In 2024, the Bunkie Panthers are looking to build off an incredible 2023 campaign as head coach Jimmie Hillman’s squad accomplished a whole lot in his first year leading the Panthers to their first 7-0 start since 2003.
It was a great first year for the former Marksville head coach as the Panthers took advantage of the undefeated 7-0 start and rode off to a 9-2 record including a first round bye and a home playoff game in the Division III Select Quarterfinals. Although the Panthers did lose that home game to the Episcopal Knights 38-14, they are using that as extra motivation to end the season just as strongly as they started the season in 2024.
“Our theme for this year is raise the bar. We’ve been talking about that everyday. Coming off the year that we’ve had, which was the best season in over 20 years, we are not satisfied with that. The good thing is that we have 16 starters returning. We had a poor outing against Episcopal out of Baton Rouge to end the season. We didn’t end the season the way we wanted to. Those guys still remember that feeling of not performing in the playoffs like we wanted to. I think that has really fueled us going into the season. We want to finish. We want to raise the bar on where we are at right now and show people around the state that it wasn’t a fluke and we are here to stay.”
Bunkie High School Head Coach Jimmie Hillman
As Coach Hillman mentioned, the success is certainly expected for the Panthers heading into the season with 16 starters returning. Getting a little taste of success has really made this football team hungry dating back to the spring and the summer.
“We’ve had a great summer. Four days a week, the guys have been up there early in the morning, lifting, running, and late in July, we are starting to get in our installs as we prepare for fall camp. We have 72 guys that have been very consistent. 41 of them are still perfect and haven’t missed a workout all summer long. We got a good nucleus returning and a good group of leaders in our senior class.”
Bunkie High School Head Coach Jimmie Hillman
It is a good sign when your best players are taking ownership of the leadership role, and that is the case for the Panthers. The two players that Coach Hillman brought with him to Media Day were two senior captains in QB Dillon Compton and OL JD Smith.
Compton is one of the best dual threat quarterbacks in the state. At 6’0, 195 pounds, the All-District and All-Cenla senior quarterback accounted for 2,551 yards and 42 touchdowns last season while leading the team to one of their best seasons in school history. Combined with his ability as a dual threat, the Panthers’ all-time passing touchdown record holder also takes pride in his schoolwork with a 4.0 GPA and has received offers from Navy along with Louisiana Christian.
His offensive lineman counterpart JD Smith is also a captain and has played a major role in Compton’s success. At 6’0, 260 pounds, Smith is extremely strong and has been highly accomplished himself earning 1st Team All-District, 1st Team All-Parish, All-State Honorable Mention last season while also earning 1st Team All-Parish and 2nd Team All-District as a sophomore. Both players have earned invitations to participate in this year’s Gridiron Football All-American Bowl Game.
Also earning a Gridiron Football All-American Bowl Game invite is one of the best playmakers not only in CenLa, but in the entire state and that is Houston commit Kyle Johnson. Making an impact in all three phases, the three star Cougars commit caught 42 passes for 621 yards and 10 touchdowns while also making 28 tackles and returning two kickoffs for touchdowns.
Certainly, this incredibly productive offensive trio headlines one of the best senior classes in program history.
“I brought two great players with me today in Dillon Compton and JD Smith. Both were team captains for us as juniors. Dillon is a phenomenal athlete for us. JD leads us on the offensive and defensive lines. Of course, we have Kyle Johnson, who recently committed to Houston and is a big component of what we do on both sides of the ball.”
“The main thing with this group of seniors and juniors we have is how competitive these guys are. We’ve had a really competitive summer in the weight room, on the grass, in conditioning. Those guys are active and they really have a bad taste in their mouth on the way the season ended. We know that we are not going to win every game and at the end of the year, only one team is going to be truly happy when they hoist the trophy up. For us, it is about controlling what we can control. We want to beat every team that we are better than and more prepared than. We want to handle ourselves in-house, be prepared, and get ready to roll.”
Bunkie High School Head Coach Jimmie Hillman
Not only is the offense going to be experienced, but the defensive side of the football is going to be strong as well to complement the other side of the football led by All-CenLa linebacker Zion Lee, who had a staggering 136 tackles and three forced fumbles.
“We got so many key guys defensively that are returning. We are going to be able to stay in our same defense and add even some more wrinkles than last year because we are so comfortable where we are at right now. Overall, we are miles ahead of where we are than at this time last year. All of our position groups right now have strong upperclassmen leaders that have played big time minutes and have been in big situations of course our playoff game and our game against Jena. Having that leadership in these groups has really accelerated the process and hopefully, we start the season off fast.”
Bunkie High School Head Coach Jimmie Hillman
Not only the players and the coaching staff has got a shot in the arm of confidence based on last year’s success, but the entire town of Bunkie is super excited about how good this football team can be in 2024.
“The community is just so behind us. We are just a small rural town. We are at a 3A size school. We got about 450 kids at the school. When we were rolling with the 7-0 undefeated game against Jena in Week 8, the whole city of Bunkie closed down like at 12:00. We got some great sponsors and local businesses supporting us that really pour right into the program. You’ve got to have great players on the field to be successful, but you got to have a great community, great administration at a program to last and be built. That’s what we have and that’s what we’ve been having. Now, it’s the perfect storm of having some talented players with a great administration and a great coaching staff that we have that’s put us in the position that we are in right now.”
Bunkie High School Head Coach Jimmie Hillman
Despite having a great regular season, the Panthers came on the short end of the district championship losing to Jena so Bunkie is certainly looking forward to having a district rematch against last year’s number one seed in the Division III Non-Select Playoffs.
“In district, we are excited for the opportunity to play Jena. We felt like we should have been district champions last year. They came to our field and took it from us. Of course, they went 10-0 on the way to the semifinals. We are excited to play them. Of course, Marksville because I used to coach at Marksville so there is a little bit of a personal rivalry as well.”
We got three new teams on our non-district schedule. Week Two, we go to St. Louis and we will play them. In Week Four, we got Central Catholic out of Morgan City, Those are two great private schools, two great programs. We are excited about the non-district programs and hopefully, we are playing our best ball at the end of the year.”
Bunkie High School Head Coach Jimmie Hillman
If the Bunkie Panthers can finish like they start the season, then the program can make the jump from very good to elite in 2024.
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