Cedar Creek’s 10-game football schedule for this fall, includes four home games and a match-up against Class 3A foe Winnfield.
First year head coach Steven Ensminger and the Cougars will open the season by participating in the Battle on the Border jamboree at Independence Stadium in Shreveport on Sept. 2. The Cougars opponent will be Glenbrook.
“It is a pretty neat event they put together, and I was excited to see that we will be in it because last year at coaching at Ruston we played Oxford High School out of Mississippi in the Battle on the Border,” said Ensminger. “I didn’t realize it till someone told me the other day that the first stadium I will be coaching in as a high school head coach is the same stadium I played my final high school football game as a senior at West Monroe when we won the State Championship. I think that will be pretty special.”
Cedar Creek will play three straight games away from home to open the regular season, playing Glenbrook (in Shreveport), at Vidalia and at Winnfield on consecutive Friday nights in September. Winnfield is a Class 3A school and Ensminger said playing up in classification is one of the ways to meet his ultimate goal as the Cougars head coach.
“The goal for every school is a state championship, and I want my team to be as prepared as they can possibly be when playoffs come around,” said Ensminger, who said he tried unsuccessfully to add Southern Lab for the Cougars open week. “It’s a philosophy I have learned from my head coach in high school, Don Shows, and also Jerrod Baugh who I consider to be one of the best out there when it comes to preparing his teams.
“It’s also a mindset I grew up with and taught from a young age by my dad. You never know how good you are or how good you can be unless you compete against the best, because being the best means you’ve reached your goal which is a state championship. But it also shows you what you need to fix, and what you need as a whole in order to keep chipping away at that goal and finally reach it.”
The Cougars will then play three straight home games against Delhi, Tensas and River Oaks with the contest against Tensas serving as the school’s homecoming contest. Following that three-game stretch, Creek will go on the road to face Ouachita Christian.
“We have some tough games this year,” said Ensminger. “I believe it is harder schedule than last year. I could sit here and talk about each one of these teams and the challenges each presents because they will all present different challenges. It’s going to be fun to be able to compete against them, and we will do our best to be prepared but take it only one game at a time.”
Creek ends the regular season with a home game against Lincoln Prep – now a district foe – and a road game at St. Frederick.
Creek’s jamboree will be at Red River on Aug. 26.
Ensminger said spring practice would begin May 9 in an effort to get the students who also compete in track and field and baseball.
The Cougars return the nucleus of last year’s team that went 6-4, recorded a historic win over Oak Grove and earned a spot in the Division IV playoffs.
2022 Cedar Creek Football Schedule
Aug. 26 at Red River (Jamboree)
Sept. 2 vs Glenbrook (Battle of the Border)*
Sept. 9 at Vidalia
Sept. 16 at Winnfield
Sept. 23 Delhi
Sept. 30 Tensas (HC)
Oct. 7 River Oaks
Oct. 14 OPEN
Oct. 21 at Ouachita Christian
Oct. 28 Lincoln Prep
Nov. 4 at St. Frederick
*, Battle of the Border (Independence Stadium)
