High School Royalty: Hosting Curtis, part of LRC’s plan to get better
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
During a seven-minute stretch of the season-opening game against back-to-back Division I select state champion Karr, third-year program Lafayette Renaissance Charter worked its way out of a 20-0 first-quarter hole to close the gap to 27-21 in the final five minutes of the second quarter.
The home-standing Cougars, though, stretched their winning streak to 29 straight games with a touchdown with 14.6 seconds before halftime, triggering a span of 21 unanswered points in a 48-21 victory.
“Hats off to Karr with a great coach (Brice Brown), great organization,” Lafayette Renaissance coach Hunter Landry said. “They do a great job with those guys. They have some new faces but picked up right where they left off.
“We punched back, and in the second half we ran out of gas, and they found some momentum,” Landry said. “We forced our defense to stay on the field a lot longer than I would have liked. The guys did a good job of competing. We’ve just got to find ways to give ourselves a chance to go down fighting.”
Three weeks after beginning the season at Karr, an eight-time state champion, Lafayette Renaissance (1-1) will get another test from another of the state’s brand-name programs when 27-time state champion John Curtis (1-1) visits Tiger Stadium at 7 p.m. Friday.
“I’m assuming it will be a little tight on Friday,” Landry joked about his stadium’s 3,000 seating capacity hosting its biggest game. “They’re a very historic program in Louisiana. They’ve been very consistent for a long time. A lot of the dads on our team know a lot more about the team probably than some of the kids.
“To be able to go against them, for them to accept that game and want to line up and play, it’s a great challenge for us,” Landry said. “But it’s also a great opportunity for our kids to go out and compete against one of the best teams in 5A football.”
John Curtis hasn’t played a home game in three weeks.
The Patriots traveled to UL’s Cajun Field to meet North Shore of Houston in a neutral-site setting to open the season, dropping a 27-17 decision.
They followed that up last week with a 29-22 win at Louisville, Miss., another high-caliber program.
Curtis is coached by 79-year-old national icon J.T. Curtis, the state’s all-time winningest coach, who is 610-120-6 in his 58th season.
By comparison, Landry, 34, is 27-11 overall, including a 13-8 mark at Lafayette Renaissance, which has reached the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. The Tigers advanced to the Division III select quarterfinals against Amite in 2025.
“You go in prepared to play against Karr, who has arguably been the face of football in Louisiana the last couple of years,” Landry said. “John Curtis hasn’t been too far off from them. Their history speaks for themselves. Their coach has been coaching longer than I’ve been alive. They’ve been super consistent, which is the thing that sticks out about them.”
Landry put together more of a regionally based schedule in his first two seasons when Lafayette Renaissance competed in District 7-2A.
The Tigers had two-year series with Abbeville, Ville Platte, and Beau Chene from the Acadiana area, and faced L.B. Landry of New Orleans for their final non-district game.
With an increase in enrollment, Lafayette Renaissance experienced its first growth spurt, moving to District 4-4A with Westgate, Teurlings Catholic, Acadiana Renaissance Charter and Northside.
To be able to meet the competitive demands of a larger district with more speed and talented players, Landry found himself having to look outside of his geographic footprint to fill out a full non-district schedule with six games.
“Ideally, the easiest thing is we have so many good teams in the Acadiana area, is to play somebody in there,” Landry said. “A lot of guys already had their schedules full. They’re full or waiting to hear back from somebody else.
“One of our coaches on staff had some connections to some of the coaches at John Curtis; we knew they were looking,” Landry said. “We wanted to get something locked down. I’m not a fan of just taking a bye week. We wanted to compete against a really good opponent, that they had no reason to say no. They were looking for a game, and we were looking for a game. It worked out well, and we were able to lock up a Week 3 game.”
Westgate, which LRC travels to Oct. 30, is 2-0 and the state’s No. 1 team in Class 4A.
“We made the jump to 4A and into this district,” Landry said. “In order to get ready for some of the teams we’re facing in the playoffs, you want to set your schedule with the same caliber teams or pretty close. We put some teams on that schedule that will definitely get us prepared for a district run and a playoff run.”
In two of its first three weeks of the season, LRC faces two programs in Karr and Curtis with 35 combined state championships. The Tigers will also visit Class 5A Liberty Magnet of Baton Rouge, host Lake Charles College Prep on Oct. 2, the state’s No. 5 ranked team in Class 4A, and will finish the regular season at Class 5A Thibodaux, which is off to a 2-0 start.
In a recent interview, Coach Curtis was asked about having to face consecutive out-of-state opponents to begin the season. He indicated that remaining closer to home would have be his wish, but apparently not everyone’s a big fan of playing the Patriots, forcing them to look out-of-state for the fourth straight year to fill their non-district schedule.
Landry said he shared the team’s upcoming 2026 schedule in June once it has been released on the school’s website.
“It was tough finding opponents,” he said. “They (the team) saw a lot of big names on the schedule. Some of these guys know the names of them, but they don’t necessarily know the history and tradition of them. They were super excited to go out and compete against some high-caliber teams.”
Landry and his coaching staff first presented film of Curtis to the team on Monday.
“We like to take it one week at a time,” he said. “The guys, whoever we have that Friday, they’ll put all of their attention into that opponent. We want to be considered one of the top in our division, or one of the best in the state. You’ve got to be able to compete and play with those kinds of teams.
“It’s a very good opportunity for us to go out and compete against some of the best in the state in their respective divisions,” he said. “It’s just going to get you ready for a pretty tough district schedule that we have, and the playoffs where you’ll be battle-tested and kind of see where you stand.”
Curtis, which last won a Division I select state title in 2022, advanced to the state semifinals last season, losing 31-29 to Catholic League foe St. Augustine on the final play of the game.
The Patriots (9-3) enjoyed their best season since winning their last state crown and, with the return of a strong secondary, is expected to be in the mix when the Division I select title is decided in December.
Three members of that secondary – Prentice Mackeyon Jr., Jewellz Tapp and Craig Connor – are all committed to Arkansas State, TCU and South Alabama, respectively.
Curtis faced one of the nation’s top programs in North Shore, which was 103-8 over the last seven seasons and captured its sixth state title in 2025.
The Patriots took a 17-14 lead late in the third quarter on quarterback London Padgett’s 3-yard touchdown run in the final 30 seconds.
Northshore (3-0) responded with two touchdowns in the final quarter with scoring runs of 14 and 25 yards – for the nation’s No. 27 ranked team and No. 5 in Texas per MaxPreps.com.
Curtis traveled to Louisville, a 12-time state champion and No. 11 ranked team in Mississippi, and gained momentum with a 15-0 lead in the first quarter.
Running back Isaac Hrabovsky had 15 carries for 104 yards and two touchdowns, and Padgett added 99 yards on nine attempts. He also passed for 43 yards and a score.
The Patriots’ ground game produced 263 yards.
“In today’s world you don’t see that too much,” Landry said of Curtis’ veer offense. “It is very hard to simulate in practice. When you say veer, Acadiana and John Curtis come to mind because they’ve done it for so long and at a very high level.
“The biggest thing from a defensive standpoint is assignment football,” Landry said. “You’ve got to have guys in the right spot doing what they’re being asked to do. Don’t try and do somebody else’s job. I think the minute you fall asleep, they’ll get two to three yards here, and then before you know they’re piping a 60-yard run. You have to be on your assignment. You have to be disciplined. They do it really well.”
Landry said there’s no guesswork involved when it comes to devising a scheme to slow Curtis’ powerful running attack.
“What’s been our strong point so far has been our defense,” he said. “Our front seven has done a really good job of being ahead of the curve for our team. We’re going to ask a lot of them this week. John Curtis is going to come right at you. There’s not going to drop back 30 or 40 times this game. It’s going to be 40-50 rushes at you, and the minute you take a play off, the minute you get tired, they’re coming right back at you.”
LRC followed up its opener with Karr with another road contest against Catholic-New Iberia, the Division III select state champion in 2024.
The Tigers posted a 47-0 shutout of the Panthers, who were ranked No. 7 in the Class 2A poll.
Landry said his defense, which returned nine of 11 starters, was superb.
“We knew defensively we’d have a chance,” he said of the ’26 season. “Offensively, anytime you can return someone (senior quarterback Kennan Brown) with experience, that’s huge. He was an eighth grader when they played a JV schedule and has played varsity for the last three years. He does a really good job of understanding what we’re trying to accomplish, and he has a good supporting cast at receiver and running back.
“We knew we had some key pieces coming back that we could build off of,” he said. “It was just a matter of putting guys in the right spot. The schedule doesn’t allow you to have a week off. The guys have been working extremely hard this summer and so far this year.”
Senior outside linebacker Annsinneo Charles Jr., a UL commitment, is LRC’s defensive leader. After a slow start because of an injury in 2025, he enjoyed a solid junior season that carried into a spectacular summer that resulted in a scholarship offer from the hometown Ragin’ Cajuns.
The Tigers have a pair of twin senior inside linebackers in Kaycee, a Class 2A All-State honorable mention selection in ’25, and Ky Sellers, and another three-year starter at noseguard in Tyler Yokum. Zenon is a senior member of the secondary and scored an offensive touchdown in last week’s win over Catholic-New Iberia.
“We had a lot of playing experience back,” Landry said.
A season after passing for 2,608 yards and 38 TDs, Brown has completed 30 of 50 passes for 349 yards with four interceptions and two TDs.
“He’s a very intelligent kid,” said Landry, who estimated Brown carries a 3.9-4.0 GPA. “He picked up on the offense well. It’s like having another coach on the field. He understands what we’re trying to do offensively and where the ball’s trying to go. He kind of gets us lined up. He does a good job of getting the O-line on the same page. He goes a lot of checks and adjustments for us. I couldn’t be prouder of how far he’s come.”
Sophomore running back Keith Guillory is the team’s leading rusher with 25 carries for 85 yards, with all three of his touchdowns coming last week against Catholic. Brown has 75 yards and a TD on 14 attempts.
The Tigers’ deep wide receiving corps is topped by junior Ashton Joseph, a three-year starter, with eight receptions for 82 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore Ma’Kye Andrus follows with seven catches for 109 yards and a TD; freshman Kayden Shelvin has five grabs for 76 yards and junior Shamar Taylor has three catches for 60 yards.
“Mentally, the schedule’s going to get you ready for the home stretch,” Landry said. “The end goal is to be playing Dec. 12th for a state championship, and I feel like this schedule is going to get us ready to try and pursue that.”