MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / December 11, 1999

Well, the 1999 River Parishes prep football season has come and gone and for just the second time since 1991, no local teams advanced to the Superdome Classic.

West St. John came the closest, falling at Iota in the semifinals, 26-20,last Friday night. After the game, West St. John coach Laury Dupont toldhis players that they had nothing to be disappointed in, that they had accomplished great things during the season.

They had indeed and so did every other team in the River Parishes. Eachteam had a shining moment during the season, one that they could be proud of.

Starting with the teams that went the furthest, West St. John won 10games, extending its streak of 10-win seasons to eight and was ranked No.

1 in the state early in the season. Three of the Rams’ four playoffs gamewere decided in the fourth quarter. West St. John won two of those three,advancing to the semifinals for the third straight season.

The team that West St. John defeated in the first game of the season, St.James, advanced to the quarterfinals for the eighth consecutive season, falling at that point at Benton. The Wildcats overcame that loss as well asthe parish-wide school boycott along the way to a 9-3 season.

East St. John also had to overcome obstacles on its way to a berth in theregionals, getting by final quarter losses in its first two games and an injury to quarterback Floyd Smith that caused him to miss a game. All theWildcats did after that was go 8-4 and win a bi-district title, falling in the regionals to Catholic.

The obstacle facing Lutcher at the beginning of the season was the toughest schedule in Class 3A. The Bulldogs responded with an 8-2 season,one that included their first win over St. James since 1995 and theDistrict 9-3A championship. Lutcher also advanced to the regionals beforefalling at Teurlings.

Riverside made it to the regionals as well before falling to West St. John.Along the way, they defeated the Rams in the regular season to move to a No. 1 ranking, eventually placing second in District 9-2A with a 9-1regular season record.

Destrehan was the first team to fall to Acadiana on its Cinderella run through the playoffs. But before that, the Wildcats captured a fourth-straight district title for the first time in school history, sweeping rivals East St. John and Hahnville along the way to an 8-3 record.Hahnville just missed out on a playoff berth in Lou Valdin’s first year as head coach. But the Tigers improved from 1-8 in 1998 to 5-5 in 1999 andshowed promise next year with a young team.

St. Charles Catholic went 2-8 in Frank Monica’s first year but one of thewins was over state semifinalist Christian Life. The Comets also tookDistrict 9-2A champion Newman to the wire.

East St. John’s Roy Del Williams, West St. John’s Carl Gauthier and St.James’ Corey Webster earned offensive MVP honors in their respective districts. Destrehan’s Damien Richard and Lutcher’s Jemelle Cage earnedsimilar honors on defense while Destrehan’s Scott Martin and Lutcher’s Tim Detillier were district coach of the year winners.

Some of the players that entertained us this year will continue to do so on the next level while others have gone through the heartache of taking off their uniforms for the last time. But all were part of memories during the1999 seaon that will last for years to come.

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