The grass has just been planted, there are no stands, and there are no lights, but there is a scoreboard.

In 10 weeks enough should be ready for the first 11-man home varsity football game to take place at Highland Baptist Christian School.

Two weeks before its first home football game, HBCS will enter 11-man football as a member of the Louisiana Christian School Athletic Association during the LCSAA Jamboree to be held at Lafayette Christian Academy.

(Use arrows above to view more photos) Advertisement

On Saturday, Aug. 15, a new era will literally kick off at Highland Baptist as the Bears will play Acadiana Home School at the jamboree.

Highland, which just started tackle football last year at the middle school level, decided to take the plunge this year and get started at the high school level.

“We have some older guys that wanted to play, especially two seniors. So I kind of wanted to get it down for them and we’re going to try to put it together,” said Artie Liuzza, HBCS’s head football coach and athletic director. “We have three eighth-graders on the roster to try to make it work but I think that it can be done in the LCSAA.”

To that end, Liuzza, who started the tackle football program last year, has been working hard getting both a team and facilities ready for the Bears’ inaugural varsity football season in the LCSAA, which will have six teams playing 11-man varsity tackle football.

“Most of them are like us,” said Liuzza, who came to HBCS from Slidell. “There are between 13 and 20 kids on a team. There will be some new teams from Natchitoches and New Orleans which will be joining us so there will be three new teams in the league this year.”

The LCSAA started a tackle football program three years ago after sponsoring flag football for many years. The league also sponsors an 8-man league.

For the 2009 season, there are six teams in the LCSAA 11-man league. Joining Highland Baptist are Acadiana Home School (Lafayette), Breaux Bridge Christian, Harvest Time Christian (Abbeville), Natchitoches Christian and the Home School Saints (New Orleans).

Each team in the league will play a 10-game schedule, playing every other team on a home-and-away basis.

“That’s real good,” said Liuzza. “In a league like this, there aren’t going to be a lot kids with experience. We get to get film on a team and we’re assured that we’ll play them again and there will be a lot of learning for that second game.

“It really teaches the kids a lot about the game when you can watch film like that and prepare for a team.”

The season is scheduled to start with the Jamboree on Friday, Aug. 14, and Saturday, Aug. 15, at LCA in Lafayette.

Teams are scheduled to play games on Thursdays after the jamboree and the top four teams will make the playoffs which are scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 29, with the championship game set for Saturday, Nov. 7, at Lafayette Christian Academy.

Highland is scheduled to play its home games on Thursdays during the season. Despite the fact the field has no lights, Liuzza thinks that shouldn’t be a problem early in the year. As the season moves into the fall and the days get shorter, HBCS will probably have to move some of its games to Saturday morning or afternoon.

“We have to work that out,” said Liuzza.

Last year, Highland played a middle school schedule with games against Catholic High, Iberia Middle and Jeanerette.

“It was a pretty successful year for us,” said Liuzza. “The biggest benefit was teaching the kids the game.

“Most of them had never put on pads before last year. It was teaching them how physical the game is, how hard you have to work to be successful in this game.

“Just being able to field a team last year went a long way.”

Liuzza understands that beginning a football program involves some growing pains, which is something that he accepts and knows that it will take several years to get the program on a good footing.

“We have kids who are dedicated and we’re going to keep pushing forward,” said Liuzza, who had dressed out 29 kids last year for middle school. “We didn’t dress out the older kids for the games.”

The HBCS coach is expecting about 29 kids for the junior high team this year and has 15 on the roster for the varsity season.

“It’s old school iron-man football,” said Liuzza. “The kids aren’t going to leave the field so conditioning is going to be the major thing. In this league, I’ve seen teams up by 30 points at halftime lose in the fourth quarter because the conditioning wasn’t there. It’s just a neat, throwback kind of thing.”

Liuzza’s biggest thrill in all of this is being able to get a kid who has never played football to get involved in the game and to realize that he can play and that it is something that will help a player down the road.

But he also realizes that since this is Highland’s first varsity season, the wins might not come right away.

“My goal is for these guys to go out and basically earn respect by being physically and mentally tough,” said Liuzza. “I want teams to realize that Highland comes to play for four quarters. Winning and losing will come but we’re committed to going 100 percent for four quarters.”