With spring practice in the books, the kickoff to the 2025 season is another step closer.
LHSAA teams are allowed 10 days of practice in the spring or can opt out and start fall practice a week early. Parish teams, as they generally do, chose spring practice.
Teams go through changes every season but there are some big ones this year.
Benton has a new head coach. Stephen Dennis has taken the reins after a successful stint at Huntington.
Also, Airline will have a new starting quarterback for the first time since 2021. Three-year starter Ben Taylor has departed for Northwestern State after a record-setting career.
Benton
Dennis took over a program that went 1-9 last season. He was pleased with how his first spring practice went.
“It’s gone really good,” he said. “I’m very excited at the work ethic the kids have had. Where we started at and where we are I feel really good going into summer. Really able to accomplish some things and getting a good foundation under us.
“And now it kind of starts a second offseason and you get a chance to get a little bit bigger, faster, stronger, and hopefully if you’re doing that you’re getting a little leaner and tougher along the way too.”
The Tigers scrimmaged Loyola.
“Coach (John) Cella has done a tremendous job over at Loyola,” Dennis said. “Just played a really competitive scrimmage. Very happy with the growth of our offense and our defense in the scrimmage. A lot of things to build off of and a lot of things to get better at and so just excited to be able to use that film as a teaching tool.
“I think spring, fall scrimmages and the jamboree, thy’re all progress reports to get you ready for the ten tests you’re going to take in the fall. I’m happy with where our progress report showed where we’re at.”
A big plus is the return of junior Malachi Zeigler at quarterback. Of course, the Tigers have new systems on both offense and defense with a new head coach.
Dennis brought his offensive coordinator at Huntington, Jeff Bordelon, with him. Dennis is calling the defense himself.
Airline
Junior Chase Williams has taken over at quarterback. Head Coach Justin Scogin was pleased with Williams’ effort in the scrimmage against North DeSoto.
Williams has the potential to be an effective runner as well as passer.
“I was very impressed with him,” he said. “He can do ‘em both. He’s not as big as Ben was so he has to kind of be creative in the way that he gets the ball out and all that. He was phenomenal for his first time ever going out there.”
The Vikings are coming off an undefeated regular season. They finished 11-1.
Overall, Scogin liked what he saw in the spring.
“I was very pleased at the practices and the physicality and the competitiveness,” he said. “I thought we did a really good job in the game of kind of doing what we were supposed to do.
“That’s really all spring is about is kind of learning scheme and seeing what players will hit, what players can help us the following year.”
Parkway
For Head Coach Coy Brotherton, replacing three outstanding offensive linemen was one focus of spring practice.
“We kind of leaned on those guys a lot last year,” he said.
The Panthers scrimmaged Minden.
“I guess that’s the one thing you can’t see without pads on is how those guys are going to block, how physical they’ll get so that was important for us this spring — just kind of hit each other, pop pads and try to get some physicality in spring football practice,” Brotherton said. “I thought we were able to accomplish that and it kind of paid off against Minden.”
Parkway also must replace record-setting running back CJ Dudley and big-play threat Carmaro Mayo, who accounted for the bulk of the Panthers’ offensive production.
Senior Antonio Gladney will be primarily a receiver but will also carry the ball too.
“We kind of rotated a couple of guys in there,” Brotherton said. “Antonio will play there some when he’s not at receiver, but (sophomore) Damian Decaldecal stepped up real big in the spring football game. He had two or three touchdowns. He’ll get the bulk of the carries.”
Freshman Aldavious Johnson is also expected to see action this season.
“He went through spring football with us,” Brotherton said. “He got lot of carries with our ones. Between the two of those guys and Antonio it’ll be more of a committee-type deal. I think between the three of them we’ll get the production that we need.”
Senior quarterback Kaleb Williams is back after missing more than half of last season with an injury.
The Panthers went 8-3 last season and tied for second in District 1-5A.
Haughton
Second-year Head Coach Matthew Sewell likes the way his team is progressing.
The Bucs scrimmaged Class 1A power Haynesville.
“We had a good spring,” he said. “We have a lot of things to work on to continue to get better at for us to get where we want to be.
“We did a lot of good things. Still some holes and a lot of things to get better at. We had a good spring. We just have some problems in some areas. But we kind of identified those things. Hopefully we’ll continue to improve as the summer goes on.”
Haughton started 11 sophomores last season but Sewell must replace 11 senior starters including some talented receivers.
“We had a lot of good players there and a lot of production and so we’re looking for guys to kind of replace those that production for sure,” he said.
Sewell said returning quarterback Taylor Weathersby, a junior, had a good spring. Junior running back Brandon Craig, who excelled in the last half of the season after being sidelined early with an injury, also stood out.
Sewell said Craig could play multiple positions including on defense.
“One of the things we tried to accomplish this spring was trying to start playing some guys both ways,” he said. “So we spent a lot of the spring working on that and trying to get those guys comfortable playing different positions on both sides of the ball.”
Sewell also praised returning offensive tackles Josh McReynolds and Jaden Keith, both juniors.
“They both had really good springs,” he said. “They started as sophomores last year. We’re really excited about having them bookend the offensive line for the next two years.”
Bossier
Bossier Head Coach Gary Smith said the Bearkats’ spring practice went “pretty well.”
“We had a good 10 days,” he said.
The Bearkats scrimmaged Homer.
“I thought we played really well,” Smith said. “I saw some good things. The scrimmage went well for us.”
Junior Quinton Hodge has taken over at quarterback. An outstanding athlete, Hodge finished third in the 800 in the Region I-4A meet and fifth in the Class 3A state meet.
“We’re excited about him,” Smith said.
Montrevell Lewis, an impact player last season as a freshman, is back at receiver.
“Montrevell Lewis had an outstanding spring,” Smith said. “He made some plays in the spring game. He’s going to be a good one.”