The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 28

High School Athletics 2C TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2004 THE TIMES shrevepotttimes.com ONLINEPOLL Which team will win District 1-2A? Homer, Lakeside, Loyola, North Caddo, Springhill. Log onto shreveporttimes.com to cast your vote. it. COVERING NORTHWEST LOUISIANA HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS Jessica Ulghlhe Times Springhill's James Harden (63) congratulates Brian White. State polls District standings irs Wins not biggest key Statewide tiigti scMol loottia rankings compiled by the Louisiana Sports Wnteis Association.

First-place votes are ir) paienthesrs. (oliowed by record, points and previous eek's ranking 1. Hahm(11) 2. West Monroe (1) 3. East St.

John 4. Carencro 5. Hummel 6 Barbe 7. Evangel 6 St. Augustine 9.

John Ehiet 10. Hwjre CLASS 5A 143 133 3-0 114 1- 1 96 2- 0 77 24 74 1- 51 11 46 3- 0 34 Nfl 2- 0 28 NR 1 2 3 4 6 7 5 9 When receiving voter Thibclj X. Covingion West Jetlerson 19. McOonogn (35) 17, Oestrehan 13. St.

Amant 13. Tara 10. Southwood 9 Sulphur 4. Holy Cross 3. Comeaun 2.

CLASS 4A 2 Bastrop 3 Northsid 4. Haughton 5. Neville 6. Redemptonst 7 East Ascension 8 BreauK Bridge 9. Plaquemme 3-0 30 30 3-0 2-1 2- 1 21 3- 0 3-0 144.

124 119 99 84 80 60 54 52 37 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 SI TnomasMore 2-1 Other receiving votet: Bossier 34, West Ouacnita 21 Opelousas 8. Woodlawn-Shrtveport I. Alexandria 5. Lessville 2. LaGrange 1.

Bogalusa 1. Belaire 1. Sam Houslon 1. CLASS 3A 4 1. Parkview Baptist (12) 3-0 144 1 2.

St. Charles 3-0 123 2 3 Amte 2-1 98 3 4. Noire Dame 2-1 '94 4 5. Benton 90 5 e.Marksvitle 3-0 86 6 7. Teurtmgs 2-1 72 7 8.

Winnfield 2-1 49 8 9. North vermilion 3-0 45 NR 10. Erath 3-0 31 NR Others receiving votet: Iowa 22. Carroll 17. St Louis 13.

Luicner 1 1 Booker T. Wtshington-Shrevepoil HxtepenOence 7. frsnWmtofl 7. Ffantrtm6. Patterson 6, Brusly S.

Grant 4. ED. White 2. Belle Chasse 1. CLASS 2A 1.

Northeast (11) 3-0 143 2 2 Rayville(l) 126 3 3 Mamou 3-0 118 4 4. West St John 2-1 94 1 5 Stertmgton 2-1 87 5 6 Ouachita Christian 3-0 83 6 7. Opelousas Catholic 3-0 70 NR I. Lakeside 3-0 39 NR 2-1 34 i 10 Westminster 3-0 30 NR I k': -1 Minden head football coach David Feaster is in the process of turning around Jim HudeleonThe Times the Crimson Tide program. District I SA District Overall Southwood 0-0 3-0 Huntington 00 21 Evangel 00 1-2 Ruston CM) 12 Natch.

Central 00 0-3 Last week's scores Southwood 34. Fair Park 22 Huntington 30, Byrd 16 longview, Texas. 24, Evangel 21 (OT) El Dorado. 31, Ruston 21 Airline 31, Natchitoches Central 7 District 2-5A District Overall West Monroe 0-0 3-0 Airline 0-0 2-1 Byrd 0-0 12 Captain Shreve 12 Ouachita 00 1-2 Last week's scores Huntington 30, Byrd 16 Airline 31, Natchitoches Central 7 Captain Shreve 21, Parkway 0 West Monroe 49, St. Amant 30 Marshall, Texas.

49, Ouachita 21 District 1-4A District Overall Bastrop 00 3-0 Woodlawn 0-0 3-0 Minden 0-0 21 Neville 0-0 21 Northwood 0-0 1-2 Last week's scores Bastrop 32, Richwood 7 Woodlawn 63, Calvary 18 Mmden 32, Bunkie 7 Neville 35, Carroll 28 10T) Northwood 20. Green Oaks 19 District 2-4A District Overall Bossier 0-0 30 Haughton 0-0 30 West Ouachita 0-0 3-0 Parkway CM) 0-3 Wossman 0-0 0-3 Last week's scores Bossier 41. Mansfield 8 Haughton 28. Bolton 6 West Ouachita 42. Franklin 6 Captain Shreve 21, Parkway 0 Peabody 17, Wossman 7 District 1-3A District Overall Benton 0-0 30 BTW 0-0 30 Mansfield 00 12 Green Oaks 00 0-3 Last week's scores Benton 47, Springhill 7 BTW 16.

North Caddo 14 Bossier 41, Mansfield 8 Northwood 20. Green Oaks 19 District 1-2A District Overall Lakeside 0-0 3-0 Loyola 0-0 21 North Caddo 00 21 Horner 0-0 1-2 North DeSoto 0-0 0-3 Springhill 0-0 0-3 Last week's scores BTW 16. North Caddo 14 Loyola 42, St. Frederick 0 Haynesville 20, Homer 7 Benton 47, Springhill 7 Logansport 34, North DeSoto 16 District 2-2A District Overall Lakeview 00 12 Jonesboro-Hodge 00 12 Many 0-0 1-2 Red River 00 12 Last week's scores Montgomery 14, Lakeview 12 Jennings 46, Many 14 Jonesboro-Hodge 55, Grambling 26 Red River 36, Arcadia 30 District 11 District Overall Haynesville 0-0 30 Plain Dealing 0-0 2-1 Cotton Valley 00 1-2 Sarepta 00 12 Ringgold 00 12 Arcauia 00 0-3 Last week's scores Haynesville 20, Homer 7 Plain Dealing 40, Tallulah 6 Lakeside 29, Sarepta 6 Ringgold 22, Bernice 20 St. Mary 47, Cotton Valley 0 Red River 36, Arcadia 30 More area teams District Overall Calvary NA 21 Cedar Creek, 2-1A 0-0 20 Grambling, 2-1A 00 12 St.

Mary, 3-1A 00 3-0 Logansport, 3-1A 00 1-2 Last week's scores Woodlawn 63, Calvary 18 Jonesboro-Hodge 55, Grambling 26 St. Mary 47, Cotton Valley 0 Logansport 34. North DeSoto 16 MPSA District 8-A District Overall Claiborne 20 32 Glenbrook 20 3 2 Grawood 11 32 Piain Dealing Acad. 11 1-3 UCP 2 2-3 Riverdale 02 0-4 had not turned out like he did, I don't know if we would get this turned around." Busby gave Feaster complete control of staffing matters and has helped with class scheduling issues. When some in the community opposed Feaster's decisions or methods, Busby backed his new coach.

"That means a ton load," Feaster says. There's a lot of places in Louisiana that don't have that There are plenty of bad principals." Feaster has worked with more than a few principals in different parts of the state. His coaching career began as an assistant at Jennings in 1981. He became the defensive coordinator at Franklin and helped the team to its first winning season in 10 years, was defensive coordinator at DeRidder when the team won its first district championship in 25 years and was an assistant at Natchitoches Central before getting his first head coaching job at Many. And he says trying to win is not the way to turn around a program.

The first thing you have to do, is you have to say winning is not going to be our number one focus," Feaster says. "Winning is going to be the result of doing everything else right. "Immediately, we can lead the league in good sportsmanship, do away with the late hits and all that Continued from 1C Prior to the January gathering, Feaster traveled the state building support for his proposal, indirectly debating commissioner Tommy Henry at every regional meeting of principals. His original plan had been for then-Many principal Norman Booker to speak on behalf of the proposal. "He was ready, but he's not the type to get in front of a bunch of people and talk," Feaster says.

"I told him I'd just go to area meetings and tell people why we wanted to do this." That wasn't easy. Henry enforced a rule that allows only principals or system athletic directors to speak at the meetings. Feaster says the commissioner "tried to black ball me. He wanted it to be him talking 45 minutes about what was wrong with the proposal." Feaster became the Sabine Parish athletic director and spoke anyway. Henry, who did some verbal sparring with Feaster at more than one area meeting, says he doesn't have any reason to hold a grudge against the coach, but he wasn't surprised at the original proposal.

"I just know that every time I was around coach Feaster, he was complaining about private schools," Henry says now. "I knew his daddy and liked his daddy, but I don't know him well. I just know that he has been pretty vocal against private schools, which is his right." In fact, Henry is fond of saying that any principal who doesn't like something about the LHSAA can propose legislation to change it Feaster doesn't quite see it that way any more. "The process acts like if you don't like something in your association, you write a rule and you can get it changed," he says. "The process is a lot more complicated than that.

It turned into a circus, but I still believe in it. I'm a little more skeptical now. Maybe I've grown tike a lot of people." Skeptical about LHSAA legislative matters, perhaps, but Feaster is not skeptical about Minden football. His Tide team is 2-1 and has already beaten rival Springhill, 42-28, and won a road game over 2003 playoff team Bunkie, 32-7. Minden had a 12-game losing streak before winning in Week 2.

"It's not like we've turned the whole thing around just because we've won two games," Feaster says. "It's such a dynamic deal. It depends so much on the people around vou. So much of it depended on what kind of families I'd run into. I was very fortunate there's some great kids over here with some great families.

The biggest deal is the administration. If I had come over here and (Minden principal Morris) Busby Minden The Tide is rolling along at 2-1 and heading on the road again this week. Coach Darvld Feaster doesn't like what he's seen on film of Mansfield. "1 was hoping they wouldn't be that good," he says. "I saw that score (a 41-8 loss at Bossier) and took some comfort, but when I saw the film, they really held their own physically.

They actually moved the ball up and down. I'm very nervous about playing Mansfield. "I tliink it's a game we could win if we play it right but they may be the best team we've played. I hate to say that with Haughton out there, but they may be better." North DeSoto The Griffins are winless, but first- ST. MARY, FOOTBALL Brian Stamey had an efficient passing night for the Tigers in a 47-0 win over Cotton Valley, completing six of 10 passes for 100 yards.

He threw scoring tosses of 34, 5 and 14 yards in the victory. mm mw Mil! NOTEBOOK Others receiving votes: Pickering 22. McCall 18. St. Helena 16.

Vidala 15. Homer 14. Loyote lota 9 St Martin's 3. St. Thomas Aqumas 2.

Loranger 2. Springhill 1, VWe Platte 1. CLASS 1. Haynesville (11) 2 Kemwood 3. St.

Mary (1) 4 Vermilion Catholic 5Boothville-nic 6. Oak Grove 7. Dunham 8 Block 9 South Cameron 3-0 2- 1 3- 0 2-1 2-0 2-1 2-1 2- 1 3- 0 142 112 107 93 94 93 58 54 50 32 9 NR 10 East Beauregard 2-1 Others receiving votes: Cedar Creek 23. St John 23. Basiie 13.

Country Day 12. Hanson 5, Montgomery 3. si. Edmund 2. Mangham 2.

Plain Dealing t. How Brian McCallum voted Class 5A LHahnville 2. West Monroe 3. East St. John 4.

Rummel 5. Bartie 6. Thibodaux 7. Higgins 8. West Jefferson 9.

Evangel 10. Covington 11. Carencro 12. Southwood. 1.

John Curtis 2. Bastrop 3. Neville 4. Bossier 5. Northside 6.

Plaquemme 7. Haughton 8. Redemptonst 9. Breaux Bridge 10. Opelousas 11.

Woodlawn Class 4A 12. St. Thomas More. Class 3A 1. Parkview Baptist 2.

Marksville 3. St. Charles 4. Erath 5. Benton 6.

Franklinton 7. North Vermilion 8. Teurtings 9 St Louis 10. Noire Dame 11. BTW 12.

Carroll. Class 2A 1. Rayville 2. Northeast 3. Mamou 4.

Opelousas Catholic 5. West St. John 6. McCall 7. Ouachita Christian 8.

Steriington 9. Lakeside 10. Homer 11. North Caddo 12. Westminster.

Class 1 A 1. Haynesville 2 Boottiville-Vemce 3. St. Mary 4. South Cameron 5.

Dunham 6. Kenhvood 7. Vermilion Catholic 8. Cedar Creek 9. Oak Grove 10.

East Beauregard 11. Block 12. St. John. iiiiiinuuiimi MXTIIUOOTIULL Thomas Graham played well in a 31-21 loss to El Dorado, according to Bearcats coach Billy Laird.

Graham had a pair of sacks in the game. stuff. Immediately, we can line up right on defense and give our kids the best advantage by putting them hi the right position and having a good knowledge of what our opponent wants to run. Everything else takes time. Feaster doesn't walk the halls looking for more athletes to join the team.

He wants "the kids that were 0-10 last year tiiat stuck it out I'll be able to depend on them." Henry He made his players persevere through spring and summer workouts, and it is paying off. The coach says the large, vocal crowd at the home win over Springhill will lead to even better things, especially with the youngsters in the crowd. "I guarantee you every kid that was at that game will want to play football at Minden High School." Feaster wanted to be a head coach long ago. He nearly took several jobs others advised him not to consider, but he listened to the advice and passed them up. He eventually decided on Many, another place where several coaches had failed and seen their careers end.

"My attitude was that I couldn't Ruston Ruston fans would love a win over West Monroe, and they get their chance, in Ruston, on Friday. Coach Billy Laird has seen the evidence and knows it won't be easy. "We've got the first three game films, and they are a better football team because they can throw the ball," he says. "They're throwing the ball more and better, plus they're getting the tailback more involved in the running gaijie. That presents you a problem, too." His pass defense may not be up to the challenge yet, but there is some practice time left.

"We're not real good at that," Laird says. "We're changing some things around in personnel in trying to find the right people and FACES 011T11BES0T0, FOOTBALL Jeremy Thomas had a big defensive night for the Griffins against Logansport, making nine tackles with two stops behind the line. He also recovered a fumble. 7T fife" JEllElinilOlllS wait until a job like Captain Shreve opens. I can't get the Captain Shreve job," he says.

"I had to take a job nobody wanted." He did. The wins came, and he eventually agreed to make the move up to 4A Minden. Tve been fortunate in that the places I've gone have had good athletes," he says. "If you don't think I'm a good coach, you would say he's been lucky everywhere he's gone; anybody could have done it. I hope that's not the case, but the truth is we've got some really good athletes over here." Whatever credit the coach gets or doesn't get on the football field, he has at least earned some respect from his most visible opponent.

Feaster knows his proposal to divide the association between public and non-public schools is less likely to pass than it was in January, when emotions were high, but even Henry gives him credit for drawing attention to problems within the association. "I look at the silver lining in all this, that it has caused us to go back and look at our rules," Henry says. That ad hoc committee has turned our rulebook upside down trying to make things fairer. There are some things, like the transfer rules, you can't make perfect That's hard to do, but we're working on it." trying to get better back there." Despite the loss to El Dorado, Laird did have some praise for several Bearcats. "Tony Cox played well last week," he says.

"He had 153 yards (of rushing) and a touchdown. I think our two linebackers, Rashad Johnson and Matt Plttman, played well. I'd single them out, along with Michael Coleman also on offense." Attention coaches Please include tackle leaders with your statistics beginning immediately. The Times will add leaders in tackles to its statistical rankings, which are due by noon each Tuesday. They can be e-mailed to bmccallumgannett.com or faxed to 318-459-3301.

bites umiinrcniiii! Gators quarterback Darnel Bates is off to a fast start, rushing for over 100 yards In each of the first three games. He gained 204 yards with a touchdown against St. Mary, 114 yards with three rushing touchdowns and an interception return touchdown against Ringgold and 92 yards with another score against Montgomery last weekend. ft year head coach Gary Smith is seeing good things on the field. "We're a lot better than we were the first week of the season," he says.

The attitude of the kids is positive, and they know we're getting better. We're tackling better, playing harder, blocking better. "We still have a long way to go, but at least we're seeing that improvement every week." Now North DeSoto will line up on the road against Benton, another team with a playoff pedigree. The Tigers are unbeaten and coming off a big win over Springhill, 47-7. "We're getting better, but the teams we're playing are pretty good, too," Smith says.

"Benton is going to be tough for us." iii pes TEItEXZIO TELL mVXESVILLE. FOOTB ILL Terenzio Tell had touchdown runs of 1 and 59 yards in the 20-7 Haynesville win over rival Homer. Tell carried the ball 12 times for 108 yards. Haynesville Is 3-0 and ranked first in Class 1A. "i ft' Si 1 I LAKEEDHICK MIMS Miii.iwniui In a 32-7 win at Bunkie on Friday, Tide coach David Feaster saw what the hype was all about.

"Lakeedrick Mims was advertised as being the guy when I came over here. For the first time, he dominated on defense. He really dominated." Minden improved to 21..