Hutson drew immediate laughs from those attending the luncheon at the Ramada Inn of New Iberia with a reference to Catholic High’s withdrawal from the jamboree this year. The Panthers are participating in the Kiwanis Jamboree in Lafayette.
“You know, I’ve been around since this thing started,” said Hutson. “It started as a four-team jamboree, then it became a six-team jamboree, and now it’s a public school jamboree. And all God’s people said, ‘Amen.’”
  
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“I even heard one coach tell the same joke two years in a row,” he said. “I was thinking about that, I’ve seen so many pairs, I thought I ought to change my name to Noah. I was kind of bragging to my wife, I said, you know, I’m the only original coach from the original Sugar Cane Jamboree. She said, don’t brag about that too much, all the other ones got promotions.”
Each coach was given up to 10 minutes to speak about his team, with most taking the opportunity to tell a few tongue-in-cheek tall tales about how dismal their chances were for the upcoming year. The coach deemed to have the most amusing or sad tale, in a vote by representatives of the sponsors for the luncheon and the jamboree, is presented the Not-So-Sweet Award for his efforts.
The jamboree luncheon is sponsored by Community First Bank and The Daily Iberian. The jamboree is sponsored by Coca-Cola and The Daily Iberian.
“I guess I’m supposed to start telling jokes now,” said Hutson, who won the Not-So-Sweet Award for his the fifth time in 10 years. “Catholic High School principal and the coach walk into a bar - No, I can’t tell that one.”
That drew a huge laugh, as did his comment about a scrimmage with Breaux Bridge last week.
“I don’t want to sound too pessimistic, but the only way we gained yardage that night was if we ran the film backwards,” he said.
In the spring, Hutson said, there were a lot of distractions as the cheerleaders and football players played a lot of pranks on each other, toilet papering each others’ yards. The cheerleaders figured out a way to stop the football players from doing it, by putting up goal posts and painting their yards like end zones.
“And that was the last time they had any NISH football players in their yard,” Hutson said.
The coach also praised his jamboree opponent, Westgate High School.
“They’re scary, I mean they are really scary on defense,” said Hutson, who added that he doesn’t think he has three players who together can block the Tigers’ Torrance Benjamin.
Impressed with how aggressive and physical WHS was, Hutson asked Tigers coach Brian Fine how he got his team to play so hard. Fine, said Hutson, showed him some of the team’s workouts in the weight room, and showed him a sign in the locker room that says “Play like champions today” that the coaches at Westgate have their players touch before each practice or game.
“I think I see our problem, because we’ve got one in ours that says ‘Don’t forget your helmet,’” said Hutson.
Loreauville
Loreauville coach Trent Delahoussaye was the first to speak, preceding Hutson. The order of speakers was made by a random drawing of numbers by the coaches.
Loreauville is the host school for the jamboree this year, and also hosts the junior high jamboree on Wednesday, followed by the junior varsity jamboree on Thursday at LHS and the varsity jamboree on Friday at Lloyd G. Porter Memorial Stadium.
The Tigers lose probably 95 percent of last year’s offense in running back Dillon Anthony and quarterback Jonathan Louviere, Delahoussaye said. Unfortunately for LHS, new starters Ross Durke at QB and B.J. Greene at tailback were both hurt in a scrimmage last week.
“We’re going to have a younger team on the field Friday night, and the J.V. team is going to be even younger with a lot of freshmen playing,” said Delahoussaye.
The coach said he’s noticed a problem at LHS with practice jerseys disappearing from the locker room. The jerseys say “Property of Loreauville High School,” he said, and apparently the players are proud to wear them around town.
“This year our practice jerseys say ‘Loreauville High School Fourth String,’” said Delahoussaye. “I have not had a problem with anything missing since then. They will not wear those in the community, I promise you that. And that’s a true story, that’s a true story. You come to our practice, our whole team’s fourth string.”
Westgate
Fine noted his team’s extremely tough schedule. After the Tigers went to the semifinals two years ago, it was hard to find anybody who wanted to play Westgate.
“Let me tell you one thing, when you go to schedule, all anybody remembers is what you’ve done, you know, the best you’ve done,” he said.
The result was a schedule starting out with Breaux Bridge, one of the hands-on favorites to win the Class 4A state championship. WHS also plays host to Patterson, which features Kenny Hilliard, the top running back recruit nationally; then faces Archbishop Shaw, which was in the Class 4A finals four years in a row and now, as a team in Class 5A, is probably even better; followed by Eunice, another one of the two or three favorites to win Class 3A.
After finally getting the schedule done, Fine said, he showed it to defensive coordinator Ryan Antoine.
“And Ryan looks at the schedule and he says, ‘Are you crazy? Every one of these guys, they’ve got an All-American playing offense,’” said Fine.
The Tigers’ third-year coach said coaches talk all the time about their team consisting of ham-and-eggers. Every coach wants the ham-type guys, and not the eggers, he said, explaining that when you have a ham-and-egg breakfast, “the chicken’s kind of involved, it lays the eggs and you’ve got to have the chicken, but the old hog, now, he laid his rear end on the line, and those are the guys you want.
“Unfortunately we’ve got a bunch of eggers.”
Talking to his team in coaching cliches about commitment, he joked, he said the mountain was in front of the players, and they had to climb the mountain.
“I’m all fired up, I’m thinking they are too about climbing the mountain, and I get done and one of our seniors (says), ‘Coach?’ ‘Yeah, Jacoby?’ ‘Do we have to climb all the way to the top or is there an escalator somewhere?’ Typical of what we get.”
Delcambre
Delcambre coach Darcy Delcambre, the 2008 Not-So-Sweet winner, wondered right off the bat why two teams wanted to play his Panthers in the jamboree. With five times in the jamboree this year, the smaller schools (Class A Delcambre and Class 2A Loreauville and Jeanerette) play each other in a round-robin, starting with Delcambre facing Jeanerette, then playing Loreauville, and finishing up with Jeanerette and Loreauville.
Delcambre listed a few good reasons for that, listing two two-year starters and three three-year starters the Panthers have lost, including a running back with consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
“Heck, I want to play us too,” said Delcambre. “I can’t wait till next year when I host this thing, ’cause I’m gonna play me. I’m telling you. Everybody that hosts the jamboree wants to play Delcambre.”
DHS was scheduled to scrimmage with South Cameron, and the weather was so bad it flooded in Delcambre. The South Cameron coach told him, weather or officials notwithstanding, he was going to be in Delcambre to have his team scrimmage the Panthers.
“Heck, even Coach Fine’s getting in on the action,” said Delcambre. “We gotta play them in the J.V. jamboree. You want some of that Delcambre, huh?”
One thing is for certain, though.
“We don’t have to play Catholic High again,” said Delcambre of the jamboree.
In all seriousness, he said, he hoped all the teams in the parish do well, and reach the postseason, and added that the jamboree is good for everyone involved.
Jeanerette
JSH coach Terry Washington wondered why his name was drawn to be last for the third straight year.
“I feel right at home,” he joked.
Washington said he gave one of his greatest speeches before a scrimmage with Hanson last week.
“We’re going to protect this field just like they did in the Alamo,” Washington told his players. “I said, ‘Hey guys, let’s do it,’” drawing cheers from the players. “One guy turned around and said, ‘What’s the Alamo?’ I said, ‘We’re in trouble.’”
Fine sandbagged Washington into playing his team in a spring scrimmage, Washington said, by telling him Westgate wasn’t going to be that good. When Washington told his players, he didn’t get the positive reaction he was looking for.
“‘Coach, you must be losing your mind,’” Washington reported the response. “I said, ‘Guys, don’t you know, the bigger they are, the harder they fall?’ They said, ‘No, coach, don’t you mean the bigger they are, the harder we fall?’”
Jeanerette’s young quarterback, he noted, is in his first year of varsity football after being in the band.
“That’s how bad it is at Jeanerette Senior High School,” said Washington. “The band has better athletes than the football team.”
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