May 25
May 21, 2007Sheila Boudreaux
May 23, 2007
For most teams, spring practices are spent getting younger players accustomed to a team’s system, reacquainting older players to that system and ironing out whatever kinks may arise in the process.
That sequence was no different for E.D. White Catholic, which wrapped up its spring drills with an intrasquad scrimmage last Thursday, at Harvey Peltier Memorial Stadium.
After players were divided into red and white teams, the Cardinals first-stringers started the scrimmage with a 12-minute quarter. The second-stringers followed with consecutive eight-minute quarters, before the starters closed the scrimmage with another 12-minute quarter.
In the end, the red squad won 14-13, but in the spring, the result isn’t as important as the execution. “We had some missed assignments offensively,” said E.D. White coach Kyle Lasseigne. “We had a lot of kids who are not normally offensive players running offense, just because it’s a scrimmage.
“Defensively, those guys have been ahead of our offensive guys all spring long, which means we’ve got some work to do offensively.”
A big reason for the defense being a step ahead is defensive end Chase Clement, who is considered to be one of Louisiana’s top recruits for next season.
Lasseigne said the front six—four down lineman and two linebackers—is the team’s most “advanced” group at this point. “They put some pressure on the quarterback,” said Lasseigne. “They’re probably the most advanced group … even though those guys didn’t play a whole lot last year. Moving (Chase) Clement to defensive end kind of solidifies things up front and makes offenses worry about him.”
It won’t just be opposing offenses that have to worry about Clement, who doubles as a tight end. Early in last week’s scrimmage, Clement grabbed a 29-yard reception over two defenders. “He’s going to be a threat,” said Lasseigne. “All you’ve got to do is throw it up to him, and let him go get it. We’ve just got to give our quarterback a chance to set up and throw it.”
In his second year as a starter, Drey Trosclair will likely often look for Clement as a target. “(Drey) knows the offense better than he did before,” explained Lasseigne. “We stayed pretty basic today … but we’re going to do some things that take advantage of Drey’s skills. I thought that he handled our base offense probably as well as we’ve had in a long time.”
But what might be the most satisfying part of practices for Lasseigne was having no injuries. “That was big for us,” he said. “Last year we started terribly with injuries in the fall. So now, most of our kids are going to be in our offseason program, healthy and ready to go.”
The Cardinals open the 2007 season on Aug. 24 in the Thibodaux Jamboree. Their first regular season game is Aug. 31 at rival Vandebilt Catholic.
