Rick Hutson took a stroll down memory lane Wednesday at the Iberia Parish Sugar Cane Jamboree Coaches Luncheon, in the process nabbing his ninth Not-So-Sweet plaque with the top speech given by coaches of the six participating teams as voted on by a panel of jamboree and jamboree luncheon sponsors.

Hutson, the final coach to speak at the event held at Landry’s Cajun Seafood & Steakhouse Restaurant, talked of the jamboree’s beginnings in 1999, noting the parish’s teams had to head out of town for various jamborees at the time.

“In 1999, (coach) Zeb Simon and (principal) Raymond Marceaux from Jeanerette and Miss Jean Reaux (NISH principal) and myself — are any of those people here?” Hutson said, then when it was apparent none were, added, to appreciative laughter, “OK, so in 1999, I came up with this idea. And I named it the Iberia Parish Sugar Cane Jamboree, where players from our parish could not only show their talents in front of their fan base, but to everybody else in the parish.” That first year, he noted, four teams took part — Jeanerette, New Iberia, Westgate and Catholic High. Loreauville and Delcambre still had contractual obligations with other jamborees and joined a couple of years later. Then the jamboree went down to five teams as CHS withdrew to take part in another jamboree, with Catholic High rejoining, then withdrawing again and being replaced by Highland Baptist.

“So anyway, what was my motivation for creating this event?” he asked. “Was it because we could make more money if we did it? Was it because it created more excitement for the community? It really was just because I like speaking at luncheons.”

Hutson said the jamboree has been around for 19 years and added many of those listening may not know, but he just celebrated his 10th year of sobriety. After eliciting applause, he said, “Really you shouldn’t applaud because it wasn’t consecutive. I just added up all the days and that was my best estimate.”

The coach also enumerated a number of the changes since he’s been at New Iberia Senior High, including administrative and coaching changes at area schools and with the Iberia Parish schools administration, the number of home fields where the Yellow Jackets have played, the days of the week the Jackets have played (including Saturday mornings and Monday nights). “I’m going to tell you, of all those things I mentioned, coaches and principals — superintendents are the hardest to train,” he said.

Hutson circled back to his tongue-in-cheek assertion that he’d created the Sugar Cane Jamboree later with a quiz designed to stimulate the crowd to participate.

“March 9, 1999, who claimed that he created the internet?” Hutson said, agreeing with a few in the crowd who responded “Al Gore.”

“Also in March 1999,” Hutson continued to a big roar, “the Sugar Cane Football Jamboree was created by who?”

Hutson followed Jeanerette High School head coach Ananias Johnson, who said he’d keep it short by just telling the truth, as he does every year.

He told the tale of a player who showed up limping before practice every day — and before the team had ever done any contact drills or even put on pads. Eventually one of the people who’d been trying to figure out why the player’s feet were hurting asked Johnson to look down at the player’s feet.

“The guy had his shoes on the wrong feet,” Johnson said.

Highland Baptist coach Scottie Williams, in his second season with the team and speaking at the jamboree for the second time, said his team was young but hopes that as the season moves on will begin to improve and achieve some success. He also took a good-natured swipe at his former coach, none other than Hutson.

“I’m not really a big fan of talking bad about my team but I know I played for a coach that did,” Williams said. “He won this award more times than he did playoff games.”

Westgate High School offensive coordinator Derek Landry spoke for the second year in a row in lieu of head coach Ryan Antoine, asking if there were any movie buffs and then scrapping a joke after none of those attending the luncheon responded.

Landry said he wasn’t really prepared because it was sprung on him at the last minute, but added Antoine said that fits his coaching style. WHS has a lot of talented players, he noted, such as Kayshon Boutte and Tyreese Jackson.

“What you don’t know is we have one of the best JV offensive lines in the area,” Landry said. “Unfortunately, they have to play Friday nights (on the varsity).”