Will this be the year another member of the Catholic League takes home a Division I basketball championship? Through almost nine decades, local Catholic schools have found much success on the hardwood.

St. Augustine High School’s entrance into the all-white Louisiana High School Athletic Association through a federal court ruling in 1967 was an integral part of the civil rights movement in New Orleans.

St. Katharine Drexel Prep and the Academy of the Sacred Heart served notice that they intend to repeat as the state’s outdoor track and field champions in the spring by sharing the girls’ Division II first-place award at the LHSAA State Indoor Track and Field meet on Feb. 16 at LSU.

Two things you can say about the Louisiana High School Athletic Association holding separate basketball playoffs for Select and non-Select schools are (1) the Select teams have higher seeds when one subtracts the non-Selects, and (2) it really doesn’t matter because Scotlandville’s Hornets have been and still are  the class of the state’s highest classification. That’s been the case for a decade.

It is shaping up as a banner year for LSU sports. Men’s basketball is poised for a long run in the NCAA Tournament; the baseball team is expected to reach Omaha and compete for a College World Series title; and the football team won 10 games for the first time since 2013, including a New Year’s Six bowl.

Southern League President Lori Webb quickly threw water on the notion that a Double-A team from that league would be headed to Zephyr Field to take the place of the Triple-A New Orleans Baby Cakes.

Four local Catholic high schools received St. Valentine’s Day gifts from the Louisiana High School Athletic Association: Each other. When the girls’ Division II select playoffs will have begun on Feb. 14, St. Scholastica will be hosting northshore rival Archbishop Hannan, while the Academy of Our Lady opens the bi-district round at home against De La Salle.

So, tell me again why the parents and schoolmates of New Orleans area high school wrestlers had to drive 349 miles for 5 hours, 26 minutes, to Bossier in order to watch their athletes perform in the state wrestling championship tournament?

Since the retirement of Archbishop Rummel athletic director Phil Greco and the subsequent resignation of head football coach Jay Roth to become the school’s AD on a full-time basis, the athletic department has become an office of musical chairs.

The final weeks of the District 9-5A boys’ basketball season couldn’t be any more competitive as St. Augustine, Jesuit and Holy Cross battle for a share of the Catholic League championship.

Will the road in the NFC to Super Bowl LIV in Miami go through New Orleans or Los Angeles? The oddsmakers at the Westgate Las Vegas sports book say the Kansas City Chiefs are the favorites to win next year’s Super Bowl at 6-1, with three teams right behind them at 8-1: the Super Bowl champion Patriots, the Saints and the Los Angeles Rams.

Before we go any further, some full disclosure. I will watch Super Bowl LIII. It is my job, and even if it wasn’t, I would still watch. Let’s quickly, while we are at it, address a few items regarding the infamous no-call of pass interference in the NFC Championship Game.

And so the chasm that has separated public from non-public high school athletics grew even deeper on Jan. 25 when a majority of nearly 400 principals voted to allow select schools to take charge of their championship playoff games in four sports.

I wonder if there was a party Friday in Baton Rouge at the LHSAA convention? After all, Friday marked the six-year anniversary of the vote to split the football playoffs into private and public championships. Was there a cake and candles? Party favors? Jocularity for all? Six years later, high school sports in Louisiana is broken, and one of the sports most injured by it is not football but basketball. That is why the ears of several private-school principals perked up when they read the proposals by Teurlings Catholic principal Mike Boyer to hold separate championships in the sports currently split. It makes sense – and cents.

This is the stage of the basketball season the stars of the game come out to play, and the 10 pieces of the Clarion Herald’s Elite Team begin to fall in place. Well, St. Augustine is making the task a bit difficult to single out the team’s top individuals. It seems the key players are candidates to bump some deserving guy from another area Catholic school from a spot on the team.

It was the pass that eventually changed two seasons.    The Rams, trailing, 28-14, in the second quarter at the Superdome, were playing a first-and-10 at their own 25 yard-line. Quarterback Jared Goff threw a pass intended for Robert Woods, but it was intercepted by Saints linebacker Alex Anzalone. The Saints took over at the Rams’ 34-yard line. The drive ended with a 1-yard TD run by Alvin Kamara. The Saints, who scored two touchdowns in the space of 43 seconds late in the second quarter, led, 35-14. New Orleans won, 45-35. The Saints and Rams would each win 13 games. But, that game and that pass would help determine homefield advantage in the playoffs.

 A series of controversial proposals that will appear on the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s 52-page agenda for the Jan. 23-25 annual convention hit the fan on Monday. Authored by Teurlings Catholic’s crusading principal Michael Boyer, Select schools would determine their playoff formats in the sports of football, basketball and baseball separate and apart from the common playoff system that governs non-select schools. Passage of this proposal is contingent upon principals from Select (non-public schools) approving the proposals. 

Can one quarterback from the same Texas high school outplay the other? Can Nick Foles, one of the greatest relief pitchers in recent NFL history, out-perform Drew Brees in the Superdome? If so, it would be one of the great items on an already sterling resumé compiled by the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback. Others have tried and failed. On Nov. 4 at the Superdome, L.A. Rams quarterback Jared Goff completed 12 of 16 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown in the first half. But, he was bested by Brees, who completed 17 of 22 first-half throws for 211 yards and three touchdowns.

The most anticipated event that culminates a sports season is the selection of the coveted All-State team. And the most talked-about by prep hacks is the All-State football team, chosen by a group representing the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. The last of five teams – Class 5A – was published on Jan. 6. It contained 14 players on the offense side and 14 defensive selectees.  And by some ill-conceived, all-inclusive philosophy that declares everyone a winner, the committee went out of its way to pick 93 (count ’em) players for honorable mention.

Mark the dates Jan. 15 and Feb. 8, 2019 down on your games-to-see calendars. On opposite ends of the scorer’s table will stalk two of the city’s premier head basketball coaches whose teams have been in the upper echelon of the Catholic League since their rivalry began in 2012.