Touchdown Live: Week One Game of the Week - Jennings Preview

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - High school football is finally back in SWLA, and the Jennings Bulldogs are now only a couple of days away from their season-opening match-up against the Leesville Wampus Cats.

This past season the two teams met twice with Leesville taking both meetings including a second-round playoff win in 21-7 over the Bulldogs. This season Jennings has a new head coach in Bret Fuselier, and he believes that his team is going to be up for the immediate challenge this coming Friday.

“Anytime you come into week one every year everybody’s excited, you’re (0-0), everybody’s expecting to win 10 games this year so we’re excited about it,” said Coach Fuselier. “They beat us twice last year, one to end our season, so what’s better way to start off the season and have them come over here and let’s do it again, our kids are kind of excited about this week and I will say Leesville is a very good football team so our guys better be ready for this Friday.”

As the Bulldogs head out of the offseason, the team feels very confident that they have put in the hard work necessary to compete at the highest level, and with an experienced defense returning, defensive back Zae Douglas believes the sky is the limit.

“I feel like we’ve been taking it very seriously, we still have a couple of things we need to work out, but I feel like this week in practice we’re going to get it all ready and we’re going to be ready for the game on Friday,” said Douglas. “We’re very tough, we’ve been tough since last year, we return most of our starters, we lost a couple of seniors, but I feel like we’re going to be all right, we show our effort, we give it 100% every day.”

Coming into the season this new staff has yet to coach at Jerry Simmons Stadium with these players, and for all of them, it will be a special moment to go out on the field finally with the team.

“It’s exciting for us, there’s a lot of us that we’re going to be walking to the sideline at Jerry Simmons Stadium for the first time and we’re ready for that atmosphere,” said Fuselier. “We’re hoping for a big-time atmosphere, these teams are familiar with one another, so hopefully both schools will come out and support their team and I’m looking for a great night.”

The Jennings Bulldogs will kick off their 2023 season against Leesville at 7:00 PM Friday night.

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