Baton Rouge Area Notebook Presented By Trade Construction – April 5

by Jerit Roser // Capital Area High School Correspondent

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Capital Area caps strong basketball season with superlatives

The Baton Rouge area capped a strong basketball season with seven state championship trophies in March — and last week added many of the all-state superlative honors to go with them.

Five boys teams — Zachary, Madison Prep, Port Allen, Dunham and Jehovah-Jireh — and two girls teams — Madison Prep and East Iberville — won titles and led their respective classifications’ all-state teams, including a few of the highest individual accolades.

On the boys’ side, Dunham forward Carlos Stewart earned Outstanding Player.

The LSWA also voted Zachary’s Jonathan McClinton, Dunham’s Jonathan Pixley and White Castle’s Dawan Carter as Coach of the Year in Class 5A, Class 2A and Class 1A, respectively. 

On the girls’ side, East Iberville’ Mark Temple earned recognition as the Class 1A Coach of the Year.

Coach of the Year steps away

One of the coaches to garner top honors has decided to go out on top.

Pixley announced Wednesday that he would step down as Dunham’s head coach to transition more fully into the business world.

The Catholic High alumnus had led the Tigers for the past 20 years, including state championships in 2018, 2020 and 2021.

Dunham is accepting applications for the position, which can be submitted this week to football coach and athletic director Neil Weiner at neil.weiner@thedunhamschool.org.

Parkview Baptist star leads track performances

Several Louisiana athletes helped provide the state a strong showing in the Mobile Challenge of Champions track meet this weekend.

And, as she tends to be, Ariel Pedigo was at the forefront of the performances.

The Parkview Baptist star won the invitational girls’ high jump and long jump events with marks of 5-06.00 and 17-07.00, respectively, and finished second in the 100-meter hurdles (14.66 seconds) and javelin (128-04.00).

The second-place effort in the javelin, coincidentally came to another Baton Rouge area standout, as St. Joseph’s Academy junior Rebecca Bordelon took first with a throw of 131-01.00.

Other Baton Rouge area winners in girls’ events included St. Michael senior Heather Abadie in the pole vault (13-00.00) and Baton Rouge High junior Laila Guy  in the discus (120-01.00) and shot put (42.05.75).

Relay teams from St. Joseph’s and Scotlandville placed second in the 4×800 (9:43.27) and third in the 4×400 (3:58.25), respectively.

And St. Joseph’s senior Sophie Martin finished second in the one mile run (5:05.00) to round out top-three performance by Baton Rouge area girls’ in the invitational event.

Episcopal senior Oliver Jack won the invitational boys’ shot put title with a distance of 53-09.75 and placed third in the discus at 153-06.00.

Pedigo’s fellow Parkview Baptist senior, Trey Boucher, finished second in the boys’ pole vault (15-06.00).

And Catholic High earned a trio of top-three finishes: No. 2 in the 4×800 relay (7:59.98), No. 3 in the 4×400 relay (3:26.70) and a third-place performance in the javelin by senior Jackson Rimes (181-11.00) to narrowly edge teammate Caleb Marcantel (181-07.00).

Scotlandville’s 4×400 relay team finished second at 3:23.35.

Hot on the diamond, too

The Parkview Baptist baseball team (20-0, 4-0) remained as hot as any team in the state, too.

The Eagles swept District 7-3A matchups with Brusly (9-11, 0-2) on Tuesday and Thursday, 6-3 and 12-0, to improve to 20-0 on the season and carry the mantel as Louisiana’s lone remaining undefeated team.

Parkview Baptist will participate in another district home-and-home this week Tuesday at West Feliciana (13-8, 1-1) and Thursday back in Baton Rouge against the Saints to start a scheduled save-game home stand.

Lafayette Christian (20-2) is slated to visit Saturday, followed by Opelousas Catholic (12-8), Holy Savior Menard (7-12), Loranger (4-14) and St. Edmund (6-12) the following week, before returning to district action April 20 and 22 against University Lab (12-9, 3-1).

Leading the softball charge

St. Amant has made a strong case for itself as Louisiana’s best softball team this regular season entering the final week of action.

The Gators (21-2) are one of just six remaining one- or two-loss teams remaining around the state — among teams to have played at least 10 games — and lead not only Class 5A, but all teams with a 34.1300 power rating.

Coach Amy Pitre and her girls are scheduled to wrap up the regular season with a double-header Wednesday against struggling Ascension Parish and District 5-5A rival East Ascension (0-15), a trip Thursday to Division I leader John Curtis (18-2) and a home game Saturday against Class 5A No. 15 Alexandria (14-11).

Istrouma RB blazing trail

Like any running back, Le’Veon Moss appreciates when the guys in front of him can pave a clear path.

But the Istrouma star established himself as a trail-blazer last week when he accepted an invitation to play in the 2022 Under Armour All-American game.

The highly touted prospect, highly sought after by LSU and other top programs nationwide, is the school’s first player to be invited to a national all-star game.

Moss is considered by many analysts to be Louisiana’s top running back in the 2022 recruiting class, although not without notable contention from other standouts such as Jennings’ Trevor Etienne and Lake Charles College Prep’s Tre’Vonte’ Citizen.