Bearcats ready to rebound

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BASILE – No one in Bearcat country was happy with Basile’s 3-8 finish last football season.
The Bearcats had three straight quarterfinal appearances were 31-5 from 2013 to 2015.
Basile head coach Kevin Bertrand is entering his fourth season with the Bearcats and is confident his team will win again.
“There were four games last year that we lost that we should have won,” he said.
“We had a chance to win at the end and just couldn’t get it done,” Bertrand said. “We talked about it all summer long and that was motivation for them.
“We would have been 7-3 and instead of 3-7.”
The Bearcats did earn a playoff spot, falling to Madison Prep in the first round.
Bertrand said those four regular season close games inclduing a double-overtime loss to St. Edmund will help propel the team into wanting better results in 2017.
“This was the best summer workouts I have ever been around as a coach,” he said. “I like their work ethic and their attitudes.
“We plan to out-work people and see where it takes us.”
Two of the three wins last year came in district play but the Bearcats are moving into a newly alligned District 4-1A.against some old-time rivals.
Joining Basile in the district are Oberlin, Elton, St. Edmund, Hamilton Christian, Merryville, and Grand Lake.
The good news for Coach Bertrand is that he has 15 starters returning from last year’s squad, including eight on offense and seven on defense.
“We have a very small senior class,” Bertrand said. “The bulk of our team are underclassmen but we do have a lot of experience playing so many younger players last season.
“We had to throw a lot of guys to the wolves last year and they weren’t quite ready to start,” he said. “But they did get better as the year went on.”
On offense, the junior Dawson Ashford returns at quarterback. Senior Brett Ledoux and junior Jayion Thomas return as the wide receivers. Senior Darren Chaumont is back at tight end.
The middle of the offensive line returns both guards in junior Gage Johnson and senior Cameron Berzas along with senior center Owen Romero.
There will be new starters at the tackle spots in sophomore Gabe Duplechin and juniorTanner Fontenot.
Joining Ashford in the backfield are junior tailback Andre Reed and sophomore fullback Logan David.
“We are going back to more one-back spread offense,” the coach said. “We don’t have the big bruising back or a huge offensive line this year so we are going to play to our strenghths.”
On defense, Berzas, Chaumont, Romero, Reed, David, Thomas, and Ashford will go both ways.
Berzas and Chaumont are defensive ends and David and Reed are linebackers. Romero is a defensive tackle, with Ashford at strong safety and Thomas at cornerback.
The remainder of the defense includes seniors Jacob McGee and Stormy Comeaux at strong safety and cornerback, respectively. Sophomore Isaiah Caeser is the free safety and sophomore Isaac Cortez starts at defensive tackle.
“We look to our defense to step up, keep the games close to give our offense a chance.”
Basile will scrimmage DeQuincy tomorrow and face Pine Prairie in the Evangeline Parish jamboree on Aug. 25