Eunice prepared to make another run after overcoming championship hangover

Less than a year ago, the Eunice Bobcats celebrated winning of the Class 3A football state championship.

And that celebration apparently carried over.

Sure, the Bobcats started the season 3-0 with wins over Northwest, Jennings and Ville Platte, but Eunice head coach Paul Trosclair quietly noticed a difference in his program.

"We had to deal with the success from last year," said Trosclair, whose Bobcats will play host to LaGrange at 7 p.m. Friday. "I think we felt like we could just walk out there and everything would be good. We just weren't doing a good job of preparing ourselves mentally to go and compete."

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That proved costly in two of the Bobcats' next three games, as Eunice were defeated by Breaux Bridge and Rayne.

"You have to give our opponents credit," Trosclair said. "We had a lot of success, and I think that we began to take things for granted. It wasn't things too bad and against Breaux Bridge, who is a really good football team, we had a lot of turnovers"

So with his Bobcats (7-2, 2-1) suffering from what seemed to be a hangover from the state championship win, Trosclair and his coaching staff did the only thing they could do "provide tough love."

"We do a lot of talking with the kids," Trosclair said. "It was some tough love kind of talk. The players understood after the loss to Rayne that if we don't prepare, you can lose to anybody."

While that message was received by his players, it wasn't until the Bobcats' 32-27 win over a then-undefeated Tioga team that Trosclair felt things were turning around for his program.

"Beating Tioga was a big win for us," Trosclair said. "I thought Tioga was better than us on paper, so that was a big win. I felt like that win was the game that turned the tables for us."

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With the Bobcats in the midst of a three-game winning streak, Trosclair believes they are playing at a high level.

And it's hard not to say the losses didn't play a pivotal role in garnering his Bobcats' attention.

"You never want to lose a game," Trosclair said. "But losses have a way to bring you back down to earth. Winning football games isn't easy and winning isn't guaranteed. You have to prepare. I think those losses really helped to get us on the same page."

But with everything they set out to accomplish this season still achievable, Trosclair admits he doesn't want his Bobcats looking back.

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"Hindsight does us no good," Trosclair said. "You can only learn from it. You get to learn from the games and learn from the practices. As some coaches would say, you either or getting better or you're getting worse. We are a lot of better today. We are more of a team now and I'm excited about that."

Being better overall combined with a desire to prepare on a weekly basic and a confidence level that is second to none, Trosclair's Bobcats are believe they're capable of accomplishing more.

"This is an optimistic and very driven bunch of kids," Trosclair said. "They believe we are going back to the Dome. I'm not going to doubt this team."

Eric Narcisse covers high school sports for The Daily Advertiser. Email him at enarcisse@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter @eric_narcisse.