Gators hope to break through in 2011

The hits are a little harder this fall at South Terrebonne High School.

The dedication is also just a little better than usual and the players’ focus seems to be up slightly, as well.

It’s easy to see why the Gators were the last team left out of the Class 5A playoffs in 2010.

With a slew of returnees on both sides of the football, this year the goal is simple: to not leave any doubt when the 2011 season draws to a close.

“When you’re used to winning and used to making the playoffs, when you don’t, it definitely leaves a sour taste in your mouth,” Gators coach Richard Curlin said.

“That just hyped us up to come back better this year so that we could come out and try to get to state this year,” senior quarterback Trevon Smith said. “We definitely had a bad taste in our mouth all summer because of that. That motivated us to come out this year ready to go.”

Offensively, South Terrebonne returns most of the starters from last year’s unit that averaged 30 points per game last season.

Smith is one of those returnees, and will be under center for the Gators for the second-straight season.

As a junior, the Gators’ signal caller completed 54-of-121 passes for 18 touchdowns and five interceptions.

Joining Smith will be some of his favorite weapons from 2010, including Jaquis Flores, who served as a dual threat last year, rushing for 529 yards and receiving for 473, while scoring 12 combined touchdowns.

Also among the team’s nine offensive returnees are senior wide receiver Dalvin Richardson and senior fullback Myles Lapeyrouse.

“We have a lot of good returning players on the offensive side of the ball,” Smith said. “We’re excited. We’re going to be very high powered once we get everything straight and running right.”

By “running right”, Smith doesn’t mean running the football, he means just the opposite.

That’s because instead of being the run-oriented team they’ve been in years past, the Gators appear to be more willing to throw the ball than in years past.

That was evident in the team’s Thursday scrimmage against South Lafourche as the Gators lined up and threw it around the field for approximately a dozen or more plays.

“To be able to do that, first and foremost, we’ve got to do a better job of protecting the quarterback,” Curlin said. “But we’ve been more open to throwing it the past four or five years compared to what we have in the past. We’re going to continue to do that.

“But at the same time, I’m seeing some things when we run the fullback. If we have success running that fullback, then we’ll run that fullback. … Whatever works.”

Defensively, the Gators have five returnees from a unit that allowed just fewer than 20 points per game last season.

But South Terrebonne’s defense spun its gears toward the back end of the season and allowed 119 points in the team’s final four games of the season.

Senior linebacker Devin Leger will be one of the leaders of the defense after having a successful junior season that saw him rank among the team’s leaders in tackles.

He said he believes the Gators’ defense will be improved this year in terms of talent. He added that for the results to show on the stat sheet, the team’s younger players will have to step up and rise above the early season jitters they are currently experiencing.

That was on display against the Tarpons when South Terrebonne had a few coverage breakdowns that lead to South Lafourche touchdowns.

“We’re looking good, man, it’s just the little things,” Leger said. “The things like wrapping up, doing your job and staying in the right position. … It’s the little things eating us alive right now. If we work on fixing that, we’ll be good.”

The schedule the Gators play in 2011 dictates that the team will again miss the Class 5A playoffs.

That’s not because of performance, the Gators figure to be just fine on the field, but it’s because of classification. South Terrebonne was one of a handful of schools who dropped down a notch this offseason due to a slight decrease in student enrollment.

The Gators will now be in Class 4A and will be in a district with the likes of Assumption, Vandebilt, Morgan City and Ellender.

Despite being out of the always-tough Bayou District, Curlin said he knows his team has a lot of hurdles to climb if they hope to make it to postseason play.

“There’s some tough teams in there,” Curlin said. “Assumption’s got just about everybody back and we saw Vandebilt in 7-on-7 and they’ve got some skill guys and are going to be a tough ballclub. Ellender’s got a new coach and I’m sure he’ll have them fired up. We haven’t seen Morgan City in quite a while, so it’ll be good to see them again. … It’s good competition all around in this new district for sure.”

His players agree, but believe the postseason is in their future.

They don’t want to feel the same way they felt last year when the bracket revealed they wouldn’t be among the teams invited to play an 11th game.

“It’s all about redemption,” Leger said. “Last year, we missed it by one spot. That obviously made us bad. This year, we’re going to come out, work even harder and hopefully we’ll win the district and get an automatic spot.

“We don’t want to ever get left out again.”

South Terrebonne Gators

District 8-4A

Sept. 1 vs. Miller-McCoy Academy

Sept. 9 vs. Terrebonne

Sept. 16 vs. H.L. Bourgeois

Sept. 23 at E.D. White

Sept. 29 at East Jefferson

Oct. 7 vs. Vandebilt*

Oct. 14 at Assumption*

Oct. 21 vs. Morgan City*

Oct. 28 at Ellender*

Nov. 4 at Abbeville

* Denotes district game

Coach: Richard Curlin

Assistant Coaches: Archie Adams, Stephen Barba, Eddie Helms, Francis Labat, Billy Luckett, Xylon Marts, David McCormick, Blaise Pellegrin

Record last season: 7-4

Returning Starters: 14

Players to Watch: Trevon Smith, Jaquis Flores, Devin Leger

Primary Strength: Offensive camaraderie

Fun FACTS

5: The number of consecutive wins the Gators rattled off to begin 2010

33: South Terrebonne’s power point ranking last season, making them the first team to miss the playoffs

9: The number of offensive starters the Gators return from last year’s unit