Several events have been planned this week to help Catholic High School Whiteout the Dome with the team’s second trip to the Mercedes Benz Superdome for the Division III football state championship game scheduled for Thursday night.

Among the highlights is a team send-off at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Monsignor Disch Gym, as well as a pregame pep rally Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Superdome. Game time is 7 p.m.

Game tickets are on sale at the high school office from 1-4 p.m. today with a limited number of tickets available. General admission tickets are $13 apiece. After tickets are sold out, they are available through Ticketmaster and at the Superdome.

Thursday’s send-off will be held at the parking area in the rear of the school at the Bank Street entrance. Guests and students will join the spirit groups and the team and coaches prior to the team’s departure for New Orleans.

The pregame pep rally will be held at the Iberville Club Lounge on the 200 level of the Superdome. Doors open at 4 p.m. and the pep rally begins at 5:30 p.m.

Performances are scheduled by the CHS band, cheerleaders and dance teams with an appearance by members of the 1962 CHS state championship football teams. Concessions will be available.

The Division III championship game between the third-seeded Panthers (11-1) and the top-seeded Notre Dame Pios (11-0) is a Whiteout Game for CHS fans. The school asks fans to wear white as Notre Dame will wear red.

CHS also stresses several stadium and LHSAA rules in effect for fans.

Bags cannot exceed 12x12x6 inches. No noisemakers are allowed in the building. Schools will be fined $1,000 if fans use confetti.

The two schools also have scheduled a private Mass for the Holy Day of Obligation (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) Friday at Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in New Orleans starting at 10 a.m. Attendees are advised to arrive as early as 9:40 a.m. There is limited parking in nearby towers and lots.

Catholic High is making its second trip to the state finals under head coach Brent Indest after reaching the championship game in 2014. CHS reached the semifinals in 2016.

Notre Dame defeated Catholic High 37-0 on Sept. 22 in week 4 of the regular season, but the Panthers haven’t lost in their eight subsequent games. Indest says a much improved defense from the beginning of the season has been a big reason for that, coupled with an offense that has consistently performed well.

CHS is averaging 50.3 points a game on offense and allowing 14.7 per game on defense. Taking out the loss to Notre Dame and a 22-0 win at Ascension Episcopal in a virtual monsoon, the Panthers are winning at a 58.2-13.9 clip per game.

Indest said Monday the Panthers improved defensively because of a combination of the team maturing, along with a couple of moves, mainly shifting Warner Simon to defense, and the improved play of senior safeties Bailey and Noah Broussard.

“Going into the season we knew we were going to be able to score points,” Indest said. “We knew we were going to be explosive. But it was a huge question mark how good we were going to be defensively, and those guys have seen our defense grow from just being not very good at the beginning of the year to be pretty durn good at the end of the year.

“Any time in any part of life, whether it’s your personal life or your business or whatever, when you can turn a negative into a positive, you’ve done an unbelievable thing.”

The coach said that the two safeties weren’t playing well at the beginning of the year but now are playing extremely well against both the run and the pass, allowing Broc Romero to not have to try to do so much. Combined with Simon’s move to defense, the improvement has been dramatic.

“Our pass defense this year has been much better than it’s ever been,” Indest said. “I think that (the improved play at several positions and the addition of Simon to the defensive side) is just a good combination for success.”