Boys Hope resident leads Rummel to second title

    Damien Williams, the Outstanding Player Award winner of the 2012 Class 5A football championship game, sent a congratulatory message to the office of his alma mater, Archbishop Rummel.
    It read, in part: “One of the best decisions of my life was to go to Rummel. We always find a way to win, academically and athletically. Congrats to the whole Raider family. I am very proud of you guys.”
    As a freshman quarterback at Mississippi State, Williams was unable to be in the Superdome to watch Rummel win the Select Division I championship by defeating Byrd of Shreveport, 23-22, on Dec. 12.
    Unlike 2012, when Williams led the Raiders to a 35-14 romp over Barbe, this Rummel team had to overcome a shaky start to the season, as head coach Jay Roth was quick to point out. Cases in point:
    ➤ A pass-catch-lateral play enabled the Raiders to get past Hahnville, 7-5.
    ➤ After losing to St. Augustine by two touchdowns, Roth’s team had to kick a last-second field goal to get past a gutsy Jesuit team, 24-21.
    Both Hahnville and Jesuit ended the season with 6-6 records.
    As did all Class 5A schools, Rummel qualified for the Division I playoffs and continued to escape elimination.
    ➤ At Scotlandville, the Raiders scored late in the game to pull off a 17-14 victory.
    A return game against District 9-5A champion St. Augustine was the final step to get back to the Dome.  If there was any hope, it would come from a running back who lives at the Boys Hope residence.
    Again, trailing the talent-laden Purple Knights late in the semifinal-round game, Roth pulled a rabbit out of a hat. That “rabbit” was Ivan Phipps, a diminutive senior Roth calls, “Old Soul.”
Nothing slow about him
    Phipps’ gait may imitate that of an elderly person, but with a football in his hands, the 5-5 senior is a compact lightning bolt. Ask the St. Aug defense.
    The play was a sweep to the left. The Knights had it defended well, and Phipps found himself in a world of trouble.
    “I keep a statistic called make them miss. Ivan made Jesuit miss 21 times,” Roth said. “His yards-after-contact is impressive,” Roth said. “Pound for pound, he’s one of our strongest players.”
    So when Phipps spotted trouble, he instinctively spun around to run the other way to the shock of his coaches.
    “We’re yelling for him to go down so we don’t lose any more yards. It’s like, ‘Don’t do that! Get down!’”
    But Phipps shook off a would-be tackler and sprinted to the corner of an open end zone to give the Raiders a 31-28 victory and a berth in the title game. Then the coaches were yelling, “Yeah!”
    “I usually don’t go down the first time I’m tackled. I just had it in my brain that I wasn’t going to get caught,” Phipps said.
    In the championship game, Byrd held a solid 19-10 lead. Archbishop Gregory Aymond,  who went to support both Rummel and Archbishop Hannan’s efforts, told Roth he would say a few prayers for the team.
    “I told the archbishop, ‘That’s a good idea because things aren’t looking good right now.’”
    The prayers, and Phipps, fulfilled their intentions. Rummel outscored its opponent, 13-3, in the second half to gain the victory and title, 23-22.
    Once again, it was Phipps delivering the fatal blow when he raced 22 yards to the end zone to tie the game with 8:03 remaining in the fourth period. Justin Mourain booted the deciding PAT.
    Phipps came to Rummel as a troubled sophomore. The school environment and the administration of the Boys Hope residence in which he resides, provided the nurturing he needed to develop into a model student.
    “When I was in the seventh grade, my counselor told my mother about Boys Hope. She wanted something better for me than what I had,” Phipps said. “It’s a home, but a lot of people stand behind you and help you through school. They try to make it as much as home as they can.”
    And Phipps had a lot of support when the residents at Boys Hope Girls Hope showed up in the dome to cheer him and the Raiders on.
A boy’s wish fulfilled
    A young man, who is suffering from an illness, wanted to meet Roth but a Superdome security guard would not allow anyone on the field without the proper credential.
    Overhearing the conversation, local football official Bob Taylor located LHSAA assistant executive director Keith Alexander and explained the problem to him.
    “I have escort privileges, so I took the boy onto the field,” Alexander said. “I took him near the Rummel bench area where he watched the game.”
    This was news to Roth. “I wasn’t aware of that,” the coach said. “I shook hands with so many people after the game, maybe he was one of them.”
    Alexander, who oversees all high school football officials’ associations in Louisiana, said he was happy to accommodate the young man under the circumstances.
Hawks will fly another day
    Shed not a tear for the Hannan Hawks. Their 62-7 defeat to Calvary Baptist in the Select Division III championship game was a rude awakening, but there will be better days ahead.
    Like several other teams that qualified for the Select and Non-select class playoffs, Hannan was the beneficiary of a segregated playoff system forced by public school principals. And although the extra four games did enable some teams to compete for titles for the first time, they also fostered blowouts such as this one.
    Hannan’s players and their supporters may still be feeling the effects of the Calvary shock wave, but just take a drive around the Goodbee area and see what’s happening.
    New residential areas are arising and will continue to arise,  and young Catholic families are moving into that near-pristine area.
    This team, whose senior players have been together since their freshman year, should be proud of themselves as a trend-setter for future Hawks as their school grows.
    Ron Brocato can be reached at [email protected].