Catholic High School of Pointe Coupee‘s 2024 season is underway as they look to build upon their 8-4 record from last season. This is a team that has sees frequent success, as they have had 7 consecutive winning seasons while looking for their 8th. Many of their young players, such as Cohen Higginbotham, Brooks Capps, Myka Nipple, amongst many others will all continue to play a key role in the Hornets hopes for success this season. As of now, they started off their season on a high note with a 26-6 victory over Red River as they look to do the same against Crowley in their next game.
“We were just working out, doing stuff that everybody does hoping that we do it a little bit better. Working out 5 days a week in the summer, every morning working outs, conditioning drills, 7on7- just stuff that everybody does. Our boys work really hard at Catholic Point Coupee from the time at High-tower, Seminole until now I think it is just ingrained in our program.”
Coach Carruth when asked about how they prepared in the Summer
“We lost ten seniors and for a 1A team that’s a lot. We have a lot of guys that are ready to step up into those roles and take ownership. Guys that didn’t start in these spots last year are really ready to step up. Our Quarterback Jude Morrison will be a Junior. He’s a special talent, he’s been really impressive over the summer making throws you don’t see most high school quarterbacks make. The ways he’s processing information and seeing where the ball needs to go. It’s just like every practice he gets faster with his reads.”
Coach Carruth when asked who should we look out for
“Cohen Higginbotham is one I brought to do one of these interviews, he’s going to step up big time for us. He played a good bit last year on the defense but this year he’ll be a two way guy for us playing receiver and outside linebacker.”
Coach Carruth when asked who we should look out for
Cohen Higginbotham will be a key player to look out for throughout this season as he will be in an elevated role as described by Coach Carruth. He will be utilized on both sides of the ball at WR and seemingly a move to OLB instead of Strong Safety. The Hornets will need to depend on his and many others skill and leadership in order to continue to see the success that they have been achieving.
“Myka Nipple, just a sophomore but he played last year as our RB2. He had almost 600 yards last year in a back up role, and he’s going to be really buying in.”
Coach Carruth when asked who to look out for
RB Myka Nipple was another key player named from Coach Carruth, as he is entering his sophomore season, he look to build from last year where he had 553 rushing yards on only 67 carries averaging a crazy 8.3 Yard Per Carry and 8 Touchdowns. His season has started off solid, as he rushed for 45 yards on only 7 carries in the 26-6 victory against Red River.
“We’re still going to be a physical team up front, before I took over, they ran the flex bone for a long time. Last year we spread it out and got in the gun, but we’re still a very run heavy team. We have a quarterback who was a really good athlete, he was a runner. To go from a decade plus of flex bone to spread is hard to do in one year, especially when we only had a couple months since I got hired in June. Making that transition in two months is hard to do and get into full spread. We still ran the ball for over 3,000 yards last year and in the spread we only threw for a little over a thousand. This year, I’ll believe we’ll see those numbers even out, so we’re still going to be a very physical team that is run first in the spread, but you will see a lot more passing on offense because we have a lot more capability to do that.”
Coach Gast when asked about the offensive scheme
Coming off Week 1 Player of the Game against Red River, Brooks Capps is the Swiss Army Knife of the team as he rushes, receives, returns, and plays defense. A true key player to the teams success and is looking to improve on his previous junior season as he averaged 57 all purpose yards per game. He looks to continue to dominate each aspect of the field as the season progresses.
“Defensively, our philosophy is that we’re going to stop the run. Which we did a great job of last year, we’re really good up front and probably have the two best linebackers in the district-if not the state for 1A. We’re going to be physical and punch you in the mouth on defense. Last year we ran an odd front most of the time, this year we’re transitioning to a 4 down because we have more depth on the line compared to other spots.”
Coach Carruth on the defensive scheme
As Coach Carruth noted, they are trying to establish a new identity with this team. This will not be an easy task as the team has been accustomed to a very run heavy flex bone style of offense. However, Coach believes that they will be able to be more 55/45 run/pass ratio as opposed to 80/20. This sounds promising as we continue to see more teams commit to passing in High School more than ever.
“I made our schedule for this upcoming cycle. Outside of our district games, were playing multiple 4A schools. You got the 2As mixed in there too, we don’t shy away from competition and the kids want that. If I put cupcakes on there, the kids would be mad at me, they want to play tough schools.”
Coach Karruth when asked about the schedule
“There’s two (big games) that really jump out for us. One is on the road against Livonia, that’s a rivalry that hasn’t been played in few years so we brought it back. Then in Week 10, we play Opelousas Catholic, last year we were the top two teams in the district so that game in our place this year week 10 you can expect our stadium to be packed out and rocking.”
Coach Karruth when asked about big games
With a young roster of many players who will be getting their first starts on a Varsity level, the Hornets look develop it’s players in order to compete for a championship in their division. With such a young team, this leaves plenty room for growth for them together a a team over the next few seasons. This is a promising season for the Hornets.
You must be logged in to post a comment.