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re: North or South Louisiana high school football?

Posted on 11/21/12 at 11:25 pm to
Posted by CourseyCorridor
Baton Rouge, La.
Member since May 2012
1996 posts
Posted on 11/21/12 at 11:25 pm to
Pound-for-pound, it's not even close. North Louisiana football is much better than south Louisiana.

Only problem is, what, 2/3 of the state's population is along the I-10 corridor? So sure you'll get more prospects down there.

But the Monroe area does it right. They have more depth of quality. West Monroe is dominant, but Neville is too, Ouachita is very good and Ouachita Christian will probably win 1A. That means no one program is vulturing off the others.

That's in contrast to, in particular, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport. John Curtis is dominant, but most of the rest of Jefferson Parish is awful (save Rummel). Parkview, Catholic and U-High are good but ALL the public schools are bad. In Shreveport, Evangel and Calvary are good but the public school programs have declined, save Byrd and, to a lesser extent, Captain Shreve.

In Monroe, there have always been multiple dominant programs in the Metro Area. In the 80s and 90s, it was Neville and Wossman, plus Ouacthia Christian and St. Frederick would take turns being good (and there are only 50k people in Monroe). Then, later, Ouachita got good, Wossman faded after Gambino retired, then West Monroe rose, but Neville kept being good and Ouachita has its moments.

Yeah, Monroe is the best football area BY FAR.

And it's not just coaching. It's program building. There's more continuity up there between junior high and high schools and more institutional support for programs. I know EBR, Calcasieu and Lafayette coaches would LOVE to have the system they have for football up there.

This post was edited on 11/22/12 at 12:04 am
Posted by CourseyCorridor
Baton Rouge, La.
Member since May 2012
1996 posts
Posted on 11/22/12 at 12:01 am to
To follow up on my previous point: The Monroe area (including Ruston) has sent a team to the Dome in the highest class (going back to when 4A was the highest class) 25 of the last 30 years.

They have had five schools play in the highest class in that time. Four have won state championships (Ouachita, Neville, Ruston and West Monroe).

In 4A, the Monroe area has won five of the last seven state titles.

The Monroe area has sent six teams to the Dome in 1A since 2000, covering three programs (Ouachita Christian, Sterlington and Oak Grove).

There are only maybe 200k people in that Northeast Louisiana area, about 1/5 of metro New Orleans and 1/4 of Metro Baton Rouge and about 1/25 the population of the I-10 corridor. So, no, it's not going to produce as many players.

But I know this. South Louisiana teams don't wanna frick with the Monore teams come playoff time. So far, the three Monroe-area teams are 5-1 in the 5A playoffs (including Ruston) and the only loss is Ruston to Ouachita.



This post was edited on 11/22/12 at 12:02 am
Posted by GhostofJackson
Speedy Teflon Wizard
Member since Nov 2009
6605 posts
Posted on 11/22/12 at 6:23 am to
quote:

John Curtis is dominant, but most of the rest of Jefferson Parish is awful (save Rummel)


Jefferson Parish has 3 major private schools, Curtis, Rummel, and Shaw. Curtis is obviously the best of that group and arguable the best in the state. Rummel is the top 5A team, and Shaw is having some down years and will continue to struggle the next two years in 5A but has more state championship appearances in the past 25 years than some schools have playoff appearances. Jefferson Parish is also the feeder for the majority of the solid Nola programs. You think the kids from BM, Jes, Karr (yes Karr fudges addresses and takes JP kids), St. Aug, and HC get their athletes from Orleans? No, they give scholarships to JP kids.
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