A lot on the line for Kaplan

KAPLAN — Taking things one day at a time has been the mantra for the Kaplan High Pirates in 2023, and it’s been a successful approach to the football season that’s helped Kaplan rebound from a 4-6 mark the previous year to a 7-2 record overall and 3-0 in District 5-3A, heading into Friday’s regular-season finish at Abbeville High’s Wildcat Stadium.
But the players don’t live in a vacuum, KHS coach Cory Brodie acknowledges, and they know just what Friday’s game means to both teams.
“Obviously the kids aren’t oblivious to the fact that we’re playing a parish rival, and it’s for the district championship at their place, and obviously the Russo Trophy,” Brodie said. “There’s just a lot on the line Friday.”
The Peter Russo Memorial Trophy is presented to the winner of the game annually to hold for the next year. The trophy honors a 1941 Abbeville High graduate and athlete who died during military service in World War II in 1944, and has been given to the winner of the Abbeville-Kaplan game every year since Russo’s family established the trophy in 1961. Abbeville won the trophy in 2021 for the first time in 16 years, and retained it with a 14-13 win in 2022.
In addition, both teams are 3-0 in district, and both hope to earn a first-round home playoff game by finishing in the top 16 in the Non-Select Division II power rankings. Abbeville (7-2) is currently 14th in the unofficial power rankings, and Kaplan is 20th, with the top 28 teams in each non-select division earning a playoff spot. The top four teams in the seeding earn first-round byes, with teams 5-16 hosting in the first round.
“With social media and the Internet and everything else, the kids are fully understanding that if we win this game, we have a really good shot at hosting a playoff game, which is just another motivator to it,” Brodie said. “But the good thing is, last year we had to win to get in the playoffs, and we didn’t do that. We’re excited about being 7-2 and all that other stuff, but we’re taking this not as a do-or-die game, but leading up to this point, it’s a great way to cap off the season, especially with it being a district championship (on the line). More than Abbeville, the focus has been on winning the district championship. To me they’re another district opponent, another opportunity to be undefeated in district.
Also on the minds of the Pirates is that narrow loss to Abbeville in 2022, which kept the Pirates from earning a spot in the playoffs. Kaplan has turned the memory of close losses last season into wins this season. The Pirates learned they need to finish games and play hard all four quarters, Brodie said.
“I think last year our Achilles heel was ending the games,” he said. “That’s something we focused on this year. This year, our Achilles heel has been the beginning of games. We kind of solved one problem and created another one. The game against Church Point last week, we gave up 1 points the first two drives and then shut them out for three quarters. The same thing when we lost to Rayne — we pretty much started slow and gave them a lead in the first half, and pretty much shut them out in the second half.
“We’ve done a good job closing games. Now we’ve just got to make sure we come out fast and have good starts to games. I definitely think it was an offseason mindset of, ‘this has happened to us the last two years, and we need to focus on finishing every day on a positive note.’”
The Pirates have a small senior class with only five players finishing their prep careers this year — Gabriel Campisi, Jed Devoltz, Talan Fruge, André Marceaux and Grant Stelly.
“I think we’re because a lot of people thought we were one year away with only five seniors in the class,” Brodie said.
“We’re super excited that we’re one year ahead of schedule, and we can cap that off if we do it Friday night and finish undefeated in district.”
Knowing that, the coaches worked with the juniors to step up as leaders this season, as well.
“Grant Stelly is a very vocal guy,” Brodie said. “He gets our defense lined up in the back end. But those other four guys are more workers and don’t say much. They show up every day and do their jobs and lead more by example. I met with some of the juniors in the offseason and just explained to them that they kind of have two senior seasons — we can’t wait until you’re a senior to be the vocal guy. That’s been huge for us. Guys like Dane Frick, Bradyn Bearb, are big vocal leaders. Just having those guys as juniors step up into those senior roles has been big for us.”
Daylon Landry is second in the parish in rushing yards (142 carries, 1,015 yards, 11 TDs) and third in receiving yards (10-248, 2 TDs). Devoltz is fifth in rushing with 763 yards and six TDs on 129 totes after missing a few games with an injury. Bearb (255 yards, 6 TDs), Wyatt Hebert (230 yards, 2 TDs) and Frick (149 yards, 1 TD) also have contributed.
Sabe David is third in the parish with 53 yards and five touchdowns passing.
It’s all on the line this week with a chance to wrap up Kaplan’s first outright district championship since 2018. The Pirates also shared a district title with Erath and St. Martinville in 2019.
Abbeville is seeking its first outright district title since beating Kaplan in 1997 in a battle of teams that were 3-0 in district.
“Both teams have done very well this year, being 7-2, but as a coach, as a player, these are the types of games you dream about at 5 years old of playing — on the road, district rival, district championship — kind of a made-for-movie situation,” Brodie said. “Regardless of what happens, one team is going to be 8-2 and one team is going to be 7-3. I think both teams have represented the parish in a great way, so we’ll figure out who the better team is Friday.”