It’s been nine years since the New Iberia Optimist Club began sponsoring a trophy that’s presented to the winner of the annual game between the New Iberia Senior High School and Westgate High School football teams, and this year’s game looks to be another good one, the coaches for the two schools said at a luncheon Wednesday.

The coaches were invited to speak to a combined meeting of the New Iberia Rotary Club and Optimist Club of New Iberia held at lunchtime at the Ramada Inn in New Iberia. Kermit “Mousey” Comeaux of the Optimist Club, who spearheaded the club’s involvement in the game, introduced Ryan Antoine first as the coach for the visiting team, Westgate, then Rick Hutson, host of this year’s host team, New Iberia.

A trophy featuring the mascots of both teams is presented to the winning team on the field after the game for display in the school’s trophy case for a year. The teams have met annually since 2003.

Antoine painted the Tigers (1-1) as underdogs, noting that though Westgate won the bowl and accompanying trophy last year in a close game, it was after a streak of six straight NISH wins.

“We’re going to still come out here and play our best and play as well as we can, and hopefully the weather holds up so we can have a good game and have a good crowd out there to enjoy some good football.”

Hutson said the Yellow Jackets (0-2) have gotten off to a rough start but the good thing about playing a rival, especially one where the players all know each other from having grown up in the same city and played for the same teams or opposing teams all their lives, is that motivation won’t be a problem.

“Nobody’s looking back,” he said. “Everybody’s looking forward to the game that you have this week. If you weren’t playing a rival this week you might have more people complaining about the last two weeks, but I don’t think anybody’s worried about that this week. We’re just worried about trying to get back in the win column.”

Westgate is a talented team, Hutson said, and the Tigers reminded NISH of that in the jamboree, winning 27-0.

“Hopefully the weather holds out,” Hutson said. “Seems like the last four or five times that we’ve played each other, every time we’re the home team it rains. I know it’s kind of a 50-50 proposition this week as far as the weather goes, but hopefully we’ll have great weather and have a great crowd and we’ll have a great atmosphere for everyone to participate in.”

Senior offensive lineman Cody Frederick and senior defensive back Ethan Hamilton accompanied Antoine and principal Neely Moore to the luncheon.

Hutson and NISH principal Curt Landry were accompanied by senior linebacker Thor Boudreaux and senior defensive back William Black.

The common denominator for the players the coaches brought to the luncheon was not their athletic ability but their sterling character.

“Two kids who are four-year players for the program, kids who came here not the biggest, strongest, fastest type kid but (who) worked their tail off,” Antoine said. “Cody is a great kid who’s been fighting for an offensive line spot, now he’s a starter for us. Ethan, who actually fractured a bone in his shoulder, just got cleared today, so he’ll be playing.”

“Those are two really great young men we have in our program,” Hutson said. “Both of ’em have been in our program for four years. Both of ’em were All-District last year. William led the district last year in interceptions with six, and Thor’s one of the leading tacklers in the conference. Both are good football players but they’re better young men than they are football players, and I can say that because of the way that they work and the way that they lead. They’re both good students in the classroom, and we’re very proud of what they do and how they represent us.”

Each principal also spoke to the groups, and Iberia Parish Schools Superintendent Carey Laviolette also spoke, addressing the parish’s improved test scores — Iberia Parish outperformed the state in the number of students scoring in mastery and advanced levels, and learned a couple of weeks ago that the school system is in the top 10 statewide as a growth district for test scores.

She also spoke about the large number of students in the parish (76 percent) categorized as economically disadvantaged, and how the parish is tied for first place in growing test scores for students with disabilities. Laviolette addressed the challenges the school system faces with the loss of 400 students parishwide over the last year, and the reduction in funding because of a reduced tax base. She also spoke about school safety measures.

Laviolette also acknowledged the coaches’ choices of players to accompany them to the luncheon.

“I know that there are many more seniors on your team than the two of you (pointing to one school’s table) and the two of you (pointing to the other school’s table), but you were hand-picked by your coaches probably because of what Coach Hutson said, not just because or your athletic ability, but your character, and I assume that’s why you’re here,” Laviolette said. “So congratulations for that, because I think football, athletics, does a lot to build character, so I hope you take the character that was built for you in football along with you in life. I think you’re going to do a great job.”

Laviolette also said she was asked how she and her husband support the two teams for games like this. The key is to sit on the home team’s side, wear neutral colors and cheer for each team when it’s on offense, she said, whether it’s Westgate playing New Iberia or Delcambre playing Jeanerette.