Walker High coach Anthony Schiro has guided his team to a 19-9 record against an extremely challenging schedule.
Live Oak coach John Capps and his Eagles finished with a 17-14 record last season that included an opening-round loss to the state playoffs.
Denham Springs coach akevin Caballero gives his players instructions during a first-half timeout in Catholic High's Thanksgiving Shootout.
It’s hard to imagine anything missing from Walker’s first state championship season of a year ago.
The Wildcats completed a magical 33-4 journey, complete with a 62-57 overtime victory over Landry-Walker in the Class 5A state championship game.
However, they did so without winning the District 4-5A championship, which went to Scotlandville, whose 68-67 victory at Walker enabled the Hornets to claim the league title.
That turned out to be the final time Walker would lose in the 2017-18 season, going on to win its next 10 games – culminating with the Class 5A state crown.
“That’s the one thing you look at last year that we missed out on that was a goal of ours that we didn’t obtain,” Walker coach Anthony Schiro said. “The ultimate goal was a state championship and we accomplished that, and it was amazing. I don’t think our guys this year have forgotten that we didn’t win district last year. That’s a goal.”
With the start of District 4-5A play on Friday, Walker begins pursuit of that objective when the Wildcats (19-9) travel to Scotlandville on Jan. 29, where for the second straight year, teams will only conduct one round of league play.
That will bring together a rare matchup of defending state champions with the Hornets (25-1) having won the Division I state crown in the nonselect division.
“You have two defending state champions in the district,” Denham Springs coach Kevin Caballero said. “I think everyone’s chasing them.”
Live Oak (16-8), which faced Catholic High on Tuesday, opens District 4-5A competition at Zachary (14-11) at 7 p.m. Friday, while Scotlandville travels to Central (12-12).
“The district’s loaded, I don’t think there’s a better district in the state,” Live Oak coach John Capps said. “I thought it was the toughest district in the state last year and I think we’ve gotten better.”
Caballero quipped that he thought the district may get a break this year when three-time Gatorade Player of the Year for Louisiana Ja’Vonte Smart signed with LSU after a spectacular career at Scotlandville.
The Hornets haven’t shown any signs of tapering off, winning their first 20 games of the season until a three-point loss to Sophie B. Wright in the Sugar Bowl Prep Classic.
“From what I understand this may be one of coach (Carlos) Sample’s best teams,” Caballero said. “They’re playing together. They’ve always been good defensively and that’s what they’ve hung their hat on. It’s everybody after Scotlandville and Walker.”
Scotlandville, Walker and Live Oak carry the league’s best power ratings going into the beginning of district play.
The Hornets are the No. 1 team in Division I, while Walker is No. 5 in Class 5A followed by Live Oak at No. 8.
Denham Springs (16-13) is No. 23, Belaire (16-6) is 30th, Zachary (14-11) 31st and Central (12-12) 41st.
The Yellow Jackets split with a pair of parish rivals last week, winning a dramatic 50-49 game with Live Oak, and dropping a 65-47 decision to Walker.
Denham Springs also lost to Live Oak (81-49) in the semifinals of the Livingston Parish Tournament and faced Central on Tuesday in another nondistrict game.
The Yellow Jackets officially begin league play on Jan. 29 at Live Oak.
“I told the kids after Walker, we’ve got seven (games) left,” Caballero said. “We’d like to get six of seven. We feel if we get five of the seven, we’ve got an opportunity to where we can match up in the (state) playoffs.”
No team had a hotter start to the season than Live Oak, which won its first 11 games until losing 68-63 to Walker in the final of the parish championship Dec. 8.
The Eagles, playing without starting guard Lawrence Pierre, then lost five straight and six of their next seven. They’ve since rebounded with four wins in a six-game span going into Tuesday’s game at Catholic.
“We’re finally back,” Capps said. “It’s almost like we’re at the beginning of the season and trying to re-establish roles for guys. We’ve played a lot of guys this year in different situations because we’ve had to. We’ve got experience. We need to settle in and hopefully and get a little more confidence back.”
Walker went through its state championship with only four losses.
The Wildcats, albeit not as experienced or deep as their predecessors, had four losses before Christmas this season, the byproduct of an extremely challenging schedule that’s taken them to tournaments/showcase events in Lake Charles, Lafayette and twice to New Orleans.
The reason?
“We wanted to play some of the top teams where night in and night out that we’re prepared,” Schiro said. “Every night’s a big game. We didn’t want to have any games that wouldn’t get us ready for the next one and of course preparing for the stretch run into district and the playoffs. I think we’ve done that and we’re pretty battle tested.”
Walker has defeated Landry-Walker, knocked off defending Class 4A state champion Carencro and has a pair of wins over Division II state runners-up University High. They’ve also split games with both defending Division V state champion Jehovah-Jireh and Division III power Riverside Academy.
The Wildcats suffered their second loss this season at the hands of Class 3A front-runner Sophie B. Wright (80-65) in Monday’s Martin Luther King Classic in New Orleans. They’ve also dropped a pair of games to Bishop Laughlin of N.Y. and Silsbee (Texas) High in the Sugar Bowl Prep Classic.
“Our district, year in and year out, you’ve got be prepared to play on a nightly basis,” Schiro said. “That’s our main focus, getting into this district schedule, trying to win every game and trying to be the district champion. That’s something we want to obtain.”
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