What Happened to Acadiana?

[FrancescoTotti]

What happened to Acadiana, they started off
as an unbelievable taem and now, everyone is catching up with them. What is their problem? They lost to Jesuit in the Northside tourny no big deal Jesuit is the best in the state , lose to Sulphur early in district in a shootout, lose to Vandy in the Showcase, and now they lose to barb. They have showed no progress since the northside tourny. Whats the deal do you think its because of all the players they have on the United, that they have played together so they came out early already knowing how each one played.

[ShaftTheRod]

Acadiana is having a streak of bad luck, which is probably due to overconfidence. They will get there heads back in the game in the end, and I believe, put a tough fight to get to the playoffs. There coach will make sure of that.

[goat]

hey megs how many acadiana games have you actually watched? if you watched the barb game you whould know that the rams dominated and played good soccer. sometimes the better team doesn't win, as far as there season well they have loss 4 games one in a shotout ,2 by one point and 1 by 3 points. they have never been blown out of a game where they played all there "A" players the whole game. look at the #1 rank team in the state, lafayette had a 4-1 loss to st. louis, everyone has bad games every now and then.

to all lafayette supporters that statement about the loss was not made to dis lafayette it was made to make a point, even very good teams have bad games. the one thing i do know is when the playoffs come the rams will be ready to play.

[goat]

hey megs one more thing you said, they have not improved sence the northside tourny. how do you know? your statement about the united players is way off. lafayette has just as many burn players playing for them as acadiana does united players, so why does everyone think lafayette can improve but acadiana can't? shafttherod has it right the rams will be there in the playoffs, and thats all that counts, oh and by the way they are in second place and if they win out they will be the district champs.

[McScruff]

I don't think it has to do with United either. I do think they were more familiar with each other than other teams because I don't think that Acadiana lost a lot of key players from last year's team. Goat, of the players who see considerable minutes this season, how many of them contributed last year? Yandle, Stinson, Credeur, Hofland, Neal, LeBlanc, Goodwin, Arceneaux, and Wilks...weren't all of them starters or at least major contributors last year?

Acadiana started the year ahead of where other teams in district were as far as knowing each other and playing as a team. This may have led to them being overconfident and relaxing a bit.

I'll take a team that I know a lot about who didn't play great in the beginning, but is playing very well now, Lafayette. Lafayette STARTS four players who weren't even on varsity last year. Their first defender off the bench who is now splitting time with Prejean wasn't on varsity last year. Their second midfielder off the bench wasn't on varsity last year. I think when you look at the two teams, it is not that much of a reach to conclude that Lafayette has more room for improvement than Acadiana. I am not going to say that Acadiana has peaked or has not improved this season or that they won't improve more as the season progresses. I am just saying that other teams had more potential for improvement at the beginning of the season and have caught up to, and in some cases passed, Acadiana. Maybe not from a talent perspective, but from a confidence and familiarity perspective.

[goat]

mcsruff you make some good points but lets talk about acadiana and compare. acadiana has several new players as well while some are seniors they didn't play much last year at all. arceneaux didn't play much at all last year, saboe and latiolais didn't play much or really at all last year, yount wasn't even on the team last year and josh hefner played very little last year. all of these players are playing at least half of everygame or the entire game. so i think acadiana still has room for improvement, and to tell the truth i think the loss to barb might be what gets this team going. they know they were the better team but didn't get it done. from what i hear they are relizing just how important it will be for them to finish the regular season strong. so maybe its acadiana that still has the room for major improvement. they started strong due to their experiance and now they are working on improving. i think they have just as much potential for improvement as lafayette.

[McScruff]

tick. tick. tick. tick.

I hope they get it together soon...only six games left before playoffs.

[goat]

give me a break mcsruff as much as you know about soccer i know you don't think the rams aren't good enough to make a serious run at the title. look at lafayette last year they went in as the #3 seed in the district and look what they did.

[goat]

one more thing mcscruff what about my comparision, acadiana has several new players too.

[McScruff]

Last year, Lafayette lost two games to Sulphur and one game to Acadiana in district. The Acadiana loss and the first Sulphur loss were both before Christmas. And, it was actually the loss to Acadiana in which Lafayette started to put it all together. I mark that game as the game in which Lafayette began playing good soccer...before Christmas. After that game, I said that it was the best Lafayette had played to date. Anyway, my point is that Lafayette began gaining momentun way earlier than this last year, so you can't compare the two seasons. With six games left, you don't think Acadiana is running out of time to start building momentum for the playoffs? Would you feel comfortable playing Mandeville or Covington or Catholic of BR right now? How about Brother Martin or Rummel?


As for this year's "potential" comparison. You named a lot of players who come off of the bench. They may play half the game, but with the exception of Yount and Saboe, they are not starters. I am talking about the core of the team. Acadiana's core is virtually intact from last year. Lafayette's core from last year graduated. Only two of Lafayette's starting field players started last year, McNamara and Pierce. And Pierce didn't start until midway through the season.

Let's compare the rosters:

Lafayette Starters

Not on roster last year
Prejean
Carter
Elendar
Hardy

Limited minutes(20-25 or less per game)
Menard
Todd
Judice

Injured for majority of season(first off bench upon returning)
Belfour

Returning Starters
McNamara
Pierce
Carlos


Now look at Acadiana

Returning Starters
Yandle
Credeur
Hofland
Stinson
Neal
Wilks
LeBlanc
Goodwin

Not on Team
Yount
Saboe

Came off bench(unsure of minutes)
Arceneaux

Looking at those two starting lineups, tell me, which team is less experienced and which team has room for more improvement from learning how to play with each other. Lafayette on both accounts.

[goat]

actually mcsruff yount doesn't start and all of the others do. yount, hefner(who starts), and arceneaux rotate on the wings. the only starters from last year are yandle, leblanc, credeur, hofland, and stinson. wilks didn't goodie didn't, and neal did early in the year but not at the end. if you watched a lot of acadiana last year you would know that hopkins didn't sub hardly at all. so the rams only had 5 starters back from last year. we could argue this point over and over but i do think the rams have turned the corner just like you said the lions did after there game last year with acadiana. the rams might not win district,(but then again they might), but i know they will go deep in the playoffs.

[ok]

mcscruff if u are gunna try to make comparisons please get your facts straight.... first of all joey wasnt first off the bench when he came back, he started...... as for ahs u are prolly about 60 % wrong....... neal, wilks, and goody weren't starters last year as a matter of fact wilks and goody didnt see much pt in many games except for blowouts, neal played about 20 mins each game, arceneaux played maybe 10 mins a game also latolais wasnt on the team....so now lets compare starters......

LHS
started
joey.... (and started frosh year)
bb
los
brennan

little pt
todd
judice
menard

not on team
hardy
ellender
carter
preajean

AHS
started
leblanc
stinson
hoffland
credeur
yandle

little pt
wilks
goody
arceneaux
neal

not on team
latolais
saboe

.......looks pretty even to me

[hdkjga]

Joey didn't start when he came back last year. He played for the first time in about a month in the quarterfinals against Mandy. He was first sub off the bench. The Rummel and Jesuit games were the same way. That is a fact. I was at all those games.

[hdkjga]

I know alot of people are trying to compare Lafayette and Acadiana as far as who can improve more, but let's be realistic. Noone can predict the future. I have stated before that I didn't think AHS had improved from the Northside tourney after I saw them in the St. Louis tourney. I haven't seen them since, so I can't say if they have improved or not since that tourney. If I went off of results, I would say, probably not....but then again these are 16-18 year olds, that just need the right boost and all of a sudden they are playing better soccer than you have ever seen. My point is.......if you want to state your opinion about what you have seen, then that's justified. If you are trying to predict what will happen, we are all just really guessing. I personally think Acadiana has the potential to play better than what they appear to be playing right now. I think Lafayette is playing really good ball right now, and they still have room for improvement.


ps -- I think it is safe to say goat is officially the biggest Acadiana fan on this site. Shoot maybe he will be their announcer one day, who knows?

[Frank the Tank]

Joey never started last year after he injured his groin. He re-injured his groin throughout the year when he thought he could play, and never fully healed last season. Neal started or got a lot of PT his soph. and junior year and he plays select with all those guys anyway, so they have experience playing together. Arceneaux has bean on varsity for a few years and has never started, but gets PT often so he has experience playing with the starters.

Lafayette Starters- 3
McNamara
Los
Pierce

Little PT- 4
Judice
Todd
Menard
Joey-injured for season

Not on Team- 5
Carter, Prejean, Hardy, Ellender, St. Cyr

Acadiana Starters- 5
Hofland
Stinson
Yandle
Leblanc
Credeur

Little PT- 4
Goody- Plays select with majority of starters
Neal- Plays select with majority of starters
Wilks
Arceneaux

Not on Team- 3
Latiolais, Saboe, Yount (Has played select with majority of starters)

It looks pretty even, but I have to say Acadiana's players knew each other better coming into the highschool season, because their players have played more with each other before this season. Haha good one Hdkjga.

[goat]

thanks for the kind remarks hdkjga, i think the rams already have an annoucer and i don't think he will turn the mike over to me.

it is fun to talk about the future and what we think the teams we support will do but you are right we can't predict the future. there is one thing i think is pretty safe to predict, dist. 3 will be well represented in the playoff and has a better than average chance of bring the title back to dist. three.

the one thing everyone who has a connection with dist. 3 can count on is my support. i will be pulling for all the dist. 3 teams that make the playoffs. i will just pull for acadiana when and if they meet another dist. 3 team.

[ok]

o yea and mcscruff about u sayin ahs didnt lose a core group..... they lost richard, alleman, robertson, hopkins, lejeune, and leonard, which were all starters....... and hdkjga thats not the point, the point is, that he was part of the returning core beczuse frosh year he started and when he came back last year he was a huge part of the lhs team

[goat]

very good points ok. acadiana loss 6 starters and 4 of them were 1st team all district. but everybody knows acadiana didn't have to rebuild like lafayette did,what a joke.

i think we should all agree that both teams lost a lot of good players from last year. i also think everyone will agree that lafayette has a much deeper talent pool to pull from. every year they have 30 to 40 freshman try out for the team. acadiana has had 9 last year and 13 this year. the majority of the select players play for lafayette. for years acadiana has not had the bench lafayette has had. what acadiana does have usually is 14 to 15 kids from frosh. to seniors that can play with just about anyone in the state.

[goat]

just one more post on this matter then i'll be ready to move on. frankthetank said acadiana had more players that played together going into the season, well menard, judice, hardy, belfour, and los all play for the burn so they had the fall select season to play together, so enough about acadiana's kids having an advantage early in the season, it just isn't so!

[Frank the Tank]

It's ok goat...you have your opinion, and I have mine. The beginning of the season was a long time ago and it doesn't have much relevance now. At this point in the season, winning comes down to staying healthy and playing for 80 min. every game.