First Things First: Three-Peat not atop Sterlington’s goal chart
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
There wasn’t any panic in Sterlington’s halftime locker room in its Division III non-select state championship game last December with Jena.
The Panthers trailed by five points, having lost a pair of fumbles and dropped a handful of passes that could have changed the complexion of the first 24 minutes.
“Our coaches did another great job of coming in at halftime and just cleaning things up, and we went out and played football,” said Sterlington coach Lee Doty. “Putting the ball on the ground in the dome usually gets you beat. We were very fortunate to get out of that game and not lose that sucker.”
Sterlington sizzled in the second half, reeling off 27 unanswered points over a 15-minute span for a 34-20 victory, enabling the Panthers to maintain their grasp of the state championship for a second consecutive season.
The game’s MVP, junior fullback T.J. Burch, and fellow running back Xavier Rawls-Stromile were part of a 287-yard rushing attack, and the Panthers sealed their third state crown in five years with back-to-back interception returns from Devyn Downs of 37 yards and Tomarion Burch of 34 yards.
“We didn’t play very well in the first half,” Doty said. “They had a lot to do with that. Credit them for that. When you score 63 points the week before (63-24 semifinal win over St. James), everybody in town’s already telling you, you’re state champions. I blocked that away, and we’ll use that somewhere down the line.”
T.J. Burch paced the team’s ground game with 17 carries for 105 yards and two touchdowns.
Sterlington (12-2) outgained Jena 225-176 in the second half, forced three turnovers, and scored on three of its last four drives until being in possession of the ball when the final whistle was blown.
The performance continued Sterlington’s golden era. Not only was it the school’s third state title in five years, but the Panthers, 55-14 over the last five seasons, reached the Superdome for the fifth time in eight years.
“We have been very fortunate,” Doty said. “Over the last 10 to 11 years, every kid that’s come here in the ninth grade and stayed with us has gone to the dome. I take a lot of pride in that. That’s a big accomplishment for our coaching staff.”
Doty said his staff’s stability has been of paramount importance to the program’s success.
Offensive line coach Larry Foster and David Janssen will join Doty for the 10th season in 2026. Offensive coordinator Bobby Breen and defensive line coach Brian Carter are two more cornerstones, along with third-year defensive coordinator Jeff Tannehill.
Doty’s also enjoyed a blend of younger guys who have been on his staff the past two seasons, a group that includes Roy Brown (running backs), Dawson Snell (linebackers), Adam Dearman (defensive backs), Justin Martin (wide receivers) and Chris Pearson (defensive line).
“The core has stayed together, and that’s one of the keys to our success,” Doty said. “We have three to five guys that have been together through everything, the good and bad. I’ve had some people try to hire them away. We’ve got a good staff.”
Doty spent the better portion of his 37-year career coaching in his home state of Mississippi, a native of Kosciusko, where he coached for 25 seasons. He moved into administration as an assistant principal before retiring and moving to Louisiana to coach at St. Mary’s Catholic in Natchitoches.
The Tigers were 25-2 in two seasons under Doty, losing to Southern Lab in the Division IV select state championship game in 2015.
Thereafter, Doty said the school wanted to part ways and bring in someone new.
“The priest and principal had a local guy in town that wanted the job, and I got asked to leave,” Doty said. “I didn’t let the door hit me on the way out.”
Doty wound up at Sterlington in 2016, where head coach Jason Thompson guided the Panthers to the school’s first state title in Class 2A over Madison Prep Academy. When Thompson opted to move into administration, Doty was named his successor and has elevated the program to even greater heights.
“I had the best job in the world, and when he (Thompson) went into administration, I was fortunate enough to get hired, and I still have the best job in the world,” Doty said. “We inherited a great situation. I inherited a damn good team and a great staff.”
Sterlington has morphed into a program that’s regularly competed for district championships and made deep playoff runs.
The Panthers, which had a pair of state runner-up finishes in 2002-03, and two trips to the semifinals in 05-06, hadn’t been beyond the first round in the postseason between 2007-11.
Thompson changed the trajectory with visits to the semifinals and quarterfinals followed by the state title in ’16, and Doty managed to raise it to another level.
Under Doty, 95-22 at the Ouachita Parish school and 120-24 in his 11 years in Louisiana, has guided Sterlington to three of the school’s four state championships, a state runner-up, a semifinal and quarterfinal.
In that span, the Panthers have made four trips to the Superdome, a place they had advanced three times previously in school history, and are moving up this season to compete in the Division II non-select playoff bracket.
“We had the same things on how things should be run,” said Doty, whose cumulative record is 177-75. “It was a continuation. I put my touches on it and have been able to hire some of my guys. I think we’ve built on it and made that wood pile a little higher.”
Sterlington had three undefeated regular seasons under Doty in 2017, ’19 and ’21.
The Panthers wound up 12-1 in both of the ’17 and ’19 seasons with one-point quarterfinal losses to Richwood and Jennings, respectively.
Sterlington completed a perfect 15-0 season and handed Doty his first state championship, outlasting Madison Prep (40-34) in the semifinals and edging rival Union Parish, 26-24, in the ’21 title matchup.
The Panthers (12-3) returned to the Superdome in ’18 after outlasting Church Point (57-56) in the regionals, turning back Union Parish (13-12) in the quarterfinals, defeating Iota (21-12) in the semifinals but unable to keep up with Eunice (59-47) in the final.
There have been two schools, on opposite ends of the state, that Sterlington’s found on its side of the bracket more than others.
The Panthers have gone 2-1 against Union Parish, which is located 20 miles away in Farmerville, registering a 13-12 quarterfinal win en route to their state runner-up finish in ’18. They returned to the Superdome three years later for a 26-24 win over Union Parish in the 3A title game.
Union Parish stopped Sterlington in the ’22 regionals, 34-14.
The playoffs created great theatre for Sterlington and St. James, which are located 250 miles apart.
The Wildcats won the first two encounters in the ’20 regionals (28-7) and ’23 semifinals (28-17), but the Panthers kicked off the first of their two straight state titles in the ’24 final (35-28).
Sterlington’s state title repeat performance last season included a home semifinal with St. James, which ended with a lopsided 63-24 victory – the third straight playoff game they scored 40 or more points.
“The best second half of football that I’ve ever seen,” Doty said. “We just came out and totally dominated that thing. That was a great win at home for us. St. James has beaten us on our field before in the semifinals. We had a bad taste in our mouths from that. Our kids went out and did what we had to do.”
Another program-defining moment took place during the ’24 season when the Panthers ended a four-game losing streak to Oak Grove with a 43-39 road quarterfinal victory.
“That was a huge win for us in the quarterfinals,” Doty said. “That was one of the best teams they’ve had. Those guys were extremely talented and really well coached. That was one of the bigger wins we’ve had here.”
Sterlington maintained its rugged scheduling philosophy in ’25 under Doty last season, which included its lone defeats against Ouachita Parish (33-22), the eventual Division I non-select state champion, and Neville (28-21), the Division I non-select semifinalist.
“We felt we were in the Neville game, threw an interception at the end,” Doty said. “We had a chance to go in and score. It was a terrible feeling to lose that game. I told the kids that we weren’t going to play anyone better than those guys. We wanted to take it to everybody else on our schedule, and the kids believed, and that’s what we did.”
Sterlington took heed of its coach’s view and outscored its last five opponents of the regular season, 235-34, and finished on a nine-game winning streak, defeating opponents by an average score of 50-12.
A familiar script awaits the Panthers, who open the season at Franklin Parish on Sept. 4, one of the top teams in Division II non-select, followed by a home game with Jena before traveling to both Ouachita and Oak Grove.
This year’s three-team District 1-3A consists of Loyola Prep, North Webster and Bastrop.
“We want to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” said Doty. “That’s why we schedule the way that we do. It’s hard to schedule people. We’re having to go to Lake Charles (College) Prep. We’ll pass 110 schools to get there.”
“Franklin Parish, that’s going to be a game,” Doty said. “They’ve got two SEC guys (LSU commitment Trey Martin, D.J. Neal, nation’s No. 24 running back in Class of 2028) in the backfield, and we’ll learn a lot about our football team after Week 1. It’s a marathon and not a sprint. It’s a big-time game. I don’t ever remember playing a team that had two SEC running backs. Here we go.”
For the first time under Doty, Sterlington will have a three-year starter at quarterback in senior J-Rob Breen, the son of offensive coordinator Bobby Breen.
J-Rob Breen completed 56 of 105 passes for 1,007 yards with 17 touchdowns and five interceptions. He carried 72 times for 418 yards and 7 TDs.
“Experience is the No. 1 thing with J-Rob,” Doty said. “He was thrown into the fire as a sophomore. We lost a quarterback that year. We had a rough regular season, went 6-4, ended up getting in the playoffs, and once he got his feet up under him, we ended up winning a state championship. He’s a leader by example. He’s not a real vocal guy. He’s vocal when he needs to be.”
Senior Luke Crain is the team’s lone returning starter on the offensive line from a unit that helped pave the way for 318 yards per game on the ground and 7.63 per rush. Senior Cam Rugg and sophomore Mason Lingefelt also figure heavily into the Panthers’ plans up front.
“This year we’ll be more spread because we feel like we’ve got good receivers, good athletes and a good quarterback,” Doty said. “I’d like to line it up and hammer it you all game. We put a lot of emphasis on our offensive and defensive line.
“We have two guys that work with our offensive line (Janssen, Foster) and most people consider him (Foster) one of the best o-line coaches in the state,” Doty said. “We want to be physical up front. We want to be nasty up front. When we’ve had real big success – semifinals or higher – it’s because our offensive line has been really good. Job one with us has been developing an offensive line and getting a nasty streak in us.”
T.J. Burch crossed the 1,000-yard mark (177-1,341, 19 TDs) last season, and Doty is hopeful for an early return of Stromile (51-349, 9.7 yards per carry, 10 TDs) from an injury.
“T.J. is the best fullback we’ve had since I’ve been here, and we’ve had some pretty good ones,” Doty said. “He works so hard at his game, even when he’s not here. He’s working at football. He loves to watch film and prepare. He’s very explosive. He slimmed down over the summer, added some muscle. He’s going to be a leader to handle.”
Doty said senior Shermarion Dismuke, who had 336 yards and a touchdown on 51 carries, has enjoyed a solid preseason camp and should be part of a rotation with junior Landon Washington, the state’s triple jump champion as a freshman.
“We’ve got some guys,” Doty said. “We have to figure out how to get everybody the ball.”
Downs, a senior wide receiver, is the team’s only Division I commitment, having secured his place in LSU baseball’s Class of 2027.
Downs caught 18 passes for 427 yards – an average of 23.7 yards per grab – and seven touchdowns. Sophomore tight end Tucker Sturdivant, who has picked up an offer from Southern Mississippi, is a solid blocker and terrific target at 6-foot-4 and 260 pounds.
The Panthers, who return six starters on offense, have five starters back on a defense that was plus-8 in turnover ratio, along with sophomore placekicker William Lyon.
With first-team Class 3A All-State defensive lineman Cam Bagwell no longer part of the program, junior defensive end Steven English (60 tackles, 3 sacks for minus-13 yards, 13 tackles for loss) is the team’s leading returning tackler after the graduation of Class 3A Defensive MVP linebacker Tre Burch and Class 3A All-State honorable mention choice Sam Frazier and the departure of Bagwell.
“He’s going to be a big-time player; he’s gained a lot of weight (30 pounds added),” Doty said of English. “We’re going to build him around on the defensive line.”
Senior strong safety Kade Hollingsworth had 32 tackles and one interception.
“He’s very valuable to this team,” Doty said of Hollingsworth. “He can get everybody lined up. He’s just a hard-nosed football player.”
Doty said seniors Reed Williams and Ashton Bradford can add depth to the defensive front, along with sophomore Jett Johnson, while senior Drew Vocker (24 tackles), sophomore Cam Walker and freshman C.J. Holmes are in the mix at linebacker.
Sterlington found itself practicing early in the morning before the start of school, conducting workouts at 5:30 a.m. to avoid the heat.
“It’s not exactly how I’d like to do it,” Doty said.
The Panthers are gearing up for scrimmage action at Neville on Aug. 20 at 7:30 p.m., host Union Parish in jamboree action on Aug. 27 at 7:30 p.m., followed by their Sept. 4 opener with Franklin Parish.
A total of 13 different schools have won at least three consecutive state championships, and it’s been 28 years since a team in Class 3A or Division III has won three straight state championships, with Evangel Christian the last to accomplish it between 1996-98.
When they line up against Franklin Parish, it won’t be Sterlington’s focal point.
“The goal right now is to be 1-0 after the first game,” Doty said. “Nobody’s going to pat you on the back for last year’s season. It’s over, and we enjoyed that. These guys have to understand it’s up to them to continue this tradition. We have a 1-0 mentality that we’re trying to put in place.”