The first outside competition of preseason football for Natchitoches Central High School’s 2025 team was a success Friday night at Pineville High School and the evening activities gave Chiefs players plenty of opportunity to tune up as the regular season approaches Sept. 5.

First, NCHS will finish the preseason at Turpin Stadium, taking on Leesville Friday night in the Battle on the Bricks Jamboree presented by Natchitoches Regional Medical Center.  Lakeview will play at 4 Friday afternoon against the Leesville junior varsity and St. Mary’s plays Saturday at 4 against Pickering in the two-day event.

The Chiefs teed it up against Pineville’s Rebels last Friday and left second-year coach Brad Laird pleased with the results.

“It was good to scrimmage against another opponent besides ourselves. The entire team, with our players in grades 9th-12th, was able to get some quality reps on film which allowed us to do some great teaching,” he said.

“We showed, in all three phases, what we are capable of,” said Laird. “We started strong both offensively and defensively in the scripted segments Friday night.”

When the team gets going this afternoon on the final week of preseason practice, Laird said the Chiefs established a good foundation with their performance at Pineville.

“Moving forward we have to work on playing at a level of consistency that we showed. We look forward to getting back to practice and building on what we have started,” he said