Louisiana

Louisiana (LHSAA) high school football player of year candidates in 2024

Published

1 year ago

October 27, 2024

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Louisiana (LHSAA) high school football player of year candidates in 2024

Who has been the best Louisiana high school football player in the 2024 season?

High School on SI scoured the state for the top players this fall and narrowed down the best of the best.

Scroll down for in-depth breakdowns of every postseason state MVP spanning all corners of Louisiana and LHSAA classifications:

LOUISIANA PLAYER OF THE YEAR CANDIDATES IN 2024

Dedric Lastie, Riverside Academy, sr.

Measurables: 5-6, 150 | Pos: RB

Lastie put on a show in a 76-37 win over St. Martin’s Episcopal, rushing for 534 yards and scoring nine TDs. He led the Rebels to a runner-up finish to Southern Lab in 2023 by rushing for 2,528 yards and 42 TDs while averaging 9.8 yards per carry. Riverside was No. 5 in the most recent Division IV select power ratings with losses to Vermilion Catholic and Class 5A Terrebonne.

Caden DiBetta, Acadiana, sr.

Measurables: 6-1, 205 | Pos: QB

DiBetta’s passing prowess has made the Wreckin’ Rams’ split-back veer offense more dangerous than ever. The senior is setting school records left and right, passing for 1,071 yards with 15 TDs and only one interception through the first eight games. He has 4.49 speed to run the option for Acadiana, which hasn’t lost since Week 1 at Ruston.

Ben Taylor, Airline, sr.

Measurables: 6-2, 185 | Pos: QB

Taylor was second in the state in passing with 2,558 yards through seven games and 28 TDs with three interceptions for the undefeated Vikings, who were No. 3 in the most recent Division I nonselect power ratings and have scored at least 45 points in every game. Taylor added another six passing TDs and two rushing scores in a 76-52 Week 8 win over Natchitoches-Central.

Peyton Houston, Evangel Christian, soph.

Measurables: 6-0, 195 | Pos: QB

The Eagles are struggling to close out games in their first year back in Class 5A, but they’ve been competitive and made it fun, losing four district games by a total of 19 points before a one-point win over Benton.

Nate Sheppard, Mandeville, sr.

Measurables: 5-11, 190 | Pos: RB

Sheppard put the Skippers on his back to will the team to a surprising run to the 2023 Division I nonselect semifinals as a No. 21 seed. Mandeville hasn’t had any problems adjusting to being the favorite as Sheppard has led the team to an undefeated record while rushing for 1,340 yards on 120 carries with 22 TDs through the first seven games.

Dillon Compton, Bunkie, sr.

Measurables: 6-0, 192 | Pos: QB

Gridiron Football labeled Compton “as lethal as it gets” in a Diamond In the Rough segment earlier this month. Compton was among the state’s most accurate passers, ranking fifth in completion percentage (69.9%) through Week 7 and totaling 1,528 yards with 16 TDs and two interceptions for the undefeated Panthers.

Xavier Ford, Leesville, sr.

Measurables: 5-11, 200 | Pos: RB

The durable back was leading the state in rushing through seven games, carrying 190 times for 1,844 yards and 29 TDs for the Wampus Cats, who became a select school following the last reclassification period and were No. 7 in the most recent Division II power ratings. Ford, who ran for nearly 5,000 yards over his sophomore and junior campaigns, scored six TDs and ran for his 100th career score in a 67-16 rout of Washington-Marion in Week 8.

JT Lindsey, Alexandria, sr.

Measurables: 5-11, 185 | Pos: RB

The LSU commit was among the top 10 rushers statewide through Week 7, gaining 1,169 yards on 144 carries with 16 TDs for an undefeated Trojan team that was No. 2 in most recent Division I select power ratings. Lindsey led his team to a hard-fought Week 8 win over Ruston, rushing for 136 yards on 32 carries with two TDs, according to Bret McCormick of Louisiana vs. All Y’all.

Chad Elzy, Ascension Catholic, sr.

Measurables: 5-9, 195 | Pos: RB

The explosive tailback rushed for 1,009 yards on 100 carries with 19 TDs through the first six games for the Bulldogs, who were No. 3 in the most recent Division IV select power ratings with one loss to undefeated Class 2A Dunham. Elzy, who rushed for over 2,900 yards with 47 TDs as a junior, scored three TDs in a 56-14 Week 8 rout of North Iberville.

Ke’Von Johnson, Northwest, jr.

Measurables: 5-9, 160 | Pos: RB

Johnson was second in the Lafayette area in rushing through seven games, racking up 1,225 yards on 117 carries with 13 TDs for a team that reached the Division II nonselect semifinals in 2023. As a junior, Johnson rushed for 2,000 yards for St. Edmund. He added 252 yards on 27 carries in a 39-6 rout of Mamou in Week 8.

Luke Landry, Catholic-New Iberia, sr.

Measurables: 6-0, 180 | Pos: QB

The left-hander has been exemplary with ball-control, tossing 21 TDs vs. one interception while leading the team to seven straight wins after a close loss to undefeated Vermilion Catholic. Landry, who has passed for 1,479 yards, has drawn praise for his ability to spread the ball among different receivers.

Harlem Berry, St. Martin’s Episcopal, sr.

Measurables: 5-11, 185 | Pos: RB

The Saints are in any game with the nation’s No. 1 running back in the fold. Berry, an LSU commit, led St. Martin’s to wins in six of its eight games with one of the losses, to Riverside Academy, setting up as a potential playoff rematch. Berry ran for 330 yards on 16 carries and five TDs vs. Riverside.

Jasper Parker, Archbishop Shaw, sr.

Measurables: 6-1, 200 | Pos: RB

The Michigan commit accounted for four TDs in wins over Walker and St. James and broke the school’s single-game rushing record with 326 yards in a win at Lafayette Christian. Shaw, which has won four straight games, was 6-2 and No. 1 in the Division II select power ratings following its 79-0 win over Kenner Discovery.

Joshua Brantley, Ruston, sr.

Measurables: 6-4, 220 | Pos: QB

The Tulane commit spurred the Bearcats to the Division I select state championship in 2023 and led Ruston to six straight wins to begin this season. Brantley, a run/pass threat, accounted for four TDs in a win over fellow Class 5A power Acadiana in Week 1. “I had a lot of people doubting my ability to both run and pass the ball, so I felt like it was time to actually show them what I can do,” he told Louisiana vs. All Y’all in a post-game interview.

Trenton Chaney, Lutcher, sr.

Measurables: 5-9, 165 | Pos: RB

The Bulldogs (7-0) were No. 2 in the most recent Division II nonselect power ratings with a recent win over rival E.D. White in which Chaney, a UL Ragin’ Cajuns’ commit known as “The X-Factor,” scored three TDs en route to being named the WAFB-TV Sportsline Player of the Week. Chaney led the Bulldogs in rushing and receiving through seven games and was averaging close to 10 yards per carry.

Dezyrian Ellis, Franklin Parish, jr.

Measurables: 6-3, 180 | Pos: QB

The Patriots from Winnsboro have been one of the prominent stories this year, winning seven of their first eight games for the No. 4 power rating in Division II nonselect. Ellis, who recently picked up his first scholarship offer from Tulane, ran for a 99-yard TD in a high-profile win over Calvary Baptist and passed for 1,214 yards and 20 TDs with four interceptions through seven games.

Abram Wardell, Calvary Baptist, sr.

Measurables: 6-0, 190 | Pos: QB

The Cavaliers lost a couple of games against large-school opponents but remain a favorite to repeat in Division III select with Wardell completing 117 of 160 passes for 2,057 yards and 29 TDs with three interceptions through the first seven games.

Jackson Bradley, Oak Grove, sr.

Measurables: 6-3, 200 | Pos: QB

The Tigers won seven of their first eight games and were No. 3 in the Division III nonselect power ratings as Bradley, a Louisiana Tech commit, passed for 1,343 yards and 25 TDs with six interceptions and averaged seven yards per carry with seven TDs. He looks to lead Oak Grove to a third straight state title.

Owen Trosclair, Covenant Christian, sr.

Measurables: 5-9, 165 | Pos: QB

Trosclair accounted for three TDs in his team’s 29-12 signature district win over a Jeanerette team that was also undefeated. Through seven games, Trosclair was the state’s most accurate passer, connecting on 79 of 95 attempts for 1,380 yards and 19 TDs with one interception.

D’Shaun Ford, Opelousas, sr.

Measurables: 6-0, 220 | Pos: RB

Ford, who averaged 10-plus yards per carry while totaling more than 2,000 yards for the 2023 Division II nonselect champions, gained 210 yards on 24 carries with a score in a one-point win over Cecilia in a Week 8 rematch of last year’s title game.

TaRon Francis, Edna Karr, sr.

Measurables: 6-2, 200 | Pos: WR

It takes a rare receiver to make a monumental difference on the field, so what better player to make this list than an LSU commit nicknamed “Manchild.” Francis hauled in seven catches for 162 yards and two TDs in a 62-16 obliteration of longtime rival Warren Easton, according to Vashon Jones of Crescent City Sports. Karr is undefeated and No. 1 in the Division I select power ratings.

Peyton Renfro, Iota, sr.

Measurables: 6-1, 190 | Pos: QB

Renfro passed for 1,063 yards and 17 TDs with three interceptions through the first seven games for the Bulldogs, who won in Week Eight to push their record to 7-1 with a district showdown looming against Northwest. Renfo, who has rushed for just under 500 yards with nine TDs, added 83 passing yards in limited action in a Week 8 blowout of Ville Platte. Iota was No. 6 in the most recent Division II nonselect power ratings.

Diesel Solari, Cecilia, sr.

Measurables: 5-8, 175 | Pos: QB

In his first game back from injury, Solari completed 13 of 18 passes for 173 yards and three TDs with no interceptions and rushed for a score in a one-point loss to Opelousas. The dual-threat signal-caller led the Bulldogs to a runner-up finish to Opelousas in 2023, and no one will be shocked if the two teams find their way back to the Superdome.

Jonathan Dartez, Vermilion Catholic, sr.

Measurables: 5-9, 170 | Pos: QB

The Eagles’ four-year starting signal-caller was leading the Lafayette metro area in rushing through seven games and it wasn’t close. Dartez rushed for 1,482 yards and 22 TDs while leading Vermilion Catholic to a 7-0 start and added 252 yards and five TDs in a Week Eight win over Opelousas Catholic.The next closest leading ballcarriers in the area trailed Dartez by more than 200 and 400 yards. He has also thrown for 1,063 yards and 11 TDs with two interceptions for VC, which was No. 1 in both the most recent Division IV select power ratings and the LSWA Class 1A poll.

— Mike Coppage | @sblivela

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Louisiana

Troy basketball rolls past Louisiana behind barrage of 3s, 90-70

Published

8 minutes ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Troy basketball rolls past Louisiana behind barrage of 3s, 90-70

Troy scorched the net for a season-best 17 3-pointers in a 90-70 victory over Louisiana at the Cajundome in Lafayette, La., on Saturday.

Brothers Cobi and Cooper Campbell hit four 3-pointers and scored 12 points each for the Trojans, who improve to 11-6 overall and 4-1 in Sun Belt Conference play. After Georgia Southern lost at South Alabama on Saturday, Troy is now tied for first place in the league standings.

Troy scored the first nine points of the game, and led by double-digits from the 12-minute mark of the first half. The Trojans were up 53-35 at halftime and by no less than 10 the rest of the way.

Thomas Dowd was Troy’s leading scorer (15 points, including three 3-pointers) and rebounder (8) while also dishing out five assists. Victor Valdes added 12 points, five rebounds and seven assists, while Jerrel Bellany contributed 11 points, Kerrington Kiel 11 and Theo Seng nine.

Dorian Finister scored a game-high 25 points for Louisiana, which falls to 4-14 overall, 2-4 in the Sun Belt. Dariyus Woodson was the only other Ragin’ Cajuns player in double-figures scoring with 13 points.

Troy is back home Wednesday, hosting Southern Miss at 6 p.m. at Trojan Arena. That game will stream live via ESPN+.

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Louisiana

McGlinchey Stafford vote to shut down reshuffles Louisiana legal landscape

Published

12 hours ago

January 10, 2026

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McGlinchey Stafford vote to shut down reshuffles Louisiana legal landscape

The decision by McGlinchey Stafford PLLC leaders this week to shutter their powerhouse law firm after more than 50 years sent shock waves across south Louisiana’s legal community, and even took some of the firm’s attorneys by surprise.

It also began reshaping the local legal landscape. In the days since the announcement, at least two firms have announced that McGlinchey attorneys will be joining them, bringing lucrative practices and longtime clients along.

New Orleans-based Adams and Reese said Thursday it is hiring nearly a third of McGlinchey’s Baton Rouge office — 11 attorneys and two paralegals — from the real estate and corporate transactions group. More announcements are expected to follow, as firms try to snag top McGlinchey talent before the competition does.

Amid the reshuffling, the full picture of what caused McGlinchey’s partners who own the firm, known as equity members, to vote to dissolve is starting to emerge. According to attorneys familiar with the situation and a statement from the firm’s managing partner, Michael Ferachi, McGlinchey had been struggling for a while. It had lost several highly skilled attorneys that had lucrative client lists, announcements from rival firms show, and departures had accelerated in recent months.

Now, dozens of secretaries and back-office staff are scrambling for positions, according to social media posts. Some younger attorneys or attorneys without large books of business are also looking for work.

Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino said they’ll be doing so in a Louisiana legal market that’s more competitive and less lucrative than it used to be.

“Big cases with high billable hours are fewer and father between than 30 or 40 years ago because we don’t have the big companies that generated that kind of work,” said Ciolino. “As the business community goes, so goes the legal community.”

Big dreams

It’s not unusual for mid-sized law firms like McGlinchey to experience ups and down, lose groups of attorneys and merge or sell to other firms. But according to 10 other attorneys in New Orleans and Baton Rouge who agreed to be interviewed for this is story but declined to give their names, it was surprising that McGlinchey’s owners voted to dissolve.

The New Orleans-based firm was among the most aspirational and aggressive in the city when it was founded in 1974. Back then, the city’s legal community was dominated by a handful of old-line firms populated by socially prominent attorneys.

McGlinchey sought to be different.

Founding partners Graham Stafford and Dermott McGlinchey were young, ambitious and smart, those who knew them remember. They wanted their firm to be taken seriously, setting up offices in One Shell Square, now the Hancock Whitney Center, then the city’s newest and tallest skyscraper.

The firm started out doing mostly insurance defense, which bills at a lower hourly rate and isn’t as prestigious as corporate transactions. But it quickly expanded as attorneys logged long hours and pursued out-of-state clients, which was less common then than today. They also sought to recruit the best and brightest young talent coming out of law school.

By the late 1980s, the firm had bought its own office building on Magazine Street in the newly trendy Warehouse District. In a nod to the New York-style firms it sought to emulate, McGlinchey had its own cafeteria, gym and showers, signaling that its attorneys were expected to live at the office.

Both founding partners died young. Stafford in 1987; McGlinchey, at age 60, in 1993. The firm continued to grow in their absence, but some longtime competitors said it didn’t hum with the same intensity.

String of departures

In a statement released Tuesday, Ferachi, a Baton Rouge-based commercial litigation specialist who became the firm’s managing member in 2021, said that no single factor had led to the vote to dissolve. Rather, troubles had been building.

“This is not because of any specific attorney’s departure, or any individual financial decision or leadership action that led us to this point,” he said. “This is the result of a combination of market factors, such as lagging collections, compounded with various internal factors over several years.”

The statement also said the firm’s leaders made the decision after “assessing several strategic alternatives.”

Ferachi declined to make additional comment or respond to additional questions. His predecessor, Rudy Aguilar, also a Baton Rouge attorney who is leading the group going to Adams and Reese, also did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Prominent departures have been ongoing for at least a decade and began building in recent months.

In 2015, two prominent attorneys in the real estate and commercial transactions division took their practice to Kean Miller, according to an announcement from Kean Miller at the time. In 2020, five partners from McGlinchey’s consumer finance litigation practice went to Hinshaw, a national firm based in Chicago with more than 500 attorneys across the country, a release from Hinshaw shows.

Around the same time, the firm downsized its footprint in the Pan American Life Center in New Orleans, where it had moved in 2008 after vacating the Magazine Street building, according to real estate sources familiar with the move.

According to Law.com, an online trade publication for the legal industry, the firm’s head count declined from 199 in 2016 to 37 in 2021, though it was back up to between 150-160 attorneys the time of the announcement.

In 2024, defense attorney Ally Byrd left McGlinchey for Jones Walker. More recently, in late November 2025, Deirdre McGlinchey, daughter of the late founding partner, moved her successful corporate litigation practice, which represented national clients and included three attorneys, to Jones Walker.

By then, the Baton Rouge McGlinchey office was already in serious talks with Adams and Reese, according to a statement from Adams and Reese.

On Jan. 2, three days before the McGlinchey vote, Hinshaw announced it had hired four attorneys from McGlinchey’s Washington D.C, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida offices, the firm announced. All specialize in defending consumer financial services companies in high stakes lawsuits.

At the same time it was losing some of its top rainmakers, the firm was continuing to sign new leases for offices. In 2023, it moved its Boston office into One Beacon Street, among the city’s most prestigious office towers, with estimated rents of near $50 per square foot.

In May, it moved its Baton Rouge offices from their longtime headquarters in One American Place to the newly renovated II Rivermark Centre down the street.

Late last year, the firm announced it had created four new administrative positions, hiring from within. The move, the firm said at the time, was designed to strengthen and improve back-office functions.

The firm had also “reconfigured its governance structure and compensation system,” Ferachi said in his statement.

‘Dignity and grace’

The effect of McGlinchey’s closure is already reverberating across the markets where it operated.

Adams and Reese Managing Partner Gyf Thornton said bringing on McGlinchey’s real estate practice in Baton Rouge will not only benefit the individual attorneys from both firms but create new opportunities.

“With these kinds of combinations, we have found that we typically get a one plus one equals three,” he said. “We start with their current book of business and together we grow to something bigger than the sum of the two parts.”

Partners may bring their associates and paralegals with them when they move, though they don’t typically bring back-office staff.

In a LinkedIn post, McGlinchey’s Chief Business Development Officer Heather Morse posted on behalf of her colleagues, saying “There are people, the #McGlinchey Family, who need to find their next beginning. Many of us are blessed with wide networks, but others are not.”

She tagged 20 colleagues from the firm’s administrative staff, noting she also was “open to new opportunities.”

There’s no word on how long the wind down will take, but Ferachi said the firm “was committed to comporting ourselves with dignity and grace during this process.”

Ciolino said it’s hard to say what exactly the departure of McGlinchey will mean for the market, noting it “does seem odd the way it all went down.”

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Louisiana

DOJ ends another desegregation consent decree in Louisiana

Published

1 day ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

DOJ ends another desegregation consent decree in Louisiana

Donald Trump is leading the most openly pro-segregation administration in recent American history, and it advanced that agenda this week when it killed yet another school desegregation agreement with a Louisiana parish.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that the Trump administration got a George W. Bush-appointed judge to lift another decades-old anti-segregation consent decree in the Bayou State.

Per the AP:

A federal judge on Monday approved a joint motion from Louisiana and the U.S. Justice Department to dismiss a 1967 lawsuit in DeSoto Parish schools, a district of about 5,000 students in the state’s northwest. It’s the second such dismissal since the Justice Department began working to overturn desegregation cases it once championed. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill thanked President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday for ‘helping us to finally end some of these cases.’

The AP quoted Murrill saying, “DeSoto Parish has its school system back,” and that “for the last 10 years, there have been no disputes among the parties, yet the consent decree remained.”

Of course, the absence of disputes under a consent decree is not exactly proof that the consent decree is no longer needed. To borrow an analogy from the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissent from Shelby County, to throw out a consent decree because there’s been no resegregation or discrimination “is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

This follows the administration in February removing language that banned federal contractors from operating segregated facilities, and its decision last spring to quash a different consent decree with Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish.