re: Louisiana State Soccer Championships

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Private schools have made it impossible for a public school to win again in that division for sure — possibly the rest of them too

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you seen Holy Cross’s field?

A lot of public schools don’t care about the sport

Hard for public schools to keep up. Also private schools have gotten better at recruiting and getting several kids from the same team. When I was in high school, we had something like 45 club players spread through varsity, JV, and freshman at a public school. Now it’s very rare to have even close to half.

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hendersonshands

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Grace King won a title not that long ago.

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Grace King won a title not that long ago.

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they lost to St. Paul in the final but it was remarkable that they even got there

I don't think it's that they don't care, it's that they can't afford to keep up.

Southside is getting a lot of the kids on that end of town that would’ve joined the health academy, gifted, gone to STM, or some other school choice program to avoid going to Comeaux. So yeah they’re taking some from LHS, but others are going to private schools. ESA used to be terrible but now they’re a good soccer school.

The 2014 and 2016 re-alignments have definitely made D-II way weaker than it used to be. Mostly to the benefit of D-III.

When I played at St. Michael, we played up in D-II, and were routinely in the top 10 and bossed our district, which besides us was all BR-area public schools plus Lutcher. One year we had like 81 goals for and none conceded in 10 district games.

Then since dropping down to D-III we haven’t come close to winning district even once, and the past couple years we’ve only won 1 playoff game.

All the mid-sized Catholic schools like us, St. Louis, ED White, Vandy, etc. that used to play up in D-II have dropped into D-III leaving a big power vacuum. Holy Cross has really taken advantage, credit to them. D-II is definitely the best chance a true public school has to win a state title, if someone can beat Holy Cross.

The school choice program in Lafayette has really spread out the soccer talent there, to the detriment of Lafayette High and Acadiana, who were consistent Top 5 teams when I played.

Dutchtown and St. Amant have had some great teams recently, but the new high school in Prairieville will really hurt both programs when it opens in a few years. Especially Dutchtown.

Hey, I forgot to respond earlier. My bad.

The new Prairieville school is expected to open for the 2023-24 school year. Construction begins soon. $80 million project.

They’ll be a D-I school not long after opening, but watch out if they are Varsity-eligible for a year or two while they still have a D-II enrollment. They would immediately be a legit threat to win the D-II state title in soccer for however long they’re in that division before getting bumped up to D-I.

I predict Denham Springs will be the first high school in the state to reach 3K enrollment. Unlike Ascension Parish, I can’t see Denham Springs voters ever choosing to establish a second high school there. It’ll become like one of those massive Dallas schools with 7K kids.