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The countdown to high school football has begun. As of Sunday, there are only 18 days left before kick-off.
Last week, the LHSAA announced the start date to high school football was being moved from Oct. 9 to Oct. 2.
Teams will also be able to scrimmage an opponent the week before.
Each team will play eight regular-season games. There is even a chance homecoming will take place.
Parish head football coaches are happy to play football, even if it is a week ahead of what they first thought.
“Let’s play,” said Kaplan head coach Stephen Lotief. “We only have one scrimmage before a game, and that gives us less time to get mistakes corrected. We have 14 days of contact before the season begins.”
The Pirates will scrimmage Eunice on Sept. 24 in Ed Douglas Memorial Stadium. They open the season on Oct. 2 at home against Church Point.
The Vermilion Catholic Eagles and the Abbeville Wildcats begin the 2020 football season playing one another. The two played one another last year in Eagle Stadium, with VC winning.
This year, the game is in Wildcat Stadium on Oct. 2.
VC will scrimmage St. Ed’s in Eunice on Sept. 25.
VC head coach Broc Prejean likes the idea of having a scrimmage game before the start of the season.
“Allowing us to have the scrimmage is huge just to have the dress rehearsal, so it sort of balances out with them moving the start-up,” said Prejean. “I know our kids would rather play sooner than later, so we will have them ready.”
Abbeville head coach Roderick Moy said he was still working on details about who and when the Wildcats will scrimmage.
North Vermilion head coach Brett Blakey said moving the season up one week is not a big deal.
“We have been installing everything since the beginning of August,” he said. “Now, it is just getting acclimated to the contact and team setting.”
The Patriots scrimmage Cecilia at home on Sept. 25. They battle Ascension Episcopal on Oct. 2 to open the season.
Erath travels to Morgan City on Oct. 2 and will scrimmage Loreauville in Erath on Sept. 24.
Gueydan head coach Lance Meyers said his Bears would travel to New Iberia to scrimmage Highland Baptist on Sept. 24.
Gueydan is also on the road on Oct. 2 to play Jeanerette.
Delcambre is at home against Centerville on Oct. 1.

Mary Louise Celestine Guidry transitioned on September 4, 2020 surrounded by her loving family. Mary was born on January 20, 1923 to Norbert Celestine and Paula Wiltz. She was preceded in death by her husband of 45 years Sevan Guidry and son Harold Frederick.
Mary leaves to mourn daughters Dora Dixon of Houston, TX; Mary Guidry-Moore of La Marque, TX; Shirley Hogan (David) of Houston, TX; and Debra Sevan (Clarence) of La Marque, TX; sons, Joseph Sevan (Anna) of Erath, LA; Joseph Dalton of Abbeville, LA; Daughter-in-law Barbara Frederick of Youngsville, LA. Sisters; Wilda Guidry of Richmond, TX; Melba Narcisse (Wilson) of Crosby, TX; brother Henry Celestine (Mary) of New Iberia, LA.
Mary has a host of grand children, great grand children and great great grand children. She also has a host of nieces and nephews who will miss her dearly.
A viewing will be held at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church Hall in Erath, LA from 9:00 am to 10:50 am on September 12, 2020. Services will follow at Our Lady Of Lourdes Catholic from 11:00 to 12:00.
Masks are required

SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA — Hordes of mosquitoes pushed out of the marsh by Hurricane Laura continue to menace livestock.
“The population just exploded in the southwest part of the state,” said Jeremy Hebert, LSU AgCenter agent in Acadia Parish.
Spraying programs in several parishes have made a big difference. “The spraying has dropped the populations tremendously. It’s made a night-and-day difference,” Hebert said.
Jimmy Meaux, AgCenter agent in Calcasieu and Jefferson Davis parishes, said mosquitoes remain a severe problem, but spraying programs have started to control the pest.
Hebert said he has talked to several cattle owners who have lost as many as eight head. He also heard of three mosquito-related deaths of horses.
AgCenter regional livestock specialist Vince Deshotel said cattle confined in small holding pastures were starting to show signs of stress made worse by the heat and increasing insect populations. Cattle deaths from mosquitoes are widespread.
“I lost a bull Friday night,” Deshotel said.
He said he met four other cattle producers during the weekend who were having to dispose of carcasses.
Several parishes are conducting mosquito spraying by airplane, and that is providing some relief.
Dr. Craig Fontenot, an Evangeline Parish-based veterinarian, said livestock mortality has been widespread. One cattle producer lost 20 head, Fontenot said, and a penned deer operation lost 13 of 100 deer.
Reports of bulls succumbing to mosquitoes have been reported, and it’s common to hear of herds losing four to five head of cattle. “There’s a lot on the verge of dying,” Fontenot said.
The swarms seemed to lessen in the past few days, but now some cows are having spontaneous abortions from the stress.
The swarms of the insects drain blood from livestock, and the animals keep moving to ward off mosquitoes and become exhausted. “They can’t get enough oxygen,” Fontenot said.
He said it seems mosquito numbers have decreased.
Cattle owners have been spraying their pastures to give their cattle a couple of days of relief.
AgCenter extension veterinarian Dr. Christine Navarre said products are available to control the pests on livestock.
“Basically, there are many products that can be applied to the animals, either in a spray, spot-on or with back rubs,” she said. “It will depend on what is available locally and what works for the situation.”
The products must be used exactly according to label, “and if it is used on a food-producing animal, it must be approved for that species,” she said.
Repeat applications may be needed, but only if the label says that is safe.
Using fans could benefit individual animals, and coverings could be useful, but those coverings could also cause heat stress, Navarre said.
Any nutritional supplements should be given under the direction of a veterinarian. “Good general nutrition and managing other stressors such as heat and transport are the best medicine,” she said.

With movie theaters closing due to COVID-19, Baton Rouge filmmaker Aaron L. Williams teamed up with Abbeville’s Lighthouse For Jesus Ministries for a powerful two-day Drive-In movie experience.
“The Perfect Mate,” which was shot last August in multiple areas around Baton Rouge, is Williams’ latest work, starring many familiar names in the acting industry.
The romantic comedy stars Lawrence Hilton Jacobs from Welcome Back Kotter, and the Jackson 5 Movie, Jackee Harry from 227 and Sister Sister, Chico Benymon from Half and Half and a lot of Disney movies, Brittany Lucio from Everything But a Man and Shreveport native K.D. Aubert from Friday after Next and CSI NY and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The movie will be released through Drive-In movie events, most of them taking place at churches. Upcoming dates so far include Sept. 3-5 at Spirit and Life International Ministry, 704 Olinde St., New Roads, and Sept. 11-12 at Lighthouse For Jesus Ministries, 1921 Wildcat Drive, Abbeville.
There will be car hoppers to bring concessions to vehicles. A large 40 foot screen and a 200-pound projector will be set up.
Director Aaron L Williams has also teamed up with authors Larkin and Shirley Weber to bring the relationship bootcamp kit.
The movie is a romantic comedy that the director Aaron L. Williams used well-known names and also a local talent to help put this film together. Williams had plans for a complete release before the coronavirus pandemic upended the film industry, though he still plans to reach the nation, one area at a time.
Williams said that the main goal is to reach as many people as possible with this movie, “Putting it together about three nights per week, until the end of the year is a goal of mine; it’s a lot of work, but the team I have is solid and strong,” he said, “and then we travel the country with it.”
The forty-year-old director had a strong urge to bring family entertainment to everyone after searching for a birthday card for his daughter about two years ago. Williams tells The Advocate in Baton Rouge that every card he read had some sexual joke or something highly inappropriate. “I started to realize that television and films are doing pretty much the same thing,” he said, “It takes something where you think it’s going to be a fun movie, and everything is perverted.”
After searching for that card, his mission was to have so much positive content to choose from. “ I understand that there are certain subjects that should be addressed with youngsters, and these are real issues, but they’re presented in a way that is just about that, so my goal is not to justify wrongdoing, but to show people what morals are,” said Williams.
Williams stated that he doesn’t preach the Bible to those viewing his projects and that the goal is to pull those genres and just add moral grounding inside of it and to stay away from profanity. With “The Perfect Mate,” he says he doesn’t get ‘too preachy’ because it’s more than a faith-based film.
“My goal is to not only make faith films but to make movies that have positive and moral standards that a lot of Hollywood has gotten away from that 100%,” he said. Williams owns Digital Media Production House and attended Woodlawn High School and LSU.
The tour started on Aug. 20 and every weekend and will be traveling from city-to-city and state-to-state to bring hope, laughter, and a night of faith and fellowship. If you would like your church or location to drive-in movie tour contact Shirley Weber at 225-933-5816 or theperfectmatemovie.com.