By LORI LYONS, Journal Sports
Now that the newbie football coaches at St. Mary’s and Lakeview have their first games behind them, the two men can focus on getting their first wins of the 2024 football season.
St. Mary’s, under first-year coach Kedrin Seastrunk, dropped its season opener last week, 39-6, to a Bunkie team that was ranked No. 8 in the preseason Class 3A poll and climbed to No. 6 after the win. This week the Tigers travel to Red River to take on the Class 2A Bulldogs, who lost 26-6 to Catholic of Pointe Coupee.
For Seastrunk, this week is personal.
Many of the Red River players attend church with the former Northwestern State tight end, who also serves as a mentor to many of the young players. A bunch of the Bulldogs also are regular visitors to the Seastrunk home.
“The kids told me at church, if they win they’re all coming to stay at my house,” Seastrunk said. “And I said, if I win, they have to stand on the middle of the field with me, smiling real big and take a selfie. I’m excited about it. The entire church will get a chance to come watch. Players from both teams are in my ministry so that’s probably what I’m most excited about.”
The Tigers went into their season-opener young and inexperienced. Senior running back Chance Rushing scored the lone touchdown for St. Mary’s late in the fourth quarter to avoid the shutout. Seastrunk is hoping last week’s game taught his young players some lessons to take into the future.
“Now that they have the experience they don’t want to feel that feeling again,” Seastrunk said. “Now they know how to prepare a little harder and a little better. I told them, if I have to lose again, it better not be this one.”
Lakeview coach Lawrence Seawood, who spent 13 seasons as a Gators assistant, got a rude welcome to head coaching, losing his first game to Booker T. Washington of Shreveport, 52-0.
This week the Lakeview Gators will play host to the Delhi Charter School Gators, who also have a new assistant coach on the sideline – former Louisiana-Monroe head coach Terry Bowden, who is also a former head coach at Auburn and whose father is the legendary Florida State coach, Bobby Bowden.
Delhi Charter is coming off a 40-0 victory over Cedar Creek.
“Our biggest thing this year is to compete,” Seawood said. “Sticking to the game plan and playing hard. We kind of deviated from our plan a little bit last Friday because of the way things went. We need to stick to our plan.”
