MANDEVILLE, La. — The Mandeville Skippers are tasked with replacing a stout senior class that went 8-2 last season with a quarterfinal loss to eventual 5A state champion, Acadiana.
“I think we are going to have a tough, gritty team. Less experienced but not young. They were guys who sat behind some great players for a couple of years and earned from them and they’ll take that experience and use it on the field,” says Mandeville head football coach Hutch Gonzales.
Offensively, the Skippers return explosive playmakers in Landon Ibieta and Douglas McGowan.
Ibieta hauled in 34 catches for 729 yards and 11 scores while McGowan totaled 1,200 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2020.
It’s just a matter of who’s playing quarterback this fall.
“Got a couple of guys competing for the spot. Two seniors, Rex Henderson and Curt Dussaigne are competing for the spot. The we have a couple of younger guys; juniors Brendan Scardino and Cooper DesRoches and they’re fighting. We’re blessed to have a lot of talent at that position we’re just going to have to see who is going to take it,” says Gonzales.
Defensively, Mandeville returns a talented group but one that will be without defensive coordinator Eric Rebaudo.
Rebaudo is now an assistant coach at St. Paul’s.
“We appreciate everything he did for us. He was a phenomenal coach. It’s a big loss for us. Fortunately for us his main understudy in our program stayed. He’s a Mandeville guy, he’s played there, James Tryforos. He’s stepped right in and picked it up and we got him some help. The defense has looked really good to this point through everything that we’ve done,” says Gonzales.
Mandeville opens the regular season at home against Denham Springs and Hahnville.
District 6-5A play opens September 24th at home against Northshore.
The Skippers have road games at Ponchatoula October 8th and at St. Paul’s October 22nd.
For the full schedule, click here.
