Woodlawn powers past Liberty Magnet, 38-7, behind three Jay’veon Haynes touchdowns

Woodlawn powers past Liberty Magnet, 38-7, behind three Jay’veon Haynes touchdowns

Oct 15, 2022

Woodlawn High got going on the ground Friday and got back on track for the season in the process.

Senior running back Jay’veon Haynes scored a season-high three rushing touchdowns before halftime as the Panthers (3-4, 1-1) ran past District 4-5A opponent Liberty Magnet (1-5, 0-2) for the 38-7 road victory.

“It was my best performance of the season so far,” said the Louisiana (Lafayette) commitment, who carried 18 times for 111 yards. “I felt like I hadn’t played as well in the other games we had, so I felt like I needed to make a statement because people were probably starting to think I’m washed up or something. I just felt like I was more focused and ready to go.”

LSU-committed quarterback Rickie Collins completed 11 of his 21 attempts through the air for 205 yards, including touchdown passes to fellow seniors Clayton Adams and Tramon Douglas II.

And sophomore Klayton Tate booted a 41-yard field goal and finished 5-for-5 on extra-point attempts.

“I feel like we learned that we can run the ball,” Haynes said. “We’ve just got to keep working at it, and that helps open up the passing game too.”

The victory ended a two-game, midseason skid and move Woodlawn into more secure standing for the fast-approaching postseason.

“It was important because if we didn’t get these wins we more than likely wouldn’t be in the playoffs,” Haynes said. “So we’re trying to get as many wins as we can move up and get a good ranking in the playoff rankings.”

The Panthers host Catholic (Baton Rouge) this week before the regular season’s final home game next week against Central (Baton Rouge) and final road game Nov. 4 against Scotlandville.

Woodlawn stalls, Zachary runs away in the second half, 33-6

Woodlawn stalls, Zachary runs away in the second half, 33-6

Oct 7, 2022

A slew of untimely penalties stalled Woodlawn High’s attempts to build upon an early lead Thursday until Zachary finally ran away with a big second-half.

The visiting Broncos scored 33 unanswered, led by three rushing touchdowns, to top the host Panthers, 33-6, in the nationally televised matchup.

“I feel like we played our best half of football all season long after that first half,” Woodlawn coach Marcus Randall said. “We didn’t turn the ball over. We moved the ball up and down the field other than getting set back by penalties… Then they got that surge there in the third quarter after we couldn’t get the momentum again because of the penalties just stopping drives.

“We’re moving the ball, moving the ball, moving the ball, then we get a penalty that put us in second-and-long, third-and-long and putting us into situations where there’s only so many plays you can run. And that kept putting the defense out there and at that point it kind of looked like we started to wear down.”

LSU-committed quarterback Rickie Collins and fellow senior Jamarcus Sewell put Woodlawn on the board first midway through the second quarter of a low-scoring first half.

But the Broncos responded the next two drives with rushing touchdowns by junior running backs Kameron Thomas and Ethan Veal to take a 14-6 lead into halftime.

Alabama-committed quarterback Eli Holstein found fellow senior Jalen Wright with 4:33 remaining in the third quarter to extend Zachary’s advantage to 20-6.

And Thomas added his second touchdown just over three minutes later to stretch the margin to 27-6 following the extra point.

The Panthers meanwhile had one seemingly promising opportunity after another lose steam upon miscues that left Randall and company frustrated.

Holstein and junior Tyson George connected in the fourth quarter to put the final exclamation point on the Broncos’ night.

“I thought we played a solid game across the board in a lot of ways,” Randall said. It was one of our better games if you take out some of those plays in the third quarter where we gave up some of those runs. We’ve just got to keep on working, get back to doing what we do and eliminate some of these penalties.”

Woodlawn Football prepares for Zachary High, ESPNU broadcast

Woodlawn Football prepares for Zachary High, ESPNU broadcast

Oct 6, 2022

Woodlawn High will welcome new District 4-5A rival Zachary High, an anticipated large crowd and a national ESPNU broadcast to campus Thursday.

The highly anticipated meeting of two of Louisiana’s most talented teams was always expected to be among the state’s premier midseason matchups.

But the full reach of the high-profile broadcast has started to register with several of the Panthers seniors as the game fast approaches.

“It hit me when my grandmaw called and said the whole church was gonna be watching Thursday,” senior linebacker Jaydan Moulds said. “I’m from a little city (Brandon) in Mississippi, so hearing that little town in a whole different state, that they’re all going to be watching, that’s big.”

Senior defensive lineman Cameron Johnson joked — “joked” — that he would love to propel the opportunity into both a college scholarship and a name, image and likeness deal with Skittles candy company.

“It’s big,” he said. “All my people said they’re gonna be watching the game, a whole lot of people I know. And it’s like if I could show out in this game, college coaches could see me and I could help increase my chances of getting an offer off this one game. So it’s a lot riding in a lot of ways, but it’s also just a really important game.”

Woodlawn kicked off this season with lofty state championship expectations, and the deep senior class still considers the team’s ceiling to be high if it can start putting impressive flashes together into a more consistent performance overall.

The Panthers fell to 2-3 this past weekend with a heartbreaking homecoming loss to St. James after a strong three quarters.

“I feel like this game could be a turning point for us in the season,” senior defensive lineman Devin Boyd said. “In this game, I feel like we’re counted out. So I feel like if we can come up with a big win against a great team, we would shock a lot of people and we would show that we can actually play with the best teams in the state.”

Reigning Class 5A champion Zachary will seek its second straight victory on the season after suffering its first loss since 2020 three weeks ago.

The potential return of Alabama-committed Broncos star Eli Holstein from an injury could also set up an SEC-bound quarterback battle with Woodlawn star and LSU commit Rickie Collins.

“Shooootttt, I feel like it’s going to be packed and be a nice game atmosphere,” Tennessee-committed cornerback Jordan Matthews said. “I feel like it’s going to be something like in college. It will definitely get people ready to go to college to play in a game like this, and the competition is gonna be up there. So we’re definitely going to be prepared.”

Tickets are available online for $15.

Woodlawn High, KinoTek partner to help prevent student-athlete injuries

Woodlawn High, KinoTek partner to help prevent student-athlete injuries

Oct 5, 2022

Woodlawn High School’s Athletic Training program is the first school in Louisiana to partner with Kinotek and have access to the company’s new software and equipment designed to help prevent repetitive injuries to student-athletes.

Randy Gonzales, the school’s certified athletic trainer, and his team of student aides have started beta-testing the latest 3D Motion Analysis technology, which they expect to allow for more efficient identification of areas of potential concern before more serious problems arise.

“It’s a great benefit not only to the athlete and to our program, but it’s also a great benefit to my students,” Gonzales said. “They’ll be able to look at and analyze the data and really see what we do on a daily basis, and they’re going to get some new real-world, practical application to what athletic training is.”

The software and camera help gather information and three-dimensional images displaying the athletes’ ranges of functional movement.

And the technology allows the trainers to gather and store these findings in a drastically less tedious and more efficient manner than the traditional use of a hand-held goniometer.

“That will allow us to gather a lot of data on a lot of athletes really quickly,” Gonzales explained. “We can do probably six tests on an athlete in about a minute and a half.

“The benefit of this is that we can get a baseline of their range of motion. If there isn’t a symmetry there between limbs, then we can address that in the weight room through the offseason program. And then if there’s an injury, we can address it and monitor it as they come back and know where their full range of motion is.”

Kinotek, founded in 2018, has positioned itself at the “intersection between sports and health,” according to co-founder Justin Hafner.

The Maine-based company, with six-figure support from Microsoft, has partnered with not only athletic trainers, strength and conditioning programs and personal trainers, but also physical therapists and chiropractors.

“In athletics—or really the movement market as a whole—there’s a lack of confidence in objective data on your range of motion,” Hafner told Sports Techie in a previous interview. “We provide the objectivity and confidence in understanding why or what this data can do, the value in it.

“We’re solving the educational and communication gap between the patient or athlete and the clinician and the athletic trainer. So, it overall improves the quality of care between the provider and patient.”

And Woodlawn High is now the first of its peers to be able to offer that opportunity to both its athletes and its student trainers.

Said Gonzales: “With this software and the different tests that they have set up, we get very real 3D images and movement that will allow us to detect the symmetries and make us a step above.”

Woodlawn Athletics Weekly Wrap: September 26 – October 2, 2022

Woodlawn Athletics Weekly Wrap: September 26 – October 2, 2022

Oct 3, 2022

While the final week of September did not have as many home events as the previous week, it still seemed busier than ever. Homecoming brought it’s normal festivities, along with packed stands Friday night at the football game. Volleyball, cross country, and swim were all in action as well. Tickets for all home events can be purchased online.

Cross Country

The Woodlawn cross country team made the short trip to Highland Road Park to compete in the St. Joseph’s Invitational. The meet was the largest meet that the Panthers have competed in this season, as over 590 boys ran Saturday morning.

Sophomore David Ferguson led the Panthers with a time of 20:02.03, which was a personal record. Freshman Liam Dowdy and seniors Jaden Sylvester and Dylan Aucoin all finished within six seconds of each other, at just over 23 minutes for the race. Dowdy’s finish (23:01.23) was also a personal record.

For our Lady Panthers, seniors Andrea Rodriguez and Kaitlyn Arceneaux each finished with personal records.

Coach Tim Spruill seemed pleased with the team’s performance Saturday.

“Liam and David each came out and set personal records today. So did Andrea and Kailyn,” said Spruill. “All I can do is ask our athletes to come out and push themselves to improve each week, while having fun and developing a lifetime love for running.”

Next up for Cross Country: Saturday, October 15 – Zachary Bronco Stampede at Port Hudson State Historic Site

Football

A busy Homecoming week began with the Woodlawn freshman and JV teams traveling to Walker High School on Monday, September 26. Both sub-varsity teams had strong showings, with neither team taking a loss. The freshmen were able to score twice, but also gave up two touchdowns, and finished with a 14-14 tie. Woodlawn’s JV team was too much for the Wildcats, as they came away with a 30-8 victory over Walker.

The varsity team looked to continue the momentum from the sub-varsity games when they took the field Friday night. In front of a packed stadium, the home team took a 14-6 lead into halftime on a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Rickie Collins to fellow seniors Clayton Adams and Tramon Douglas II.

Woodlawn (2-3) extended it’s lead to 21-6 when Adams had a 13-yard touchdown run, breaking several tackles on the way to the end zone, early in the fourth quarter.

Following two quick touchdowns and successful two-point conversions by the Wildcats, Woodlawn found themselves down 22-21 with 8:03 left on the clock.

The Panthers were not yet done scoring. Collins, Adams, senior running back Jay’veon Haynes and company pieced together an answer with a long drive and goal-line Collins run to pull back ahead, 27-22, with 3:05 to play.

However, the storybook ending would not be written in Woodlawn’s favor. With just 16 seconds remaining on the clock. St. James was able to take the lead, 28-22. The successful two-point conversion accounted for the final score, 30-27.

Woodlawn will host reigning Class 5A champion Zachary next Thursday in a District 4-5A opener that ESPN will broadcast to a national audience.

Next up for Football: Tuesday, October 4 – Freshman and JV at Zachary; Thursday, October 6 – Varsity versus Zachary

Swim

Woodlawn High School’s swim team had their best showing of the season, finishing third in the team ranking this past Saturday.

The boys’ team was led by James Skiles, Peyton Rodgers, and Trey Holiday, who each scored over 20 points in their races.

Skiles competed in both the 100 and 200 yard freestyle races. He finished fourth in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 2:25.44 and collected 15 points for his team. Skiles finished with a time of 1:00.27 in the 100 yard freestyle, narrowly finishing sixth and netting 13 points for Woodlawn.

Rodgers competed against Holiday in the 200 yard individual medley, edging out his teammate for a fifth place finish with a time of 2:42.94. In the 100 yard butterfly, Rodgers also finished in fifth place. Rodgers totaled 28 points for the Panthers.

Holiday finished sixth in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:26.19 and seventh in the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 2:50.87. Holiday scored a total of 25 points in his individual races.

The boys 200 yard medley team consisting of John Cador, Holiday, Rodgers, and Zack Lemoine finished third with a final time of 2:07.75.

Kelis Kent led the Lady Panthers, winning a heat in the 50 yard freestyle and finishing fourth in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 1:37.31.

The swim team will now prepare for the CCSL Championship Meet on October 28 and 29.

Next up for Swim: Friday and Saturday, October 28 and 29 – Capital City Swim League Championship Meet at Crawfish Aquatics

Volleyball

In a slower week for the Lady Panther volleyball team (17-8), Woodlawn only competed in three matches this week.

The Lady Panthers began the week at Woodlawn Middle School due to a conflict with the rescheduled date of Open House. Woodlawn faced Port Allen in a three game set on Monday night, with the Lady Panthers varsity team coming away with a straight set victory, 25-15, 25-12, 25-17.

The next two matches for Woodlawn found the team traveling, first to Central Private for a match on Wednesday night. The Lady Panthers were pushed to four sets before earning the victory 25-11, 25-16, 24-26, and 25-13.

The final match of the week was held on Thursday night, with Woodlawn dropping the match in straight sets.

Woodlawn will be on the road for two of three matches this week. District 4-5A play will begin on Wednesday, when the Lady Panthers travel to Central.

Next up for Volleyball: Monday, October 3 – JV/Varsity versus Capitol; Wednesday, October 5 – Freshmen/JV/Varsity at Central; Saturday, October 8 – Freshmen/JV/Varsity at St. John of Plaquemine

Baseball Practices Begin

Now that October has come, baseball practices are set to begin. Those interested in playing baseball who are not participating in a Fall Sport should see Coach Kohn. A valid physical is necessary to participate.