The Cats travel to New Orleans for a chance to win back-to-back titles

By Kyle Roberts

RUSTON, La. – Regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s championship game, this will be the final game of the 2024 season for the Ruston High School Bearcats (11-2).

Gathered Thursday before lunch for the last time in pads before the Super Dome showdown with Central High School from Baton Rouge, Ruston head coach Jerrod Baugh shared that one of the biggest obstacles this week has been keeping the kids laser-focused on the task at hand at hand and avoid the distractions that naturally come with playing for a state championship.

Or worse: underestimating their opponent.

This commitment to practicing hard during the week and making the right preparations beyond just game day is the standard of excellence Baugh holds his players to, and while he knows not every practice will be perfect, he also knows what needs to to win a championship.

“I was a little disappointed with practice today,” Baugh said. “Maybe my expectations were too high. It just seemed like we just came out here and checked boxes. Look, I get it — they’re high school kids. There’s a lot of stuff going on. My thing is, they’re probably listening to too many people outside here telling them they have already won.Someone got the idea that Central is no good and I don’t know where that idea comes from.They will be ready to play. have been in state championships and he knows how to get his teams ready.

“We just have to finish the week like we know how to do and our review on Saturday has to be really good. We’re getting ready to play a good football team and I’m not going to let us ignore them.”

After a final walkthrough today at Hoss Garrett Stadium, the team will leave tomorrow morning for New Orleans at 5:45, and members of the local community are invited to come watch the team.

From there, the Bearcats will complete an indoor walkthrough at the Elite Training Academy in Baton Rouge before coming to the Super Dome. The original plan was to conduct the review at Southeastern University in Hammond, La., but the forecast calls for rain on Saturday.

And to return to the early days of the 2024 schedule, that’s why Baugh wanted to play a pair of Saturday games at neutral sites in Texas.

“So many things you can do to set kids up for something they’re going to face in the same way down the road, it makes their comfort level that much better,” Baugh said. “They’ve already been in (a Saturday game) routine a couple of times. And they’ve already been in a routine where it’s an early morning, get on the bus, make the trip to play in an afternoon game. Everybody works a little bit better , when you are comfortable with the situation that is out there in front of you.”

For a deeper look at the Central Wildcats, click here for Malcolm Butler’s rugged scouting from Tuesday’s edition of LPJ.

Should Ruston beat Central, it would be the first time in school history that the Bearcats would be back-to-back state champions. In fact, the 2023 team was the first in school history to even return to the Super Dome for two consecutive years.

The Bearcat Nation Network will not be able to stream a video of the game due to licensing restrictions – however, the home radio broadcast will be on Q94.1 FM. The audio can also be streamed at KRLQFM.com.

Bearcat fans traveling to New Orleans are invited to a pregame community tailgate on Saturday, Dec. 14 from 12:30pm to 3:30pm sponsored by Origin Bank, held at Opening Act in Champions Square at the Super Dome.

Ticket information can be found on this link.

Super Dome has a clear bag policy. Please review it here.