Anderson to play CHS eighth-grade team

Catholic High eighth-grade football coach Philip Streva wanted to upgrade his team’s schedule heading into the 2008 football season.

After a call from a local colleague, he got his wish, and then some.

The CHS junior high team will face Anderson Middle School for the first time in some three decades when the two squads face off Thursday at Panther Stadium.

“I told my players last year we were going to get more games for the eighth-grade team,” said Streva, who coached the seventh-grade team at CHS last season. “Coach (Glenn) Fondal called me and said, ‘We’d like to play you.’ I said, ‘I don’t think we can play you.’”

The seventh-grade team last year played a “fifth-quarter” schedule, with eight-minute quarters, running time, after the eighth-grade games. Upgrading to a squad like Anderson was something Streva had to think hard about this year.

AMS, after all, is one of the premier middle school teams in the state, much less Acadiana, going 70-3 over the last 11 seasons, including six straight undefeated seasons from 2002-07, with the Tigers going 41-0 in that span and winning 45 straight in all.

“We normally play (Our Lady of) Fatima and Cathedral (Carmel),” said Streva. “That’s our district. They’re pretty good teams.”

But perhaps not overall in the same category as AMS. After considering the matter more, Streva talked to a parent he knows who has a son playing at Loreauville Junior High. Streva’s full-time job as a representative of RC Cola products at Streva Distributing frequently puts him in contact with coaches and parents in the area.

“He said it really wasn’t that bad,” said Streva. “They beat (Loreauville), but there were no problems. (AMS runs) a disciplined program.”

So Streva called back and agreed to have the junior Panthers play Anderson for the first time, he believes, since he himself was in the junior high program at CHS.

“I think the last time we played was 1978 or ’79,” said Streva.

Fondal, who has been at AMS for 25 years, said he doesn’t know when the last time the two teams played was. He said he called Streva hoping to get the Panthers on the schedule, knowing that it would be a big fan draw for both schools.

“When coach (Craig) Brodie got over at Catholic High, he said he wanted to make sure his feeder program got the best competition,” said Fondal. “I called Phil and he agreed to play us.”

Brodie formerly coached at Westgate, where Fondal’s program was one of the feeder schools for the high school.

Like Streva, Fondal also is looking for opponents. Unlike high schools, which have a fixed 10-game schedule, middle school programs must fill out their schedules the best they can.

The Tigers have played as many as nine games and as few as four in the past 11 years, depending on which teams they can schedule games with.

AMS plays Teche League games against schools like Loreauville, Jeanerette, Belle Place and Iberia Middle but also has games against Fatima, Patterson, Central Catholic and Highland Baptist on the schedule this year.

The Tigers haven’t lost since the first two games of the 2001 season. The team’s only other loss since 1997 was in 1998.

“Jared Mitchell was playing with Belle Place the last time we lost,” said Fondal.

Mitchell went on to All-State honors as the quarterback at Westgate and is currently a junior receiver on the defending BCS national champion LSU football team.

“We have 10 games this year,” said Fondal. “We’re going to be playing Fatima Sept. 9 at Lloyd G. Porter (Stadium). They’ve got a real strong team. The coach from East St. John called me, and we might get a game with them too.”

AMS might be considered to be in a rebuilding year this season.

“I’m young, but we got some good looking kids,” said Fondal. “This is supposed to be a rebuilding year, but I don’t know.”

CHS, meanwhile, is looking to build its program up a bit.

“We’re also playing Belle Place and Iberia Middle,” said Streva. “It gives you a chance to measure up against some pretty good teams. I think we have a pretty decent team. I don’t know if it will reflect in the record. We have a brutal schedule.”

And it begins with one of the best, and a chance to find out right away where the Panthers stand against a team CHS hasn’t played in decades.

Kickoff Thursday is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.