By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Sometimes, summer can fly right by if you blink.
That’s the vibe in 2025 — but as school has now gotten back into session in Lincoln Parish, it means football camp is wrapping up, and jamborees, scrimmages and (most importantly) the regular season is just around the corner.
For Ruston High Head Coach Jerrod Baugh, these last couple of weeks are the time to shore things up and get as ready as possible for opening kickoff.
“It always feels like this time of year we’re behind and we have so many things to do,” Baugh said. “But I think we’re making some progress and getting some things done. That’s the main thing — we’re getting better everyday. The coaches are still evaluating players and personnel and seeing where we land. That’s going to be a process, even during the scrimmage and jamboree. Hopefully, we can get that ironed out as quickly as possibe — but if it runs into the beginning of the season, well, it just does.”
Speaking of the coaches, Ruston has some new faces on the sidelines this year — headlined by new defensive coordinator Marcus Yanez. Baugh said the transition for the new coaches has been good overall for the staff and everyone is gelling together.
“It’s been good overall,” Baugh said of his staff. “We hired Coach Yanez and a couple of the others in the early spring, so that allowed us to really hit the ground running with a whole summer together. And we’re here a bunch and spend a lot of time togheter. You get to know each other pretty quickly. It’s been good — almost like they’re not even really new at this point.”
This week also brings school back into focus and will be fully in swing on Monday.
“Everybody’s ready to get into the school routine,” Baugh said. “Now we can get some real continuity going on where kids are supposed to be and when we’re going to do certain things. But this is not new to them — it’s the same routine they’ve had ever since they’ve been in high school. We’re all looking forward to it.”
As of today, this will wrap up the final week of Bearcat practice where the only opponent they’ll see is themselves in an afternoon intrasquad scimmage — and next Thursday (August 21), the Bearcats will host the Byrd Yellowjackets at home in the annual summer scrimmage.
A big part of that scrimmage is to simulate a “mid-game feel” for the players, where they’ll have to rely on the listening to their coaches and learn to make adjustments.
“Our kids will be excited to get out against another team,” Baugh said. “We always struggle early defensively against Byrd because we intentionally do not do a lot of game planning on the front end — it gives us a great opportunity to take some coaching in the middle of the game and make adjustments. The kids will really have to listen to their coaches explain some things, and then get out on the field and do that. It’s what we’ve grown used to (in this scrimmage).”
Ruston and Byrd are set to start at 6 p.m. that day, weather-permitting.
