Coach Trent Delahoussaye of Loreauville High School. - Lee Ball / The Daily Iberian

Coaches for the six Iberia Parish high school football teams preparing for Friday’s kidded about everything from their teams’ size and youth to some of their colleagues’ golf games at Tuesday’s Iberia Parish Sugar Cane Jamboree Luncheon.

But one thing was evident with the 2011 jamboree scheduled for Friday at Lloyd G. Porter Memorial Stadium — the coaches, and their teams and fans, are ready for some football.

“I’ve heard all kind of rumors about Jeanerette High School in terms of whether we would even play,” said JSH coach Terry Lewis, the defending Not-So-Sweet Award winner who was first to speak at the luncheon at the Ramada Inn. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you that we will play.

“But I’ve got to say this. I looked at my squad, or our squad, the other day, out on the field, and I thought I was running a day care center. I mean, we’re not very big. We have great skill, but we’re not very big.”

Lewis, one of the last coaches to arrive for the luncheon and therefore one of the last to pick a number from a hat that determined the speaking order, wondered aloud whether he had been given No. 1 deliberately after winning the award last year for the coach with the funniest tales about his team’s prospects for the upcoming season.

Westgate coach Brian Fine also saw sinister doings in his following multiple Not-So-Sweet Award winner Rick Hutson of New Iberia Senior High to the podium. Hutson and Fine continued the lighthearted feud that the two have carried on at each luncheon in Fine’s five years as head coach at WHS.

Hutson went on to win the award again this year, his sixth such win in the award’s 12 years. The NISH coach recalled last year when Westgate didn’t look very sharp in its preseason scrimmage, then struggled in the jamboree against New Iberia, averaging about 10 yards a punt and fumbling three times.

“I remember coming in and saying, man, it could be a long year for Brian and Westgate,” said Hutson. “And of course, y’all know the rest of the story, they made it all the way to the semifinals again, and one of my coaches pointed out, ‘You’re right coach, they did have a long season.’

“Well, I’m going to make another prediction. I think they’re in for a long season again, on the positive side.”

Westgate and NISH meet again in the jamboree this year, playing in the final game at approximately 7:30 p.m. Friday at Lloyd G. Porter Memorial Stadium. Catholic High opens the jamboree against Delcambre at 5:30 p.m., and Loreauville plays Jeanerette in the second game starting around 6:30 p.m. The first two games feature matchups of four of the five teams in the new District 6-2A.

Fine poked a bit of fun at Hutson over golf matches the two played during the summer. He also said that since his team practices at a different time than others in the area, it gives him a chance to drive around and watch the other parish teams practice.

He watched NISH doing warmups before practice one day, noting the players spelling out “Yellow Jackets” as they did jumping jacks. Jeanerette players spelled out “Tigers” and so on.

“We spell ‘Team’ (when doing jumping jacks),” said Fine. “Mainly because we can’t spell ‘Tigers.’”

On a more serious note, Fine said he was surprised and impressed with how physical his defense was in a scrimmage against Teurlings last week.

Hutson also talked about Westgate’s physical play, and speed, in films he showed his team.

“When I first started the video I kept hearing some snickering in the background,” said Hutson. “One of my players said, ‘Come on, coach.’ I said, ‘No, what’s so funny?’

“He said, ‘How’d you do that?’ ‘How’d I do what?’ He said, ‘How’d you make the Teurlings players move in slow motion and the Westgate players move in fast forward?’ After a few plays they realized there wasn’t any special effects going on, that was the Westgate defense.”

Friday also marks the return of Catholic High to the jamboree after two years in the Lafayette jamboree. CHS coach Keith Menard said the Panthers are glad to be back in the parish jamboree because they felt like they belonged there. The move to Lafayette was made under previous principal Dr. Timothy Uhl and coach Craig Brodie.

Menard said he feels good about the number of players on the squad this year and the commitment they’ve made to the program in his second year.

“We do have a lot of kids back,” Menard said. “Like my principal (Ray Simon) tells us, it’s up to us not to screw them up.”

He also said he’s enjoyed the move to Catholic High.

“It’s just been a pleasure for me to be in New Iberia with the way I’ve been welcomed here,” he said.

Delcambre coach Darcy Delcambre said he’s optimistic about the season, with the largest group of players in several years. The Panthers started with 60 players in the spring and still have 55 as the season approaches. Many of them are young, however, with 28 of 55 either freshmen or sophomores. Additionally, 35 are in their first year of football.

Delcambre noted his team is the smallest school in Class 2A this year, but he does like the fact that the start of football season signals the start of the school year. The Panthers have been fortunate enough to get off to a good start the last few years, he said, and that usually inspires the other sports teams at the school to have good seasons as well.

That’s no guarantee the same will happen this year, though.

“I’ll leave you with one thing to keep in mind,” said Delcambre. “I was told a long time ago, there comes a time in every man’s life when he must grab that mule by the tail, raise it, and face the situation. We think that’s what we face too, right now.”

Loreauville coach Trent Delahoussaye was proud that his team had won district last year and reached the quarterfinals, but explained they ran into powerhouse Evangel Christian there.

“We finished our season with about 38 players, but we run out there on the field, and they dressed out 110,” said Delahoussaye. “That’s a 2A school. We’re out there with our four or five coaches, they have I think I counted 17 coaches. Needless to say we were a little overwhelmed. But I like the experience that our team had of playing a team of that caliber, and hopefully it can carry over into this year’s season.”

Delahoussaye expects Delcambre and Catholic High to be very good this year, while Jeanerette always has athletes and West St. Mary has three Division I college prospects.

“Going into this year, we have a lot of kids coming back also, and I thought we’d be able to be pretty good until the legislature came out with the concussion law that Coach Fine was referring to,” said Delahoussaye.

The coaches went over symptoms of concussions that they learned at the required seminars, which include forgetfulness, dizziness and vacant stares.

“I looked at Rhett (Peltier, LHS assistant coach and athletic trainer) and said, ‘We’ve got 25 players right now who’ve got concussions,’” said Delahoussaye.

Representatives of the jamboree and luncheon sponsors voted for the Not-So-Sweet Award. The luncheon was sponsored by Community First Bank and The Daily Iberian, while Coca Cola and The Daily Iberian sponsor the jamboree.

Profits from the luncheon benefit the United Way.