Highland Baptist assistant coach Bo Barrilleaux

Six Teche Area football coaches entertained and informed at the annual prep football coaches program on Thursday, hosted by the New Iberia Kiwanis Club.

New Iberia Senior High’s Josh Lierman, Westgate’s Ryan Antoine, Loreauville’s Terry Martin, Catholic High’s Matt Desormeaux, Highland Baptist’s Bo Barrilleaux and Acadiana Christian’s Carroll Olivier each gave a short presentation on how their team’s will stack up in the 2024 season.

For Loreauville head coach Terry Martin, the season brings with it anticipation for how his team will perform after summer workouts were routinely affected by rain and intense heat.

“We’re all dealing with the dog days of summer,” Martin said. “Probably our biggest concern, as coaches, is not the excitement but the chore of dealing with so much heat. I don’t know if it’s because the kids spend more time inside than they used to. We dealt with a lot of rain this year and we actually had our scrimmage canceled because of heavy rain.”

NISH coach Josh Lierman touched on the difficulty that comes with scheduling games in an eight-team district. Westgate head coach Ryan Antoine echoed a similar sentiment, adding that, despite LCA moving to a new district this season, he still kept the Select Division II Runners-Up on his schedule.

For the smaller schools in the parish, challenges extend beyond just scheduling. Acadiana Christian coach Carroll Olivier, now in his third year with the Lions, said that his roster has dropped from 27 to 21 players this year, leaving several questions unanswered ahead of his season opener against Lafayette’s John Paul the Great Academy on Friday.

Barrilleaux, who will serve as assistant football coach this year following the departure of legendary coach Rick Hutson last season, said that his team returns several starters, but their impact is diluted by having to play on both sides of the ball.

“We have seven seniors and, being a 1A school, seven seniors goes a long way,” Barrilleaux explained. “Being at a small school, our offense is also our defense, so those seven seniors that we’re going to rely on on offense will have to be relied upon on defense, too. There are a lot of questions and, until we get out there and face somebody, we won’t know what we really have.”

The 2024 prep football season will kick off on August 29th and 30th, with a three-game Bayou Bowl series between crosstown rivals Westgate and New Iberia marking the start to the Iberia Parish Jamboree on Thursday. Delcambre will face off against Jeanerette to begin the second day of games on Friday, followed by a contest between Loreauville and Highland Baptist.