Bossier High and Lakeview (Campti) may have tied a national record last week with a combined total of zero yards passing.
I use the word “may” because it is possible that two teams have finished with negative yards passing in a game.
Bearkat quarterback J.J. Dudley was 0-for-1 passing Friday, while Lakeview quarterback Chris Blanchard was one-for-two for zero yards.
On the ground, Bossier High rolled up 378 yards while Lakeview managed only 77 yards in the Bearkats’ 59-20 homecoming victory. Both teams lost two fumbles.
The victory gave Bossier High a 4-3 record going into this week’s District 1-3A opener against Loyola College Prep at Messmer Stadium.
Bossier High coach Michael Concilio knows his Bearkats have their work cut out for them in district play.
Parkway (7-0) is the only Bossier Parish team with a perfect record through the first seven weeks of the 2012 season.
Wood-lawn’s Joe Ferguson broke a few national records when he became the first Louisiana quarterback to pass for more than 3,000 yards in a season in 1968, Since then, four Evangel quarterbacks have passed for more than 4,200 yards in a season, and one of them (Brock Berlin) did it twice. Berlin passed for 4,654 yards in 1997 (only two yards under the state record set by Evangel’s Phillip Deas a year earlier) and broke the record with 4,834 yards in 1998. In both seasons, Berlin threw 54 touchdown passes — which is still the state record.
All of the Louisiana leaders had more impressive numbers than Drew Brees posted at Westlake, Texas, High. Brees completed 211 of 333 passes (63.4 percent) in his senior season for 3,528 yards and 31 touchdowns. His career totals at Westlake High were 314 completions in 490 attempts (64.1 percent) for 5,461 yards and 50 touchdowns. But Brees’ most impressive numbers in his high school career were 28-0-1, which was Westlake’s record when he was the team’s starting quarterback.
Three Evangel quarterbacks had career totals of more than 11,000 yards, led by Berlin with 13,902 yards and 54 touchdowns.
Berlin’s career total is 5,476 yards more than the record in the last National High School Sports Record Book. The National Federation no longer publishes the record book, which obviously wasn’t very accurate anyway.
The other Evangel quarterbacks with more than 11,000 yards passing were Deas with 11,324 in a career ending in 1996 and Josh Booty with with 11,700 in a career ending in 1993.
Evangel receivers also broke state records as Steve Parker became the first Louisiana receiver to break the 4,000-yard barrier in 1993 with 4,399 in 1993 and Abram Booty became the first Louisiana receiver to break the 5,000-yard barrier with 5,867 in 1996.
Before Evangel came along, the state record was 3,113 in 1967 by Jackie Jefferson of Union High, an all-black Shreveport school that was phased out of existence with the integration of Louisiana schools three years later.
Jerry Byrd is the former sports editor of the Bossier Press-Tribune and an award-winning columnist. Check out a few hundred of his columns on www.jerrybyrd.com. You can contact him by E-mail at
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