106th high school sports season has much to offer

    The 2011 high school sports season got underway with the first volleyball matches on Monday. That was followed by a rare Wednesday night football game between St. Paul’s and Edna Karr.
    For prep football in New Orleans, that game kicked off the 106th year the game has been played between teenage schoolboys. For me, it’s just Season No. 47.
    The first football poll conducted by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association considers Jesuit and St. Paul’s to be among the Class 5A Top 10. The 4A poll lists Holy Cross and St. Augustine among the elite in that class, and St. Charles Catholic is near the top of the Class 3A poll.
    St. Paul’s had its first test against Karr, the No. 1 team in Class 4A, on Wednesday. The loser of that game should not drop far in next week’s poll.
    St. Augustine received a jolt against Karr in the Purple Knights’ Jamboree last Saturday when sophomore sensation running back Leonard Fournette suffered a separated shoulder early in the game.  Without him, coach David Johnson will have to rely on some young backs to carry the ground game and for sophomore quarterback Toi Jenkins to come of age early in the season.
    The Knights will be tested by McDonogh 35, Brother Martin, Archbishop Rummel, Hahnville and Archbishop Shaw in the first half of the season. This will be a tough test for a team that has title intentions.
    Shaw is now a member of perhaps the most competitive league in Class 4A. District 9 is headed by Karr (13-2 last year and expected to be better); O. Perry Walker, coming off a 9-4 season; McDonogh 35, which brushed aside the District 10-3A favorite McMain last week; and two highly competitive schools, Helen Cox and Belle Chasse.
    Few pundits consider Shaw to be able to match talent and skill against the best in this district, but if the Eagles’ performance in the Westbank Optimist Jamboree – defeating John Ehret, 14-7; and Cox, 14-6 – is any indication, keep an eye on the Eagles, who opened the regular season against archrival Rummel on Friday in the “Battle for the Megaphone.”

Big tournaments
    The Allstate Sugar Bowl-CYO basketball tournament announced its 12-team field for the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 games.
    The state’s oldest continuously running boys’ basketball tournament, which began in 1950, will honor longtime coach Kevin Trower, who led Jesuit to its first of three state titles in 1964.
    The field will include Archbishops Rummel and Shaw, Brother Martin, Jesuit, Holy Cross, 2011 Class 5A champion St. Augustine, Bonnabel, East St. John, Edna Karr, Newman, St. Thomas Aquinas and Northshore. St. Augustine, the defending CYO champion, which is now a Class 4A competitor, is the favorite to repeat.  
    For the first time, Holy Cross will host the semifinals and finals. Early games will be played at Holy Cross, Jesuit and Brother Martin.
    Not to be outdone, Ursuline Academy head volleyball coach Jay Jay Juan will host the first Catholic School tournament on Sept. 16-17.
    “This will be the volleyball version of a CYO tournament,” Juan said.
    He has scheduled 10 teams, many of which will qualify for the state tournament. They are defending Division I state champion Mount Carmel and runner-up Dominican;  Division II state champion St. Thomas More, Division III runner-up Ursuline (the host school); Division IV champion Academy of the Sacred Heart; Division IV quarterfinalist De La Salle; Division III semifinalist E.D. White; Division IV quarterfinalist Catholic of Pointe Coupee; Division I regionalist St. Scholastica and Division III quarterfinalist Teurlings.
    Of the local Catholic schools, Sacred Heart has been the most successful, having won 14 state championships since 1986, including three consecutive from 2000-02 and again from 2004-06.
    Mount Carmel has won seven state championships, the first in 1993. The state leader is Division V Episcopal of Acadiana, which has 16 titles from 1987-2002.
    Cabrini has three titles, Archbishop Chapelle and Ursuline one each.
    Ron Brocato can be reached at [email protected].