The Loreauville secondary will see several experienced players making a return, including Kylon Polk (pictured), Blake Delcambre, and Pharell Nora. 

A senior-heavy Loreauville football team will be hoping to build on last year’s success, and grow next year’s program, when they take the field in September to begin the 2024 season.

Last year, the Tigers ended the regular season with a 7-3 record, defeating Rayville 40-12 in the opening round of the LHSAA Division III Non-Select playoffs before falling to Bogalusa 28-7 on the road.

According to head coach Terry Martin, the playoff picture is too far away for him to focus on right now, choosing instead to devote all his time to developing the mentality of his players before the season begins.

“I never really look too far ahead,” Martin explained. “I’m just thinking about tomorrow and hopefully all of our guys show up. One thing that I’m hoping for is a little more maturity with this group. It’s actually the biggest senior group since I’ve been at Loreauville, and we had a large group of incoming freshmen come out, so this will be the most kids that we’ve had.”

With greater numbers comes an increase in coaching decisions, not only on where to place each player on the depth chart, but also concerning the mentality of the team.

“Whenever you are looking at a big senior group, you know that not all of them can start,” Martin said. “The biggest question going into this season is what type of leadership are we going to get. Half of them are very experienced, but the other half of them really haven’t played much. There’s always a concern about how they will react if they don’t get enough playing time.”

Martin said he usually incorporates leadership classes into his team’s preseason preparation, but was forced to cancel those plans due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now that he has been able to restart the classes, he has seen an improvement in his players, both on and off the field.

The first test that the Tigers will have to face is plugging two holes on the offensive line. With three returning starters, including six-foot-three multi-sport star Dylan Singleton, the Tigers have a solid foundation upon which to build another impressive offensive line.

“We have three very experienced guys coming back in Carlos Martin, Dylan Singleton and Owen Broussard,” said Martin. “We need to find a right guard and a right tackle, but we have a few older guys who haven’t played a lot who will get the first shot there. We also have a few young guys who I think might end up being really good.”

A bigger problem to address will be on the defensive side of the ball.

Following the departure of All-State defenders Kaine Olivier and Trace McHugh, as well as the decision by starting DE Caiden Carline to sit out his senior year, the Tigers will need to sort out their defensive issues quickly.

“Kaine was so tall and ran so well, but I don’t think people gave him enough credit for how violent he was,” Martin said. “He really was physical, so he is going to be tough to replace. Trace was an LFCA All-State linebacker and the fastest guy on our team, an old-school linebacker, so we have to find guys to replace them. Maddox (Savoy) is back and getting some work alongside J.D. Judice. Eli Landry has potential even though he is just a sophomore. Last year he gave me fits when he was on scout team defense, he’s a really instinctive football player so he can see some time there this year.”

One area where Martin won’t have to stress is with the wide receiver corps.

While Martin usually has to press tight ends into service for certain formations, this season’s roster has an abundance of both talent and experience at the wideout position.

Returning starters Kylon Polk and Gavin Judice will return to lead the receivers, joined this season by seniors Pharell Nora and Eli Theodile, who Martin praised for his potential in 2024.

“We’re very fortunate to have a large and experienced senior receiver group. Pharell Nora is going to play a lot and Eli Theodile, who is a tall, rangy kid, can end up being pretty good. I think we’ll see some good things from both of them. We’re also getting Blake Delcambre back, who tore his ACL in Week 4 last year. He has really committed to therapy and developing his upper body, so he’s much stronger than he was last year and still runs really well.”

Leading the offense will be quarterback Hayden Benoit, who is now on his third season as a starter for Loreauville. Benoit, who has an arm capable of stretching defenses but also the speed to scramble out of trouble, has been working hard to prepare for the upcoming season.

“Hayden is coming back and this will basically be his third year as a starter. He has a lot of experience, so we expect a lot of good things from him this season,” said Martin.

Joining Benoit as a leader on both sides of the ball is Kylon Polk, who Martin said should have another great season ahead of him despite his size.

“I think he might have gotten taller (from last season), but he’s still not much to look at,” Martin joked. “He just makes a ton of plays. He plays with great instincts, as good as any guy that I’ve coached. He just has a knack for breaking on the ball sooner than normal people so I’m looking forward to him having another good year.”

Loreauville will be tested early this season, kicking off the 2024 campaign with a home game against Erath before facing a three-game gauntlet of some of the top 1A programs in the state.

“I dread scheduling,” Martin said. “When you get your butts kicked every week, everyone wants to play you, but it seems like it’s worse than ever. Everybody now wants guaranteed wins. I had four schools drop us this year, so it’s really a struggle. The only schools that were trying to play us in week two were 5A schools and then, out of the blue, I saw that Ascension Catholic had an opening so I jumped on it as fast as I could. When I started watching film on them, I thought to myself ‘what did I do?’”

Following the Week 2 home game against Ascension Catholic, the Tigers will travel to Abbeville to face off against Division IV semi-finalists Vermilion Catholic before returning home to battle Jeanerette.

“If we can come out of those five weeks with a couple of wins and remain relatively healthy, I think we’ll be in a good position and ready for the playoffs,’ Martin said.

Loreauville will begin the District 8-2A schedule in Week 6 with away games against Delcambre and district newcomer Houma Christian before returning home to take on rival Catholic High in Week 8. An away game against Franklin and a home contest against West St. Mary will close out the regular season, where the Tigers will then turn their attention to the playoffs, with a different set of expectations than in seasons past.

“Every year, we come up with a couple of goals for the season,” Martin explained. “The majority of our focus has always been on the process, but one of our goals is always to try to get to where we are practicing on Thanksgiving. When I was at Cecilia and at Breaux Bridge, we always talked about that. Now that there are only four divisions, in the last two years football, softball, basketball and baseball have all been knocked out in the second round or the quarters by 3A teams. That third round is really tough to get to and, last year, seven of the eight teams left in the playoffs were 3A teams. What we’re looking at now is can we string together enough wins to give ourselves a good seed and hopefully advance to the third round, finally.”

Whether or not Loreauville can advance past the second round remains to be seen, but one goal that might prove to be more important is the proper integration of the team’s large freshman class.

According to Martin, the success and failure of a program hinges on how much development the younger players receive, and there’s nowhere better to develop a young player than on the JV team.

“You really have to put a lot of emphasis on your JV program. I’ve always tried to schedule eight or nine JV games and now that we have a turf field, we can still keep the home games on the schedule even if we have rain,” he said. “Going back to my 1995 team, who lost on the last play of the semifinals, we had four or five JV games that got canceled due to weather. We had a big group of seniors in 1996 who missed out on those JV games and that next year we went 1-9. We all believed it was because we lost those JV games. The year after, we went 10-0, so I realized really quickly the importance of the JV program. As coaches, a lot of times you get busy or burned out and want to call off the JV games, but if you don’t play JV you will suffer the next year.”

Loreauville Tigers 2024 schedule

Jamboree – Iberia Parish Jamboree, 8/30/24

Week 1 – Erath, 9/5

Week 2 – Ascension Catholic, 9/13

Week 3 – Vermilion Catholic, 9/20

Week 4 – Jeanerette, 9/27

Week 5 – Kaplan, 10/4

Week 6 – Delcambre*, 10/11

Week 7 – Houma Christian*, 10/18

Week 8 – Catholic High*, 10/25

Week 9 – Franklin*, 11/1

Week 10 – West St. Mary*, 11/8

*- District 7-2A Opponent

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