Last year, the Vermilion Catholic Eagles went undefeated in the regular season and put together an impressive run that ended with a loss in the title game.
There are a lot of similarities to this year’s group. After all, they are 6-0, and gathering the type of momentum that they had a year ago. However, Coach Broc Prejean has made it clear that this is a different group that is creating its’ own path.
This week, they face a tough test in playing 5-1 Jeanerette. Coach Prejean is the subject of today’s Prep Profile Q&A.
QUESTION: Let’s start by going back to the offseason. You guys obviously had a tremendous run last year and went almost all the way. So coming into this season kind of how did you manage the guys that were leaving, the guys that were coming back and just figuring out how to start a new year?
ANSWER: Yeah, you know it’s never easy when you lose a senior group regardless, especially the one we lost. It was a tremendous group. A bunch of character guys who lived and breathed football. But we’re seeing their legacy. You know obviously stayed behind with them. It affected all the underclassmen and they approached the offseason the same way as those guys did and that was great to see. I think it shows how much a a quality class can leave an impact on a program and they made it easy. Our guys came into this this offseason and prepared accordingly and we’ve seen the results so far.
Q: I know it’s a smaller school and roster numbers aren’t always the same, but it feels like you guys do not have nearly as many players as some teams out there and yet you handle business. How are you able to do it with just a limited group?
A: First of all, we’re blessed, you know that we’ve been healthy to this point and that’s where it starts for any team. In our offseason program, Coach Thompson did a great job preparing these guys for what was ahead of them, knowing what the temperatures were going to be early in September and that that’s really all you can do, right? You just make sure they’re mentally prepared you trust that they’re going to physically prepare themselves and our guys have done an outstanding job of that and you let the chips fall where they will and so far they’ve kind of fallen in our direction.
Q: You all are undefeated again to this point. How would you compare where last year’s group was to where this year’s group is? And where do you think this team kind of needs to go from here?
A: Yeah, that’s something we’ve consciously not done, right? Last year’s group was an entirely different group. This year’s group has their own identity and their own narrative that they’re trying to write about themselves. So we’re going to let them be them. We’re extremely excited to be 6-0, but 7-0 is the goal at this point. So we’ll see how it lines up against Jeanerette.
Q: I know you mentioned Jeanerette (who you play on Friday). What are going to be the keys to for you all to have success?
A: It’s been great to see that Coach Paul is doing a great job at Jeanerette. It’s awesome to see a resurgence of their program. They’re five and one to this point. They had a big overtime victory last week. They have athletic bodies and big bodies all over the field and it’s going to take a four-quarter effort from from all three phases of our football team for us to be successful and we’re looking forward to that challenge.
Q: How do you go through the last stretch here into district play knowing that you’re dealing with being undefeated and everyone talking about you but still keeping them focused on the bigger goals?
A: Yeah the expectation on Monday is to win on Friday each week and we put that that last game to rest every Saturday after we turn the film off. So in the grand scheme of it, we’re not concerned about what the season number is. We’re concerned about this week’s number. We do talk to our kids about the big picture of what it means in power points and have an opportunity to play some home games in the playoffs. So we’re cognizant of that. But I think if you take care of each week, those things take care of themselves.