High School Football Players Begin “Heat Acclimation Week”

Today, Monday, Aug. 4, football teams across the state of Louisiana can begin what the Louisiana High School Athletic Association calls its “heat acclimation week” or conditioning week as it’s more commonly known.

According to the LHSAA, teams official first practice date is Monday, Aug. 11 and the first day they can don full pads is Thursday, Aug. 14.

For three Shreveport-Bossier teams – Byrd, Calvary and Parkway – they’ll be hoping the 2014 season ends where the 2013 seasons did, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Calvary will look to repeat as the LHSAA Division III Champions. The Cavaliers have the majority of its 2013 title team returning, including standout quarterback Shea Patterson and talented receiver Shun Brown.

For District 1-5A rivals Byrd and Parkway, they’re hoping to take that final step and capture one last victory that eluded them a year ago. The Yellow Jackets lost a heartbreaker, 23-22, to Archbishop Rummel in the Division I Championship, while Panthers lost to the Acadiana Wrecking Rams in the Class 5A finals.

The journey back to the Superdome got a bit longer and more arduous for the Byrd Yellow Jackets this spring. Byrd, which was one of only two public schools in Division I last season, moves back to Class 5A after the LHSAA voted to now judge attendance zones according to parish lines for athletics. Byrd, which is a magnet school, had at least 25% of its enrollment come from outside the school’s attendance zone. That put the Jackets’ football team in Division I in 2013, the first year of the divided playoffs.

Despite losing the bulk of its Class 5A runner-up team from a year ago, expectations are high in south Bossier City for the Parkway Panthers. However, coach David Feaster must find a replacement for quarterback Brandon Harris, who is in a battle for the starting job at LSU, and receiver Broderick Jefferson, who is at Louisiana Tech.

The LHSAA permits one preseason scrimmage during the week of Aug. 18-22, while jamborees can be played on Aug. 28-30 and the start of the regular season on Sept. 4.