NewsBreak Original

If you had a record at a school last week, it wasn’t safe. Several parish and school basketball records were broken last week throughout Northwest Louisiana. Let’s start in Doyline. Jamaria “Juicy” Clark had an earth-shattering 70 points against North Webster high school. Clark now holds the top three scoring performances at Doyline. He has broken his record twice now. Spoiler for next week he makes it the top four performances of all time for Doyline.

The big question of the week would be who would be going to practice on Thanksgiving week with a turkey leg in tow. First round byes got their opportunity to show off and they didn’t disappoint. A double overtime thriller upset with one of our local teams. Two major quarterfinal matchups coming up.

The LHSAA Cross Country State Championships was on Monday, November 14 at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. Franklin Roemer finished as the Division III state runner-up at a time of 16:14.4. Roemer had a lead after the first mile with a 5:16.7 first mile and eventual state champion Blayton Bernard from University Lab was less than a second behind. Roemer ran a 5:35 for the second mile, but Bernard had overtaken Roemer by the end of the second mile. Roemer completed the race with a 5:23 mile in the final mile to finish as the Division III state runner-up.

The Calvary Lady Cavalier (23-7) volleyball squad is headed back to Lafayette to the Ochsner LHSAA Volleyball State Tournament. They advanced to the Division IV quarterfinals with a 3-0 (25-8, 25-11, 25-10) win over Thomas Jefferson. This will be back-to-back years that the Lady Cavs are competing. Last year was the first time that a team north of Alexandria had broken into the state volleyball tournament.

The Many Tigers (4-0) grabbed a victory over one of the most anticipated matchups of the regular season. The Tigers burned the field with 484 yards rushing against the Green Wave (3-1). Jeremiah Jones had 21 carries for 205 yards and two touchdowns. Trent Williams carried 7 for 122 yards and a touchdown. Tackett Curtis had 3 carries for 73 yards and a touchdown.

The Cavaliers dropped to 1-2 for the season facing their second consecutive 5A opponents. But for the second straight week, the Cavaliers showed they could be competitive with the outnumbering squad. Byrd struck first in the second quarter when Jackson Dufrene caught a 41-yard touchdown from Lake Lambert. The Yellow Jackets had a 7-0 halftime lead. Calvary caught up in the third quarter when Bryce Carpenter took the option on a 3-yard run to tie the game at 7-7. With a little under nine minutes remaining Dixon Poirer scored on a 1-yard run to give Byrd the 14-7 win.

Week 2 saw the ending a lot of local teams participating in the Calvary hosted Never Forget Tournament on Saturday, September 10. The host team won the tournament. Competing in the tourney was Calvary, Loyola, Haughton, Many, C.E. Byrd, North Caddo, and Captain Shreve.

The Captain Shreve Gators made a fourth-quarter comeback to overcome the Calvary Cavaliers on Thursday night at Lee Hedges Stadium. The Gators struck first in the first quarter with a 2-yard run from Kenyon Terrell to take the early 7-0 lead. Calvary tied the game in the second quarter with a 39-yard pass from Abram Wardell to Chris Jackson. Shreve's John Hoyett Chance popped a 49-yard field goal and a 27-yard field goal to take the 13-7 halftime lead. Calvary scored early in the fourth quarter with a 37-yard pass from Bryce Carpenter to Aubrey Hermes followed by a Garrett Little extra point to give the Cavaliers an early 14-13 lead in the fourth quarter. The Gators didn't let that last for long. Jayden Edward who had accumulated 206 yards in 39 carries crossed the goal line on a 31-yard run. Another run by Edwards later in the quarter sealed the 27-14 win for 5A Captain Shreve over Calvary.

The LHSAA held appeal hearings for 16 school districts about 4.4.4 select/non-select classifications in Baton Rouge at the LHSAA headquarters. Local groups from Caddo Parish and Jackson Parish had mixed results in their appeals.

The cross country season kicked off over Labor Day Weekend in Choudrant at the Choudrant Aggie Invitational. The meet featured K-2nd grade, 3-4th grade, 5-6th grade, 7-8th grade, and High School division. Local teams from Cedar Creek, Choudrant, Quitman, Lakeside, Weston, Haynesville, and Summerfield competed in the high school division. Ean Allain from Simpson High School won the boy’s division with a time of 17:22.31. Freshman Bradie Epinette from St. Frederick’s won the Girls Division with a time of 20:07.28.

The volleyball season kicked off last week and a couple of teams, Loyola and Calvary spent the Labor Day Holiday on the road competing in tournaments down in South Louisiana. Here is a recap of how the local teams did last week:

Week 1 is in the books and local area teams experience postponements, lightning delays that made games last until midnight, massive late fourth-quarter comebacks, etc. All the fun that is the NW Louisiana brand of high school football. Here’s a recap of the games from the first week:

The annual Pineland Jamboree kicked off the season at the new turf field at Lakeside High School on Friday evening. Originally, the set of shortened games was scheduled to be played at North Webster but Mother Nature’s torrential rain for the past week left the playing conditions unfavorable and had to be felt. The Lakeside campus was more than adequate to handle the crowds from the five schools: Haynesville, Homer, Lakeside, Minden, and North Webster. Defending Class A State Champion Homer was the only team to win both their matchups. Haynesville, Minden, and North Webster split their two 15-minute quarters. Lakeside let a couple slip away.

It’s time for some football and with scrimmages in the background, LHSAA begins with the lone preseason jamboree games. A time for the fans to get fired up about their local teams. The majority of local jamborees will be competing on Friday and some locations have been changed and times changed due to the lingering front we’ve had for the past week. Here is the schedule for your local teams and jamborees.

In the villages and towns around Northwest Louisiana each community has a local hero or legend. The village of Doyline lost one on August 6, 2022. “Coach” James Roach left this world and a heartbroken community of Doyline. The legendary coach took the Doyline Panthers to a state championship in 1967 and four state runner-ups. In his last season in 1995, the Panthers were state runner-up for the second year in a row. Coach had accumulated 865 wins in his three-decade career.