High school football teams in Iberia Parish are dealing with flu and similar illnesses to varying degrees as a recent upsurge in cases of H1N1 influenza, more commonly known as swine flu, hits the United States.

Doctors in Iberia Parish are not testing for H1N1 specifically, but diagnosing cases as influenza only.

Highland Baptist Christian School was particularly hard-hit, coach Artie Liuzza said Tuesday while attending the Iberia Parish Sugar Cane Jamboree Luncheon, with 92 students out of school. Five members of his 15-player roster were among those missing school because of illness.

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“That’s 10 different positions,” Liuzza said, since those five players start on both offense and defense.

The Bears, who opened their first varsity season with a 26-20 win over Natchitoches Christian Academy last week, have another game scheduled on Thursday against Harvest Time Christian Academy in Lafayette.

“The only thing we can do is if we have 11, we will play,” said Liuzza. “If not, we’ll talk with the league (the Louisiana Christian School Athletic Association) and see what we’ll do.”

The Jeanerette and Delcambre high school football teams also were dealing with big percentages of players out �” seven of 37 missing some practice time for Jeanerette (19 percent) and 14 of 42 (33 percent) for Delcambre.

“Ours is a lot of viral infections,” said DHS coach Darcy Delcambre. “Last week we had 14 either on the sideline or not in school. This week we had seven. They’re back in school but not participating.”

“Ours is the same,” said JSH coach Terry Washington. “Viral infections, sinus infections. One of the parents came in to me today, whose kid was out for seven days, and said it was the flu.”

Such big numbers have hurt their practices, too.

“It’s killing us,” said Washington. “I can’t hold practice right now.”

Delcambre said that with so many players out, the Panthers have had to limit special teams practice to just getting players lined up properly, and not doing any running, since the remaining players often are already out on the field for the entire time with both the offense and defense.

“Last week you turn around and you’ve got 10 out,” said Delcambre. “We’ve been running just trying to get the first team offense and defense out there at the same time.”

Westgate coach Brian Fine said that whatever is going around has hit the school, but hasn’t hit the football team yet.

New Iberia Senior High, meanwhile, has had only two of its players out with the flu, “One swine (flu) and the other non-swine,” said coach Rick Hutson. Both players have returned to practice.

“We’re doing the old thing, washing hands and staying as clean as possible,” Hutson said of the precautions the Yellow Jackets are taking.