‘They’re ready to play football’: Westgate kicks off 2022 season against NISH

Published 12:45 am Friday, September 2, 2022

The Westgate High School football team will begin their 2022 campaign on Friday night, traveling to cross-town rival New Iberia Senior High to compete in the historic Berry Bowl game.

For the Tigers, this season will be defined by the high expectations that follow a first-time state championship victory. For head coach Ryan Antoine, the first step is to just get back to playing football again.

“They’re ready to play football,” he said, commenting on the attitude in the locker room. “We haven’t played (NISH) since last year and we’ve played our squad scrimmage and jamboree, so it’s time to play football. Like we told our guys, we’re going to play every Friday until we can’t play anymore, so that’s our goal. The thing is though, you have to get through Monday through Thursday, and we tell our guys that those are the ‘dog days’ and Friday is the fun time.”

Westgate graduated over twenty seniors last season, including many four-year starters, so the team that takes the field on Friday will look a little different to fans. Antoine said that, for now, the focus is on getting the team to execute the fundamentals to the Westgate standard.

“It’s a completely different team, so we just go out there everyday and try to be better,” Antoine stated. “We’re a younger team, so right now we’re just trying to establish the fundamentals and trying to get our guys to play hard. We’ll work on some scheme stuff as we go on, but right now we’re just trying to get better as a unit.”

One of the biggest changes from last season will be on defense. Last year, the Tiger defense made history with their dominant goal-line stand to secure their first LHSAA Class 4A state championship. This year, experience is making way for youth, but defensive coordinator Tyrunn Walker said that it will work out well.

“We’re young, and we have some inexperience, but I think that we’re going to be better because they’re ready to learn and to work,” Walker explained. “The group last year, they knew so much that they could cut corners on certain things. They were a great defense nonetheless, some great players, but I think this defense, especially in the secondary and at linebacker, is so raw and young that they just want to do everything right and at full speed. That’s going to be a great thing for us.”

A lot of the spotlight will be on 5-star defensive back Derek Williams. In addition to his personal game performances, Williams will be looked to by the rest of the Tiger defense to provide some much-needed leadership to an inexperienced side. According to Walker, Williams is already taking on that leadership role, along with several other upperclassmen on defense.

“He’s already (stepping into a leadership role), with the help of Paul and some of the other guys,” Walker said. “I’m going to move Derek around, so you’re not going to be able to key in on him and nullify the impact that he’s going to have.”

On offense, the Tigers will be led by sophomore quarterback Jaboree Antoine. Replicating last season’s quarterback performances will be a tall order for a first-year varsity quarterback, but head coach Ryan Antoine said that the culture at Westgate is always about the next player stepping up to fill the shoes of the ones before them.

“We’re going to let him play (on Friday),” Antoine answered when asked whether or not the sophomore would be the starting quarterback against NISH. “Around here, it’s ‘next man up’ and you have to go out there and make plays. Guys are going to believe in him and count on him, and we’re going to let him know that he doesn’t have to go out there and win it, because we have enough guys out there around him that’ll help him out. We do everything as a team, we don’t ever put the ball in one kid’s hand and tell him to go out there and win a football game, we’ve never done that around here. We expect every time that somebody goes out and touches the ball, that they make a play.”

The atmosphere around the Westgate team is different this season. Gone is the underdog attitude that defined most of the Tiger’s 2021 season, now the team knows that they are the reigning champs and everyone will be looking to prove a point against them. Despite this change, Tyrunn Walker said that his approach to coaching won’t be any different this season.

“I don’t think you coach any differently,” he said. “The standard is the standard and I don’t think that we have changed our mindset. The goal is always to win championships, so they’re all faceless opponents and the rankings don’t matter. The thing is, we don’t really listen to the hype or the rankings or anything else, we set personal game goals so that we don’t focus on the long-term stuff. We stack the chips together and let them fall where they may. At the end of the day, when the season is over, we want to make it all the way to the end.”

While the standards might not be any different this year, there is a real possibility that the record might be.

The last time that Westgate managed a week 1 win was during the 2013 season, where they defeated Carencro 19-6.

Since then, the Tigers have been defeated in the first week by Carenco three times, by Catholic High and Lafayette Christian Academy twice each, and by NISH once. Now, for the first time in 8 years, the Tigers are the favorite.

NISH, coming off of a 0-10 season last year, will still be in the process of implementing an entirely new offense and defense following the arrival of head coach Josh Lierman. While the Yellow Jackets had positive spells in their jamboree game against Class 2A opponent Franklin, NISH were unable to find any consistency on offense and ended the game scoreless.

For some of the Westgate coaching staff, the week 1 losses have become kind of a curse. For Tyrunn Walker, it’s all about the hard work you put in before the game.

“I’m not superstitious,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m a firm believer in preparation and opportunity, so I don’t really care who we play. Some people are really into the superstition of it, focusing on jerseys and socks and all that, but not me. I feel like you have to come out and compete each and every day and take advantage of the opportunities. We better win week one, our goal is to go undefeated.”