CCHS to participate in inaugural Iron Man Jamboree today in Lafayette

The first thing Central Catholic head football coach Tommy Minton touted in his preseason football preview was his large, experienced senior class that features many players starting for the third year and some, fourth year.
“I think that’s a good blend of experience and leadership,” he said at the time. “It’s important.”
Little did Minton know at the time that experience would come in even more handy today when Central Catholic gets its first look at a preseason opponent against Vermilion Catholic in the inaugural Iron Man Football Jamboree at Teurlings Catholic at approximately 7:30 p.m.
Central Catholic was unable to participate in a preseason scrimmage with Covenant Christian when it was rained out and the two teams were unable to make it up.
“When you look at it and you missed that scrimmage, if you were a much younger team, you’d be a lot more worried now,” Minton said. “The big thing that I’m worried about is you had about 80 snaps we were going to get from a conditioning standpoint, and that’s my biggest concern. We missed out on that, but I think from just an execution standpoint, we’ll be OK just because we have so much experience back.”
While Central Catholic must replace the huge contributions of Nicholls State signee Stefano Guarisco, they do have experience back from a year ago on offense and defense.
Among the returning players are third-year starting quarterback, senior Blake Byrne, Class 1A All-State offensive lineman Thomas Garber and All-District 7-1A first-team offensive lineman Mitchell Lemoine.
Defensively, the Eagles are headlined by the return of Class 1A All-State selection and Louisiana-Lafayette commit Jalen Johnson at defensive back.
Minton said he wants his team to play fast, aggressive and hard tonight.
“It’s the first time we go against somebody else, and we’ve been practicing for four weeks now, so hopefully they (are) hungry,” he said.
Vermilion Catholic and Central Catholic are District 7-1A foes who shared the district championship a year ago with Ascension Episcopal.
Central Catholic finished the 2015 season with a 10-2 mark and advanced to the Division IV quarterfinals where it fell to eventual state champion Southern Lab.
One round later, Vermilion Catholic fell in the Division IV semifinals to Southern Lab.
Vermilion Catholic finished the 2015 season with a 10-3 mark but have a new coach this season as Ossie Blaize, an assistant a year ago, has taken over for Russell Kuhns.
“A lot of new skill people,” Minton said of Vermilion Catholic. “Their quarterback and their four wide outs are all gone, and they were big, big … threats.”
However, Minton said Vermilion Catholic returns all five starters on its offensive line and its starting running back, Kalix Broussard.
“So what you would think is they’re going to rely on them early and then hopefully bring the new quarterback along slower and try to give him some confidence, so we’ll see,” Minton said. “Whatever they try to do, we’ll be prepared for it. In the scrimmage, they didn’t do much different from what they did last year.”
Vermilion Catholic also has multiple defensive starters back from a year ago.
The Central Catholic-Vermilion Catholic contest will follow the Lafayette Christian-Ascension Episcopal contest set for a 6 p.m. start. The day’s action will conclude with Catholic High-New Iberia facing Hanson Memorial.
The jamboree games will consist of two 15-minute halves with a 10-minute halftime between.
Today’s game will be broadcast by KBZE 105.9 FM and KFRA 1390 AM.
Additional reporting by www.theadvertiser.com/sports.