METAIRIE, La. — It’s one of the best turnarounds in Louisiana high school basketball.
Crescent City, a program fresh off of five straight state championship game appearances, only won 2 games last year.
This year, the Pios have flipped the script, winning 20 games and a district 10-1A title. They should be a 2 seed in the upcoming Division IV playoffs.
“I let them know that it’s a legacy here. We’ve been to five state championships, we won three. Two state runner-ups. There is a little pressure when you come to Crescent City. last year, a lot of people were like, Crescent City won’t be the same because coach Shaun (Dumas) is not here anymore. I took that as a chip on my shoulder. I will bring it back like it was before.”
In his tenth year at Crescent City, the second as head coach, Brandon Russ has the basketball program headed in that direction.
Russ was an assistant under former head coach Shaun Dumas, witnessing firsthand the blueprint for building a championship-caliber team.
His 20-4 Pios are a combination of three players from last year’s team and a talented group of seven underclassmen that have formed one of the more exciting teams in Division IV select.
Coach Russ says his team did initially experience growing pains you would expect a young group to endure, but through those challenges, they have gelled into a “special” bunch.
“We’ve got some great personnel here. They’re a young group. They’re hungry. They know what they saw last year watching the varsity team and they want to bring another state championship at Crescent City,” says Russ.
Their path to championship gold will be laid out on Monday when the basketball playoff brackets are released.