RESERVE, La. — East St. John finished the 2021 season with a 3-4 record, missing the Class 5A playoff field for the first time since 2015.
This fall, the Wildcats return 15 starters and a team determined to make sure that doesn’t happen in 2022.
“We went into the offseason with a 4th and 1 mentality. Our guys approach every day like it’s 4th and 1. Our slogan is it’s 4th and 1. It’s the 4th quarter with 40 seconds left in the state championship game. It’s kind of been a mindset. We’ve been attacking everything like it’s 4th and 1,” says East St. John head football coach Brandon Brown.
The Wildcats defense returns 8 starters from a 2021 unit that was tested both in and out of District 7-5A.
The offense returns 7 and will be led by quarterback Yashua Mitchell, Devin Davis, Dkhai Joseph, George Martin and all-district back Cortez Fisher.
“He’s just been so consistent. He runs really, really well, but lately, he’s shown that burst and explosion and he’s run good routes. Offensively now we know we can flex him out at some receiver and do some things with him. So, he’s a guy that you really can’t get off the field. So, from a coaching staff perspective, we understand that we only have one ball, and he’s our guy. We plan on getting it to him as much as possible,” says Brown.
There’s a new sense of hunger across the East St. John roster.
One that has used the struggle of the 2021 fall season to grow into a mature football team.
“Those guys have really taken the team under their own leadership and that’s the beauty of it. We walked in one day and we didn’t see a lot of the kids. I was kind of checking roll like I do daily and was like, ‘where the guys at?’ I had a younger guy say, ‘coach they all went in the meeting room.’ I walked in, and they asked me, ‘coach can you leave?’ You know, they’re having their own players meeting. That accountability piece has gone a long way with those guys and that leadership,” says Brown.
East St. John will open the 2022 season at home against St. James on Friday, September 2nd.
The 31st edition of WGNO’s Friday Night Football, presented by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, returns Friday, August 19th.
You can catch all of the action on Friday Nights at 11 p.m. on Nola 38 the CW and again at midnight on WGNO.