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Fall sports season finally underway following Ida
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Now where were we when Ida decided to interrupt our lives?
Oh, yes, we were about to begin the 2021 fall sports season.
Ida might have taken out most of the first two weeks of the prep football and volleyball seasons, but we’ve gone through this before and have always chosen hope over despair. And so we start anew, anticipating that prep fans will be cheering their favorite teams as the stadiums and gymnasiums open again.
With that consoling thought in mind, let’s check out what has happened thus far: St. Paul’s and Archbishop Shaw were able to make their season debuts on Sept. 10-11. Though St. Paul’s lost to Class 5A quarterfinalist Zachary and Shaw lost at home to St. James, the two local Catholic schools at least were able to usher in the season in Week 2.
In volleyball, Dominican, the reigning Division I state champion, got off to a great start by winning eight of nine early matches, losing only to 2020 Division II titlist Teurlings Catholic in the Dutchtown Tournament. Archbishop Hannan opened its season with a victory over Mount Carmel, but lost to St. Joseph’s Academy. And, St. Scholastica started 0-1 at Dutchtown.
The remaining Catholic school teams were scheduled to serve their first volleys next week. That includes Sacred Heart Academy, whose new coach, Jay Jay Juan, is about to restart the annual Catholic League tournament.
New kids on the turf
The football season is a time for anticipation, faith and, in many cases, expectation.
“How’s my school going to do?” is the question of the preseason. But for five local schools that are fielding their first football teams, a word to their supporters, parents and friends (and I can’t write it in bolder words): Be patient and supportive.
According to the LHSAA schedules, the newbies are Rosenwald Collegiate Academy on the former L.B. Landry site, Livingston Collegiate on Dwyer Road, Jefferson Rise Charter in Harvey, the resurgence of Frederick Douglass, now a KIPP school on St. Claude Avenue, and Sci Academy on the former Abramson location on Read Road.
Although these fledglings have scheduled games against teams of their ilk, they will no doubt experience the growing pains of many programs that passed through similar portals. And no one is immune, as I illustrate:
- Jesuit’s first football game of record took place in 1904. Through 1918, the teams’ combined record was 20-38 until it blossomed in 1919.
- From 1922 to 1924, Holy Cross won six games and lost 19. The “Micks” had a big year in 1925, but didn’t thrive again until 1934.
- De La Salle joined the Catholic League in 1955 as a five-year-old program. It took four more years for the Cavaliers to start winning consistently.
- Opened in 1963, John Curtis didn’t post a winning record until its ninth year of existence.
- Archbishops Rummel and Shaw were thrown into the Catholic League during its most powerful years. It took Rummel five years to gain the respect of its peers, and it took Shaw 10 years to post a winning record. Both have since won state championships.
- St. Augustine dominated its former African-American (LIALO) league in most varsity sports, but got off to a slow start in the Catholic League until its football and basketball programs began to click in the early ’70s.
- As a consolidated school, Brother Martin was an exception. The Gentilly school, which opened in 1969, won a state basketball title in 1970 and football crown in 1971.
- But other Orleans Parish schools struggled through early seasons.
- John McDonogh, which became a coed school in 1952, went 15 years before enjoying a winning season.
- In its first three years, the original John F. Kennedy in City Park had a 7-18 record. Abramson had one winning season in its first 13 years.
- When the LIALO folded in 1970 and its members joined the LHSAA, times were tough indeed for the new kids. Winless in nine games during its first season, it took Carver three years to have success.
- It took Clark 15 years to experience success on the football field. Booker T. Washington had one winning campaign in its first five years (1974).
- L.B. Landry had to forfeit 17 of its first 20 LHSAA games. Cohen started well with a 9-1 record in 1971, then suffered through 19 losing seasons. McDonogh 35 posted an 8-15 record in its first five years in the LHSAA before its program started to click.
So, to all the new faithful, please be patient and treat the budding teams’ successes as championship victories.