Louisiana
Louisiana’s LHSAA softball state tournament fields are set with the championships scheduled for Saturday
Louisiana’s LHSAA softball state tournament fields are set with the championships scheduled for Saturday originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The state tournament fields for Louisiana’s LHSAA softball championships are set with the semifinals scheduled for Friday, May 1.
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The championship games will then take place on Saturday, May 2, and there are currently three teams alive that are ranked in the MaxPreps national rankings. The Calvary Baptist Academy [Shreveport] Cavaliers are still riding high in the No. 3 position, competing for the state’s Select Division III championship while also harboring national title aspirations.
The No. 39 Sam Houston [Lake Charles] Broncos and the No. 44 Walker Wildcats, meanwhile, were both defeated this week in their pursuit of the LHSAA’s Non-Select Division I state championship. Walker was the #1 seed and lost in a stunning upset Tuesday night in the regionals to the #16 seed Central [Baton Rouge] Wildcats which, in turn, lost, 4-3, to the Hahnville [Boutte] Tigers in the quarterfinals on Friday.
WATCH: LOUISIANA LHSAA SOFTBALL ON THE NFHS NETWORK
Sam Houston was the #2 seed, meanwhile, and the Broncos also lost, 10-4, in the quarterfinals Friday to the #10 seed Live Oak [Watson] Eagles.
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Calvary Baptist Academy, meanwhile, will try to keep its national and state championship hopes alive after winning their two games this week against the #16 seed Fisher [Lafitte] Gators (15-0) and Bunkie Panthers (8-0). They’ll take on the D’Arbonne Woods Charter Timberwolves in Friday’s semifinal with the winner advancing to take on the winner of the Notre Dame [Crowley] Pioneers vs. the Parkview Baptist [Baton Rouge] Eagles.
LHSAA Non-Select Brackets
LHSAA Select Brackets
Key dates for the Louisiana LHSAA softball playoffs
|
DATE |
PLAYOFF DEADLINES |
|
5/1/26 |
Semifinals |
|
5/2/26 |
State Tournament |
National Top 50 contenders by division
Louisiana has three teams ranked in the national Top 50 in the latest MaxPreps rankings. However, it’s likely that Sam Houston and Walker will drop out this coming week after failing to even make the state tournament.
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Division III Select
The Calvary Baptist Academy [Shreveport, LA] Cavaliers are the state’s top-ranked team, checking in at No. 3 nationally. They earned a first-round bye before winning their first two playoff games this week by a combined score of 23-0. They are 35-1 on the season ranked behind the Barbers Hill [Mt. Belvieu, TX] Eagles and the Murrieta [CA] Mesa Rams.
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Louisiana
ICE rushes to deport Palestinian grandfather, despite judge’s order to free him | The Lens
This story was published in partnership with The Intercept, a newsroom committed to rigorous, adversarial journalism in the public interest.
Less than two weeks ago, in a scathing rebuke, a federal judge ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release a Louisiana grandfather who’d suffered a heart attack while in ICE custody.
The man, Akram Mahmoud Omar, 77, lived in the U.S. for 50 years until ICE abruptly seized him during a routine check-in last October and soon sent him to “Camp 57,” the ICE detention camp within the notorious state prison in Angola, Louisiana.
The stress of the poor conditions there contributed to Omar’s heart attack, according to the habeas petition he filed in April. On May 29, a federal judge found ICE had violated Omar’s constitutional rights and ordered his immediate release.
Then on Monday, just 10 days after his release, ICE seized Omar again and tried to whisk the still-recovering man onto a deportation flight the next morning, according to his lawyer Ken Mayeaux.
Following an emergency motion from Mayeaux, the same judge again ordered ICE to release Omar and cautioned the agency not to make another deportation attempt.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’) shall IMMEDIATELY RELEASE Omar from ICE custody,” said the Monday order from Judge Brian Jackson in Louisiana’s Middle District. “ICE shall not RE-DETAIN or REMOVE Omar from the United States during the pendency of Omar’s Emergency Motion to Enforce the Court’s May 29 Order.”
In the May order, the judge found that ICE had violated Omar’s constitutional rights by unlawfully detaining him and denying him the chance to prepare for an orderly departure.
ICE directly defied that order by seizing him without warning for immediate deportation, the emergency motion alleges, blocking him from arranging his affairs or even saying goodbye, the emergency motion for Omar’s release said.
“Petitioner’s re-detention and planned removal are in direct contempt of this Court’s prior order,” reads the June 8 emergency motion. The government “lied to Mr. Omar, telling him and his family that he did not need to report to ICE/ERO” — ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division — “until December, but now, Respondent is racing to remove petitioner within hours.”
In a statement to The Lens and The Intercept, ICE spokesperson Angela Vicknair said, “ICE complies with all court orders, and any allegation that a judge’s orders were not followed are categorically false.”
Federal courts are now constantly dealing with flagrant violations of judicial orders by ICE, said Bridget Pranzatelli, an attorney with the National Immigration Project.
“This level of cruelty and disrespect for federal courts is the rule, not the exception,” said Pranzatelli, who is familiar with the case. “The Court looked at the entire record before it and issued a well-reasoned decision, which specifically mandated certain protections for this very elderly, very sick man, and ICE ignored it.”
ICE’s actions in Omar’s case are also in line with the way that the government is using extreme measures to target Palestinians, Pranzatelli said. Omar was born in Palestine before the formation of the state of Israel and lived in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In 1975, he moved to the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident.
“If In Fact He Survives the Flight”
After his release last month, Omar attended his regular ICE check-in on the first Wednesday in June; his next check-in would be in December, he was told. But last Friday, he received a letter telling him to report to an ICE office on Monday morning, June 8.
After Omar received the letter, Mayeaux emailed the ICE office in Bossier City, Louisiana, where Omar lives, warning immigration officials that “any attempted removal of Mr. Omar in June would be in direct contempt of the Court Order,” according to a copy of the email included with the motion. “I am instructing my client not to report as requested.”
Instead, on Monday, ICE came to Omar’s home and arrested him again. Omar’s wife immediately called Mayeaux. Only hours later did ICE tell Omar’s family he was being taken nearly two hours away, to an ICE staging area for deportation flights, and would be put on a plane the next morning to Israel.
By early afternoon, Mayeux had filed the emergency motion.
His client’s health, Mayeux wrote in the emergency motion, was his main concern. Omar is still recovering from his April heart attack and open-heart surgery. His wife told the arresting ICE officer that she was planning to take Omar to a cardiologist later that day, and that he could not move well.
According to the filing, a doctor was prepared to testify that the roughly 14-hour flight without medical clearance raised serious concerns about Omar’s health, “if in fact he survives the flight.”
“Heartless and Cruel”
Omar had been in the U.S. for 50 years when ICE picked him up in Mississippi during a routine check-in last fall. There was no readily apparent cause: ICE had long known about two minor, nonviolent convictions, one in 2005 and one in 2022, but Omar had lived in the U.S. for years under ICE supervision and had complied with required immigration check-ins.
“Incredibly, despite these undisputed facts, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’) considers Omar to be both a ‘flight risk’ and a ‘priority for removal,” said the May release order from Jackson, a federal judge in Baton Rouge. “Omar has been held in ICE detention since October 28, 2025 — 7 full months — with no end in sight.”
Jackson ruled that ICE had to abide by its own regulations: If ICE were to deport him, the agency needed to give him advance notice, a reason, an opportunity for an orderly departure, and an informal interview to respond to ICE’s deportation efforts.
ICE did not serve Omar’s counsel with notice until he was already back in ICE custody.
“The Notice also makes a mockery of the Court’s Order,” says Mayeaux’s June 8 emergency motion. “It was only after he was taken back into custody — in contravention of the Court’s Order — that he was informed of the existence of the travel document and of his imminent removal.”
But even at that point, the motion alleged, ICE didn’t give Omar the chance to speak directly with counsel.
The court had also directed ICE to facilitate communication with Omar’s doctors and family “to ensure the most efficient and effective continuation of his required medical treatment upon his release.”
ICE appears to have violated most of Jackson’s orders when its agents re-detained Omar. Even when ICE SUVs showed up at his door to bring him to the Bossier City field office, the agents continued to say that it was only a routine check-in. Not until less than 24 hours before the flight departed were family members told he was being deported.
Again, an order from Jackson mandated Omar’s immediate release. ICE agents returned him to his home around 7 p.m. Monday evening — leaving his family relieved, but shaken.
“They’re all completely traumatized,” Mayeaux said of his client’s family.
While ICE’s letter last week had made him suspicious, he said, “I couldn’t believe they would be so heartless and cruel as to do this to a 77-year-old man who’s ill. I just didn’t.”
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WINNSBORO, La. (KNOE) – Louisiana State Police say a 79-year-old Winnsboro woman died Tuesday, June 9 after her vehicle crossed the centerline and hit a tree.
LSP says Huff was driving a 2025 Toyota Crown east on Louisiana Highway 867 near Louisiana Highway 868 shortly before 7 p.m. when the crash occurred.
According to authorities, Huff was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, but suffered fatal injuries. She died at the scene. A juvenile front seat passenger, who was also wearing a seatbelt, received minor injuries and was treated at an area hospital.
Impairment is not suspected. Routine toxicology samples were collected and will be submitted for analysis. The crash remains under investigation.
Copyright 2026 KNOE. All rights reserved.
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