Groundwork for district title laid in offseason

LAFAYETTE -- New Iberia Senior High celebrated its first district football championship in nearly two decades with a 33-28 win at Lafayette High on Thursday night, but the seeds for Thursday’s joyful occasion were sown at least as far back as January.

“It all started in the offseason and a lot of pieces of the puzzle came together,” said NISH coach Rick Hutson following the Yellow Jackets’ win Thursday that wrapped up a 7-2 regular season and a 4-0 district slate. “The first of which was Mark Roman making a donation to get our weight room where it needed to be and the school board chipping in (to finish the job). That was really big.”

Roman, a former New Iberia Senior High and LSU standout now playing defensive back for the San Francisco 49ers, was working out in the NISH weight room last summer when he was struck by a thought, and almost struck by one of the weight racks falling over.

A good way to give back to his high school alma mater, Roman decided, was to help fund improvements to the weight room, which he did with a donation of some $18,000 worth of equipment in January. The Iberia Parish School Board provided the remaining funds for a $50,000 renovation of the training facilities that led to a noticeable improvement in this year’s NISH team.

“It’s a different New Iberia team than we’ve seen in the past,” said Lafayette coach Mark Barousse following Thursday’s game. “They’re stronger, more physical and in better condition in the second half.”

Another piece of the championship puzzle also came in January during team meetings.

“It was a goal we set back in January,” said Hutson. “And when you tell kids, ‘If you do this and this and that, you’ll be able to get what you want,’ you’d better back it up some time.”

That led to a tough offseason of hard work and sacrifices to make themselves better, something the seniors on this year’s squad noted following their big victory Thursday.

“It’s so rewarding because we got what we paid for,” said senior linebacker Michael Lamothe. “The coaches told us, you can pay now or you can pay later. We paid for it in the offseason (with hard work).”

“We worked hard all season,” said senior running back Emanuel Harding. “But we won this game in the offseason. We set the district championship as a goal in the offseason and we succeeded tonight.”

“We had some kids really turn their attitudes around this year,” said Hutson. “That’s the biggest difference you see. My dad (assistant coach Lawrence Hutson) notices these things a lot. This group runs sprints harder than any group we’ve had. This group works harder in the weight room than any group we’ve had. They work harder during the season.”

And that hard work led to a feeling of togetherness that pushed the Jackets to the top.

“Team unity won this game, and offseason preparation,” Harding said.

“We have great chemistry on our team,” said Lamothe. “We have great energy.”

“We play for each other,” said senior linebacker Johnnie Cope. “We don’t play for one.”

Hutson said that it’s hard to describe what winning the school’s first football district title since 1990 has meant to the team, a feeling echoed by Cope.

“It’s been 17 years, since before I was even born, since New Iberia was district champion,” said Cope. “You tell me what it means.”

After a brief pause, Cope summed it up for himself and his teammates.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” he said simply.