Youthful Delcambre team banking on positives in ’23 season
Published 6:00 pm Friday, September 1, 2023
- The Panthers will replace starters in almost every position this year.
DELCAMBRE – The Delcambre Panthers success on the football field over the past couple of season has been mainly due to an extraordinary senior class which refused to give up or give in and fought all the way from opening kickoff to final horn.
But that senior class has graduated and moved on and now head football coach Artie Liuzza and his assistant coaches have a new crop of kids with which to work their Mojo magic, to borrow a phrase from Delcambre’s football past.
“We’re going to be very young,” Liuzza said. “It’s going to be a learning process for us. We have nine upperclassmen and about 20 underclassmen.”
“Every position on offense is going to have a new starter.”
Liuzza has to replace 13 seniors, most of which were two-way starters.
“We have a big group of freshmen and sophomores so that is a lot to build the future on,” Liuzza said.
While the Panthers are in rebuild mode, the cupboard isn’t entirely bare.
Tallon Guilberteau saw significant playing time on both sides of the ball last season and will move into the starting wide receiver role and there are a couple of other players who saw some time last season and will move into starting roles as well.
The biggest position on the field, however, is going to be run by a freshman as Rix Robin takes over under center or in the shotgun as the case may be at times this season.
“He is a freshman and learning the offense but we are also going to have freshmen on the offensive line as well,” Liuzza said. “The biggest thing about that is with the offense we run, the offensive linemen have some rules to follow and with the freshmen in there we’re starting from scratch in that regard.”
The other big question facing Delcambre also comes from the inexperience of the team in varsity football.
“What is going to happen and how are they going to react when adversity hits, as it will,” Liuzza said. “Are they going to be able to overcome it?”
“For us, it is definitely going to be a rebuilding year as the new players learn what we do. But they are smart kids and have picked up so much already. I think as they play and grow the future of Delcambre football is looking bright.”
