New Team Kicks Off Louisiana Season

The Louisiana Rugby HS season kicks off this weekend with a new team takes on two top opponents.

Called the Deep South HS League last year, this competition has reverted to calling itself Louisiana Rugby, despite the fact that they have a team from Mississippi (the Mississippi Royals), and Florida (Niceville) in the competition.

In fact, nine teams will be in play this season: Jesuit New Orleans, NOLA Barbarians, Brother Martin, Mississippi Royals, Shreveport, Niceville, St. Paul's, defending champs Bayou Hurricanes, and new team, Captain Shreve.

And it's Captain Shreve that opens the season. The single-school team out of Captain Shreve HS in Shreveport splintered off from the Shreveport team. Brandon Trant captains the squad and Greg Baswell oversees the program for the school. As often happens in Louisiana, travel is a pressing factor in the league. Playing on the road is tough for the Shreveport teams, coming as they do from a town on the border with Texas. It's close to a six-hour drive to New Orleans, and so Saturday Captain Shreve will play their first, and their second ever league games, playing Jesuit New Orleans at 11am and the Barbarians at 2p at City Rugby Park.

It's going to be a tough task for the team, but they seem confident they have the depth to make it happen.

(Captain Henry Miller Shreve, by the way, was a steamboat captain hired by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1833 to clear the Red River of a massive clump of debris that had made the river unnavigable. He did so, and then invested in a company that formed a town on the river, which was incorporated as Shreveport in 1839.)

The Barbarians should be solid, said Coach Matt Austin. They didn't lose many players to graduation from a team that finished in the top four last year, and therefore have some experience throughout the roster. 

"It is still early in the year, but I like what I see from them so far," said Austin. "We have a strong group of boys and we should be in a position to contend for the state title this season. Last year the team was mostly rookies, yet they took on every challenge well; the core group of players is tight."