By Jake McCoy
It’s almost that time of the year as teams across the state of Louisiana just finished their summer workouts last week. They are slowly transitioning into season mode as this week is the LHSAA dead period so the Tigers along with every team in the state will have this week off to rest in preparation for the first week of practice starting this Monday.
DeQuincy is hoping to get things back on track after a disappointing season that also ended in better defeat at the hands of their arch rival, the Vinton Lions.
The Tigers have found a new quarterback in sophomore Sley Gardner who is known to have a pretty solid arm, the 6’ 180 lb. quarterback transferred in from Rosepine where he had an exceptional freshman campaign starting for the Eagles.
The Tigers have added a valuable piece to their coaching staff and offensive coordinator Troy Gardner, who was previously on the Tiger coaching staff two different times so he’s very familiar with the program.
Jeremy Gatlin Jr. and Landon Joyce return at receiver and defensive back and are expected to be one of the more speedy duo in the district.
Hunter Folse will return on the line on both sides of the ball as well as Jayden Fontenot.
Conner Snell will be at the defensive end position and Grant Rainwater will be on both sides of the ball playing half back and linebacker as well as Gage Schultz.
Christopher Contreras will return for the kicking duties.
The Tigers non-District schedule is certainly tougher than the last couple of years with games against Grand Lake, Lake Arthur, Westlake, Elton, Welsh, and Sacred Heart.
The Tigers will also have two solid preseason tests as they will scrimmage on the road at Basile on Aug. 20, and then play their rival South Beauregard in the Sam Houston jamboree the following Thursday.
Not much has changed in District with the exception of Pickering being thrown back into the mix after taking a two-year hiatus from competing for district honors. But now they’ll be fully competing, and this will be the first meeting between the Tigers and Red Devils since 2021.
The Tigers will play two brand new opponents as they’ll take on the Elton Indians on the road week five and the Sacred Heart Trojans on the road week nine.
The Tigers will play their arch rival Vinton for homecoming during week seven in hopes of avenging back-to-back losses a season ago where the Lions not only took the District Championship from the Tigers, but ended DeQuincy’s season the following week in the first round of the playoffs. So the Tigers will certainly have a chip on their shoulder going into District play.
Come out and support the DeQuincy Fighting Tigers this season!
