By T. Scott Boatright
Timing is a crucial part in football.
Ruston High School football coach Jerrod Baugh realizes that, and that’s the thinking behind the reason of his Bearcats making this year’s trip to Caesar’s Superdome to face Zachary in the Division I Nonselect State Championship game a one-day affair as opposed to the two-day journey they went through last year.
This time acclimation and sightseeing won’t come into play. This trip is simply about going to New Orleans, taking care of business and bringing home a state title.
Last season RHS traveled to New Orleans for the title game on Friday before facing Destrehan in a hard-fought loss on Saturday.
Many audibles have been called for this year’s trip, with kickoff tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Superdome.
The team will report to the Jimmy “Chick” Childress Fieldhouse before 8 a.m. on Saturday, eat breakfast, and then pack bags or load bags before leaving at 9 a.m.
RHS will then bus to Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond much like the Bearcats did for the Jesuit game in New Orleans earlier this season. There they will eat lunch and do their walk-throughs — special teams, offense and defense — until 3:15 p.m. or so to give them about an hour’s trip straight to the Superdome.
“We’re told we can get in (to the Superdome) at 4:40 p.m., so we’ll sit and wait a little,” Baugh said. “It normally takes a little while (after arriving at the Superdome) for them to check everybody’s bag and all that to make sure we don’t have any bombs, I guess, and all of that, and then we’ll get dressed and play depending on where they are in the game before us.
“I’m a schedule person. You have to gauge it to where there are in that (preceding) game with a timeframe, and I’m a time person. So I’ll have to do it off of that game time (in the preceding game) rather than 7:30, 7:15 or whatever.”
Baugh said he realized soon after last year’s title game loss that he might do things differently should his team be fortunate enough to earn a second-straight trip to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association championship game this season.
“I think we were probably ready to play too early,” Baugh said about last year’s title game. “The players were itching to get out there and I’m sure that had some effect on us. I don’t think that’s why we lost the ballgame, but I think our kids were maybe drained by the time we got out there, so I think we’ll do a better job schedule-wise once we get there of not feeling hurried to get dressed, and to get taped and all of that.”
“I specifically feel this will be the best way this year because most of the kids were on that trip last year, so they’ve been there. They know what it’s like. And to me, that’s why we took the trip the way we did last year, so that we could get inside an enclosed building and kind of get a feel of what that’s like, when we went to LSU’s and the Saints’ indoor facilities.”
Baugh said it’s the familiarity after playing in the state title game last year that makes him comfortable about this year’s changes.
But that doesn’t mean he felt the two-day wasn’t important last year. But he also feels it gives his team crucial familiarity going into the 2023 state championship showdown against Zachary.
“And then going to watch a game the night before last year — I just wanted them to get into the Superdome because 90 percent of them probably had never even been inside the Superdome,” Baugh said. “So that was something I wanted them to get past before we actually got in there to play a game. And it served its purpose. I think it was good in that aspect. But for a lot of kids it was a big two days. You take a kid that hadn’t been in the Superdome and for sure hadn’t practiced in the LSU or Saints’ indoor facilities —- it was a sightseeing situation. I don’t think that’s why we lost the game, but I think it had some effect.
“It was circumstantial, but I decided then if we were to make this trip again this year, we wouldn’t stay. And I knew we were going to Jesuit. I knew that trip matched up just about like it would here, so I set that trip up then for hopefully going down for what it would be like on this day. So it all worked all good. The players will be familiar with how we’re going to do it. Just keep them in a familiar setting, and now the trip to the ’Dome will be familiar to most of them, so I just think this way is a lot better this time.”
Bearcats junior center Sam Nations said he understands his coaches’ thinking process this season heading back to New Orleans.
“I think it will keep us settled down,” Nations said of the one-day trip. “It will keep our adrenaline down until it’s time to pump it up. Last year I think we were just so ready to go, and the whole day just dragged on and the game’s were pushed back.
“Once you use all your adrenaline, once you’re ready to go, and we’re used to a 7 p.m. start time and we didn’t start until after 8 (in last year’s championship game), it just really depleted as the day went on.”
RHS senior receiver Logan Malone agrees.
“We are not staying down there Friday night,” Malone said. “I feel like that’s going to help us a lot. Last year we really weren’t ready for it. It’s a lot different. I feel like we just need to keep doing the same stuff that we’ve been doing. We just need to go down there on Saturday, be us, and just show out.”
