Delcambre noted that his team is the favorite opponent of the host school for the jamboree each year. The host team picks the matchups for the Iberia Parish Sugar Cane Jamboree, and this year host Catholic High chose DHS as its opponent.
“Catholic High’s hosting, we play them,” said Delcambre, who then asked New Iberia’s Rick Hutson and Westgate’s Brian Fine when they were hosting again.
  
Advertisement
|
“Good. Y’all are the only two I have left to play,” said Delcambre. “So hopefully you’re not hosting in the next two years, three years.
“Lord bless me.”
Catholic High’s Craig Brodie addressed his wife’s attendance at the luncheon, the first one she’s attended. Loreauville coach Trent Delahoussaye noted that his father, former St. Martinville coach Carroll Delahoussaye, left an LHS scrimmage early after seeing his son had changed the Tigers’ offense from last year’s two-tight end power football set to a spread offense this year.
But it was Delcambre who drew the most votes for the annual Not-So-Sweet Award, given to the coach with the funniest and saddest story about the upcoming season.
Each coach was given up to 10 minutes to speak about the upcoming season, mixing stories and jokes about their teams and themselves in much the same manner that some football coaches like Alabama’s Paul “Bear” Bryant were known for downplaying how good their teams were to fans and the media. The idea for the Not-So-Sweet Sweet Award is based on the Kiwanis Club of Lafayette’s annual luncheon for its jamboree, where a “Crying Towel” award is given to the coach with the saddest/funniest speech about his team.
Most of the coaches at Tuesday’s luncheon commented on the number of players they’d lost from the year before and how much work they had to do to replace those departed seniors. Delahoussaye and Brodie both said they lost 16 seniors, including nine starters on offense and nine on defense. Westgate coach Brian Fine said his team lost 24 seniors from last year’s semifinal squad.
But none of that impressed Delcambre.
“Every one of the coaches got up here and talked about how many kids they lost and what they’ve got to replace. We went 2-8 last year and got them all back,” said Delcambre, who edged Loreauville’s Trent Delahoussaye for the Not-So-Sweet Sweet Award, given to the coach whose tongue-in-cheek tales of woe are deemed most humorous by a panel of voters from sponsors of the jamboree and luncheon. “Weigh it. Weigh it. They’re all back.”
Brodie appreciated the three people who clapped for him, but said he didn’t even think his wife, Maria, applauded.
“No she didn’t,” someone in the audience responded.
Brodie noted that his wife, a teacher at Loreauville High, attended but sat at a table with LHS principal Karen Bashay and coach Trent Delahoussaye.
“I saw her today, she came in and it was nice to see her, she got time off work, and I sat down and waited for her to come sit with me, which she didn’t. But that’s not unusual - (there are) a lot of things that her and I haven’t done for a while,” Brodie said, drawing roars of laughter from the crowd, including his wife.
“That alone should win this (award).”
Delahoussaye said that Loreauville’s lack of size this year along the offensive line prompted the change in offense, which apparently didn’t impress his father much.
“I forgot to inform my dad that we were running the spread, so he comes out there last week for our scrimmage and he comes on the field,” said Delahoussaye. “That first play comes up and we go four wide (receivers) and we’re in the shotgun every play, we’re not under center at all. So the first time we go four wide, I look back at him, and he’s not looking at me. He’s looking at the wall. After about four or five plays, he left the scrimmage. He was not there anymore, and I have a voicemail on my phone. He had invited me for supper the night before. That invitation was no longer available, and I have yet to talk to him since that day.”
Delahoussaye also addressed his team’s jamboree game with Jeanerette. He and assistant coach Butsy Walet were watching film of Jeanerette in preparation for the jamboree, and Walet liked what he saw.
“He said, ‘Man, they’ve got three or four guys that look like (New Orleans Saints running back) Reggie Bush,’” said Delahoussaye. “They’re that fast. They make moves, can’t tackle them or anything. Then we put our film in and Coach Walet goes, ‘Huh, Jeanerette’s got Reggie Bushes, we’ve got a couple of guys out there look like George Bush. Nobody approves of the job that they’re doing. Everybody’s going the wrong way. The team’s definitely going the wrong way.
“‘We’re playing a team full of Reggie Bushes and we’ve got a bunch of guys up here look like George Bush.’”
Brodie said that among the players he lost was all-around performer Ryan St. Julien, now a freshman on the LSU football team.
“We also lost probably one of the best athletes we’ve ever seen around this area, Ryan St. Julien, who accounted for about half our total offense,” said Brodie. “He had 25 touchdowns. He was our punter. He was our kicker, kick returner, punter, played free safety, was wide receiver, played quarterback, so he filled about eight positions for us. We have to find about eight people to do all the positions he did by himself. It’s going to be tough to replace a guy like that.”
But he likes his team, he added.
“We’re small. I think we’re going to have a pretty good football team as far as they come to practice on time and they work hard,” said Brodie. “I don’t know if we’ll win any games but they’re enjoyable to coach.”
Hutson said that though he’s won several of the Not-So-Sweet Sweet Awards, but that it’s not something his team looks forward to. Last year he won the award, and his team lost to Westgate in the jamboree.
“If I wanted to win this award, I just had to bring a projector and show you last year’s jamboree,” said Hutson.
“I can’t believe that it’s been nine years since we started this thing,” said Hutson. “Most of you who have been coming all these years know that I’ve won this award a few times. I was talking to my principal on the way over here today, and I said, ‘You know, if I win another one of these things I’m going to need another office, you know, for more wall space.’ He said, ‘Coach, if you don’t start winning some more football games, you’re going to need another office, but not for those reasons.’”
He then said that his team looks at jamboree luncheon day like their own version of Groundhog Day.
“When I get back to school it’s going to be one o’clock, it’s going to be fourth block and all our football players are going to be down by the weight room and they’re going to be waiting for me to pull up in the parking lot and get out of the car and see if I’ve got the plaque in my hands,” said Hutson. “And if I do, they know it’s 10 more weeks of bad coaching.”
Hutson said his wife, who did not attend, told him he put football ahead of their marriage.
“I just had to disagree with her on that,” said Hutson. “I mean, we’re getting ready to celebrate our 10th season together - our 10th anniversary together.”
Jeanerette coach Terry Washington said 10 minutes might not be enough to talk about his team. He might need four hours.
After winning last year’s jamboree game, he said, going to the lunch room, the cafeteria lady took care of him.
“Boy she piled the plate up with food, I was eating real good, I was putting on weight,” said Washington. “So when the next week came around, after we lost to Catholic High, I go get in the line, I cut the line like I normally do, and she says, ‘Hey, hey, coach, you’ve got to go to the back of the line.’
“I said, ‘Well, last week -’ and she said, ‘But last weekend we won.’ So for 10 weeks I was in the back of the line. It got so bad, one day I tried to go to the front of the line, she wrote me up and sent me to the office. Miss Freeman (assistant principal Linda Freeman) said, ‘Coach, what did you do?’
“‘Miss Freeman, I cut the line.’ ‘Coach, you know you can’t cut the line ’til you win some games.’”
This year, after playing well in a scrimmage with McKinley, he was again invited to the front of the lunch line. Learning his lesson, he decided that this year he’s fine with staying at the back of the line all year.
“I don’t know if that’s a good sign, but it’ll sure be better than going 0-10,” said Washington.
Fine said that in North Louisiana, where he coached for most of his career, there weren’t any parish jamborees like the one in Iberia Parish.
This year’s Westgate team is completely different from last year’s team, he noted.
“Totally different team we have this year than we had a year ago,” said Fine. “True story, just to give you an example of what we’re dealing with here. First day of practice, we go out to practice, and our quarterback, Deon Anthony, he gets a call from us and he steps into the huddle, and I turn around to talk to coach (Fabien) Joseph, and I look back, and they haven’t broken the huddle. I look up and Deon’s got his helmet off and he’s introducing himself to all these guys in the huddle. He didn’t know any of them. He’d never played with any of them.”
The Tigers aren’t very big, either, Fine said. Linebacker Seth Stansbury asked his coach after one practice why he and defensive tackle Torrance Benjamin, the only two returning starters among the defensive front seven, were practicing with a bunch of freshmen.
“We’re not near as big. We’re small, but we’re slow, too,” Fine joked.
Westgate and NISH exchanged film in preparation for the jamboree too, he said.
“We swapped film on Saturday morning,” said Fine. “Eight o’clock. Eight-thirty, my phone rang at home. Rick says, ‘Hey, you know, payback’s hell.’ It took him 15 minutes to watch the film and walk in there and call and let me know what they have in store for us.”
Like the other coaches, Fine said this year’s group is a good group of kids, a smart group and as diligent as any he’s had.
The junior varsity jamboree will be Thursday at Catholic High beginning at 5:30 p.m. The varsity jamboree begins at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Lloyd G. Porter Memorial Stadium.
Comments