice High (6-5, 4-2)assistant coach Andre Vige talked about the Bobcats as head coach Paul Trosclair was unable to attend the meeting.
“We have a lot of inexperienced players and our starting quarterback from last year is hurt,” Vige said. “Our offensive and defensive lines are our most experienced players.”
Opelousas High (0-10, 0-6) head coach Quinten Payne is looking to improve from their winless 2013 season.
“We have the most numbers (75) we have had in a while and we have everybody healthy,” Payne said. “We are excited about the season and I see great things in our future.”
First-year Northwest High (6-6, 3-2) head coach Chris Edwards said he working to learn his team.
“I am trying to get in a year’s work in two weeks,” he said. “I wasn’t there in the spring and we have a lot of young players.
“They are going to fight hard and play tough,” Edwards said.