Shaw’s 2024 Football Season Begins with High Stakes

by: Mike Strom // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

Shaw kicks off the 2024 football season with a score to settle.

Against itself, mind you. Not against an opponent per se.

Edna Karr, the No. 2 ranked team in the Louisiana Sports Writers Association preseason Class 5A Top 10 poll released this week and in the geauxpreps.com Class 5A Top 10 released earlier, just happens to represent the monumental challenge awaiting the state-ranked Eagles at 7 p.m. Friday at Archbishop Shaw’s Joe Zimmerman Stadium.

One week after struggling to keep up against previously-unheralded St. Augustine in the Ed Daniels Jamboree, Shaw’s two-time reigning District 9-4A champions are looking inward following the 20-7 exhibition loss to their former Catholic League rivals.

“St. Aug whipped us physically and in every way. Every way possible, they whipped us,’’ Shaw coach Hank Tierney said, refusing to pull any punches in assessing the defeat. “The score was misleading. It could have been worse. We scored on their (Junior Varsity in the final four minutes) after they took their starters out.

“(St. Augustine is) a very good team because they did very well in a scrimmage against (Class 5A power) Destrehan (outscoring Destrehan in touchdowns) the week before. I think they are very, very much under the radar for being one of the best teams in the area. They whipped us pretty good and I think Karr is better than them, so what does that tell you?’’

It tells Tierney, the state’s sixth winningest football coach in LHSAA history with 319 career victories, that Shaw, the LSWA’s No. 3 ranked preseason team in Class 4A and a Division II Select state semifinalist last season, must step up its game following a jamboree hiccup to avoid any further scenarios of gloom and doom.

“We’re playing the best team in Louisiana,’’ Tierney said of Karr’s two-time reigning Catholic League champions. “If you had to pick the best team in Louisiana over the last five years in any classification, who would you pick? Karr. And that’s who we got (this week). So gloom and doom gets gloomier and doomier.’’

Make no mistake, Tierney revels in the infrequent occasion when his team enters as a decisive underdog. But there apparently are limits even for a coach who ranks sixth in LHSAA history in career victories with 319.

“I do like challenges,’’ Tierney, in his third season back as Shaw coach and 22nd overall following subsequent stints at West Jefferson and Ponchatoula, said. “The challenge for us is to play better than we did last Friday because if we don’t, it will be a long night in Marrero.

“I’ve not seen Karr play in many, many years, being out on the Northshore (at Ponchatoula). But everything I’ve heard about them (coming) from many of my Catholic School friends is how well-coached they are and how talented they are. And if anything, they undersold that to me. They are superbly coached. They have really, really good players. And that’s a hard combination to beat. I am a Karr fan. They are so superbly coached.’’

The Eagles are not bereft of talent, however.

Shaw boasts 15 returning starters, nine of them seniors on offense, from a 10-3 team that as undefeated District 9-4A champion finished the regular season 8-2 to earn a No. 5 seed in the Division II Select state playoffs and the accompanying first-round bye. The Eagles then defeated No. 12 Evangel in the regional round and No. 4 John F. Kennedy in the quarterfinals by similar 20-13 scores before falling to top seed and eventual state champion St. Thomas More, 69-30.

Quarterback Mason Wilson is the reigning Offensive Most Valuable Player in 9-4A and a major linchpin in last season’s 10-game winning streak while blue-chip running back Jasper Parker and wide receiver Jacob Washington are Division I-level capable play-makers. Both also are Michigan commits. Like Wilson, Parker was an All-District selection.

Slotback/wide receivers Gavin Richard and Caleb Williams supply the ideal compliment as runners, receivers, and return specialists operating behind a line featuring four returning starters in center D’Artanian Miller Jr., left guard Bryson Bustamante, left tackle Carter Newsham and right tackle Adam Lamark. Richard is a three-year starter and two-time All-District selection.

Newcomers on offense are right guard Craig Bourgeois, running back Darrell Hains, wide receivers Ivan Smith and Stephen Houin, and tight end Paxton Scheffler, a Brother Martin transfer.

“We have as good a running back as I’ve ever coached (in Parker) and that’s a big statement,’’ Tierney said. “Jasper is an extremely talented young man who plays with heart, with fire, with determination, unselfishness, and possesses a lot of skills.

“The quarterback (Wilson) is just like the Careys, the Parquets, the Josephs, he’s in that mode. The receiver (Washington) is going to Michigan, he’s 6-foot-3 and can run. Both slots (Richard and Caleb Williams) return and are very high-quality football players. So I would not be being honest with you if I said I did not expect those kids to perform and play well.

“So that’s where we are, with some experience in our offensive line and a young defense, but with an outstanding high school kicker who will be a college kicker. So we have to not have turnovers, which we had a big one the other night (versus St. Augustine) that led directly to a touchdown. We have to not give up big plays which we did, which led to two touchdowns. And we have to not commit penalties, which we had far too many.

“Mason and Jasper are high-quality kids. Both are honor roll students. And both kids, we are counting on not only for their skills but their leadership.’’

Defensively, the Eagles return fewer starters, six, and more underclassmen than on offense.

Senior outside linebacker/defensive end Sheldon Green, a Stephen F. Austin commit, leads the group that also features two returning veterans in the line junior nose tackle Jonathan Williams and junior tackle Michael Banks.

Junior inside linebacker J’Quan Carter is another veteran returning in the odd-fronted seven while sophomores Rontrae Carter and Allen Shaw IV are returning starters at money back/rover and cornerback respectively. Shaw is a standout member of the basketball team.

Senior tackle Gibson Lumene, junior cornerback Christian Langford junior Trystan Evans, and sophomores Ethan Lentz and Tahj Turner at weakside linebacker/strong safety round out the list of new defensive starters.

“I expect (the defense) to get better as they play,’’ Tierney, 319-126-0 in 36 seasons overall, said. “They’re inexperienced, they’re young, but they’re very athletic and very hard-nosed kids who like to play football. Even though that didn’t show up Friday, we thought some of that was stage fright, to be honest with you. Because about six or seven were playing for the first time. But they are talented kids and we expect them to play better.’’

The Eagles also have a force to be reckoned with in punter/place-kicker Henry Zelaya, a two-time All-District selection whom Tierney says will kick in college.

“We have really high hopes,’’ Wilson the quarterback said. “We’re really confident in the guys next to us. We’re just helping each other get better every day and telling each other (how) that this (next game) is a winnable game and that we can go far, preparing to play 15 weeks.

“Having nine returning starters on the offensive side of the ball is a big factor in it. Also, there is the chemistry that we have, with us all growing up on the West Bank knowing each other, we’re very confident in each other. We all know that we all can play and we’re very excited about that. As a whole team, we’re very physical. That’s what Coach Hank preaches to us every day to be very tough and physical, ‘West Bank tough’ as he calls it. That’s what separates us from other teams.’’

The Eagles do face a difficult schedule even beyond Karr, with Lafayette Christian, St. James, Rummel, and St. Charles Catholic all being teams that advanced to the 2023 state finals or semifinals. St. Charles Catholic, which has moved up in class to join Shaw in District 9-4A, Lafayette Christian, and St. James were state finalists while Rummel and Karr were semifinalists.

“The schedule is brutal,’’ Tierney said. “Shaw has been bad, so the schedule was very easy the last few years, very easy to win that number of (10) games. The district was not very hard and the pre-district games were not very hard. Now, because we won two years in a row, nobody would play.

“So not to have open dates, we’ve had to fill (the schedule) up with really good teams. Injuries take a toll when you play really good teams. We play five teams that were either in the semis or the finals. Then you add De La Salle, which is always good, and, add Walker of Livingston Parish, which is always good, so it’s a very rough schedule.

“I think we have a chance to be better than we were last year, but the record may not show it because of upgrading the schedule.’’

Last season, Tierney said, “We had a good run because we won district and we got a bye in round one the last two years. To do that you’ve got to win a lot of games. Our district now has St. Charles (added to Belle Chasse, Kenner Discovery, and The Willow School). It did not have St. Charles for the last two years. We’ve lost to St. Charles the last two years (in the regular season). So, obviously, that’s an obstacle we have to overcome.

“We beat Rummel for the first time in 18 years. They’ll be looking for a lot of revenge at Joe Yenni Stadium in two weeks. So the schedule is very daunting. We have a lot of players back, but we are very young on defense. A lot of (the defensive starters) were sophomores or juniors, so they have to grow up in a hurry.’’

Though concerned by the St. Aug results, the putrid offense, and lackluster defense, Tierney and the Eagles still have uber confidence in their team. Offensively, Wilson was seeing live action for the first time in four months due to rehabilitation for a leg injury.

“In Mason’s defense, he was just cleared Monday (a week ago) for contact,’’ Tierney said. “So he had not been touched for four months. He just got cleared to throw in July. So he’d done no football until July. So he’s rusty. He was rusty. But he’s a very, very good player who had a dynamic year. So he just has to get back into the swing of it. He’s rusty. He made a lot of mistakes that he hadn’t made in a year. I’m not worried about him. He’ll be fine.

“I’m worried that St. Aug was physical. We have always prided ourselves at Shaw on being physical. We got very much out-physicalled by St. Aug and I’m very much concerned about that. Because when the final results are determined, it still comes down to blocking tackling, and being physical. St. Aug won that battle hands down Friday night.

“Again, (St. Augustine) Coach (Robert) Valdez has done an excellent job as I knew he would. (St. Augustine) will surprise if not even shock some people if (opponents) take them lightly. But I was still very disappointed in how we played.’’

Shaw players see the jamboree results as more of an anomaly and not a trend.

“I know our coaches are going to put us in the right positions, so based on our senior leadership — and I think we have that — the sky is the limit for this team,’’ Parker the Michigan-committed running back said. “We’re just going to put the right people in the right places. There’s still a lot to work on before week one. But we’re definitely doing what we have to do and senior leadership is going to take us the way.

“What sets us apart, I feel, is that we can do everything on all levels,’’ Parker added. “We can run the ball. We have a very good dual-threat quarterback in Wilson. As far as the passing game, we’ve got returning starters everywhere on the field in terms of (wide receiver) Jacob Washington, (and slot backs) Gavin Richard and Caleb Williams. I know those guys are looking forward to performing well just being returners and knowing this offense.

“As far as the coaching staff putting us in the right places, those guys have been coaching together for around 22 years, so they definitely know what they’ve got and they definitely know what to do to lead us to victory.

“As far as talking about a state championship, that’s always the goal. I don’t think Coach Hank has ever had a season in which he was not going for a state championship. I feel like that’s what makes him and this team so great is that he always wants the best and he always believes his teams should strive for the best.

“As far as the state championship, we’re looking into it. We definitely know that’s a place that we can be,  but we definitely take it on a week-by-week basis. You can’t jump to the state championship without taking care of business each week.’’

Which was much the theme and heightened tenor of Tierney’s film session with the Eagles on Monday.

“If you had been in the film session (on Monday), you would have had to wear earplugs,’’ Tierney said, adding that the gauntlet has been laid to his charges. “They know they better step up and be physical against the best team in Louisiana or the same thing ‘cubed’ will happen to them (as did versus St. Augustine). Not square, but cubed.

“Now, in saying that, we are still Shaw, so I expect (the players) to give a much better account of themselves and I will be severely disappointed if they don’t.’’

“We definitely know what we have to work on from the St. Augustine game,’’ Parker said. “(St. Augustine is) a really good team and we definitely have got to change a lot of things in terms of how we played that ballgame. We also limited our play book, so although it was a very physical game, we didn’t really expand (the playbook) as much as we could.

“But we definitely took that game with a grain of salt. We saw some things we have to work on and we know what we need to improve going into week one. We see it as a lesson, not a loss. So just look out for our season. We’re going to do big things this year.’’