The Louisiana High School Athletic Association released the football playoff brackets Sunday and the Acadiana Area is well-represented.
Across the eight divisions, the area has 31 teams – 16 nonselect, 15 select – to qualify for the playoffs.
Among those teams, Notre Dame in Division III select was the lone one to receive a No. 1 seed after going a perfect 10-0 in the regular season.
“I’m excited for the kids,” Pios head coach Lewis Cook said. “The objective is just to get into the playoffs. It’s a little bit of an honor to be the No. 1 seed. We’re looking forward to getting started in the playoffs.”
Cook said while it is an accomplishment, but he has stressed that being undefeated and the No. 1 seed doesn’t mean anything once the playoffs begin.
“It’s not something we really talk about,” Cook said. “We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been undefeated before, but it is just something that is there. It’s playoff time now. I told them (Friday) that we are only guaranteed 48 more minutes. If we want more than that then we have to go earn it. They know what’s in front of them.”
In addition to the Pos, who received a first-round bye, Westgate in Division II nonselect, Eunice (No. 3) Division II nonselect, Kaplan (No. 4) Division III nonselect, St. Thomas More (No. 6) Division I select, Lafayette Renaissance (No. 5) Division II select, Lafayette Christian (No. 2) Division III select and Westminster Christian-Lafayette Division IV select all received first-round byes. All of them were seeded in the top five in their respective divisions except for the Chargers, who were No. 7 seed.
“This is what we set out to do,” Westgate head coach Ryan Antoine said. “Our goal is to win the last game of the season, and we just wanted to make sure that we were home for the whole playoffs.”
Among the things Antoine has been pleased with this year from his Tigers, who finished the regular season 9-0, was their ability to win a district championship.
“Winning the district championship was one of our goals that we wanted to attain,” Antoine said. “But one of our biggest goals was to be home for the playoffs and not have to travel. Now that we have that, we just need to maintain that homefield advantage.”
While it looked like the Tigers might secure the No. 1 seed in the division, they ultimately fell to No. 2 behind Neville. Nevertheless, Antoine doesn’t think there’s a big difference between by one or two.
“No, it doesn’t really matter,” Antoine said. “For us, we just wanted to make sure we were home. No matter where we were.”
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