I played high school football for the Winnfield Tigers. That experience was one of the things that inspired me to create the web site I manage (see www.winnfieldtigerfootball.com). I was fortunate to play on a Winnfield Tiger football team that made it all the way to the Class AAA state title game.

That experience was one of the things that inspired me to put together a reference book in the mid 1990s on the Louisiana high school football championships. My team lost that title game and from that loss came a lot of understanding about the value of high school football and what is important about football. For me, the relationships surrounding a quality high school football program are the most important aspect of high school football, but that is a topic for another article.

I enjoy reviewing the history of high school football in Louisiana. I am intrigued by football statistics and state titles, but I will admit that one of my pet peeves is bottom line thinking that focuses solely on wins, solely on state titles and generally on "what have you done for me lately". That is why in this article I choose to focus on Louisiana high school football programs that have made playoff appearances over a broad span of time and on programs that put together a high number of playoff appearances in a short span of time.

This sort of analysis admittedly has flaws. From the longevity angle, this particular analysis is skewed in favor of schools that have been around for a while. There are schools that had success in the past and no longer exist and there are schools that have had "recent" success on the football field - meaning the last three decades. Schools from both of those groups are left out of the "longevity analysis".

Football has been played in Louisiana for over 100 years. My own alma mater, Winnfield Tiger football program just completed their 100th year of football (1909 to 2008). It wasn't until the 49th year of that program (1957) that the school made its very first playoff appearance. So, even for the programs that have been around a while the opportunity was always there. Therefore, the long-term view I am about to present highlights those schools that have both been playing football for a while and have had relative success throughout that period.

The biggest flaw I see with the way I am analyzing short term success is restricting this current analysis to defined decades (70s, 80s, 90s, etc.). Some schools have had success in ten-year periods that overlapped decades (mid 1950s to mid 1960s, for example). I did not include that in the analysis that will follow. Anyway, there are many other ways to analyze the success of a particular high school program. This is just one way.

I played in an era when winning a state title was viewed as a rarity and even making the playoffs was a challenge. Here's why. From approximately the 1920s to the mid-1940s there were two classes in football and the only two teams to make the playoffs were the north Louisiana representatives vs. the south Louisiana representative.

With the advent of dividing the state up into districts in the 1940s the playoff format was expanded to include the district champions of each district. From the mid 1940s to the mid 1950s there were only 3 classes in the state and from the mid 1950s to the end of the 1960s there were only four classes. So, even during the time when only district champions made the playoffs that meant that there were only 24 teams to make the playoffs initially.

When the LHSAA went to four classes during the 1954 season, that increased the number of playoff teams statewide to 32. (Keep in mind that we have that many playoff participants in each class today). In the 1950s and early 1960s there were only 8 districts per class or only 8 playoff teams per class. So, in essence, when you made the playoffs in the 1950s and early 1960s you essentially began the playoffs in what is the equivalent of the present-day quarterfinal round. Compare all of that to the 160 teams who make the playoffs in the current system.

By the way, I fully support the power point system. Too many good teams were left out of the playoffs under the former systems and one of those was the 1980 Class AA Winnfield Tiger team who finished the season 8-2, including a win over eventual Class AAA state champion Minden. That Winnfield team finished in a three-way tie for the district title but stayed home in the playoffs because they came in third in the comparative-score system used to break ties. So, I welcome expansion.

The LHSAA made an attempt to be more inclusive in the playoffs in 1966 when the district runner-up also earned a playoff spot. This doubled the number of playoff teams. Then, in 1984 six wild-card teams were added to the mix in each class and the current power point system was instituted in the 1990s.

In sum, we have moved from a playoff system that initially had only two playoff participants statewide in the 1920s, to a four-team playoff format statewide throughout much of the 1930s. That evolved to a 24-team format statewide in the 1950s-to mid 1960s, a 32-team format statewide in the 1960s and 1970s, to the present day 32 teams per class or 160 teams statewide format.

With all of that background I submit the following (my apologies if I accidently left off some school, which is very possible). For the record, though high school football in Louisiana has been played since the first decade of the 1900s, playoffs didn't begin until the 1920s. I have found records of only 9 playoff games conducted in the 1920s and 7 of those games were state title games.

So, technically, there have been a total of nine (9) decades that high school playoffs in football have been conducted - 1920 to present (9 decades), though playoff weren't played in every year of a particular decade until the 1930s:

Most Number of Decades to make the playoffs (whether that is 10 times in a particular decade or once):

9 decades
Homer and Warren Easton (New Orleans). Never mind that Homer only made the playoffs one time in the 1950s and that Warren Easton made the playoffs 3 times or less in seven of the nine decades. Both schools "showed up" in the playoffs at least once in every decade and they are the only schools that can make that claim.

8 decades
Amite, Bastrop, Byrd, Fair Park, Holy Cross, Jennings, Jonesboro-Hodge, Kentwood, LaGrange, Minden, Plain Dealing, Rayville, Ruston, Springhill, Tallulah and Vinton.

Highest consecutive number of decades to make the playoffs:
9 straight
Since Homer and Warren Easton have made the playoffs in every decade they are at the top of the list with playoff appearances in 9 straight decades.
8 straight
the only decade that all of these schools did not make the playoffs in was the 1920s Amite, Fair Park, Jonesboro-Hodge, LaGrange, Plain Dealing, Springhill, Tallulah and Vinton.
7 straight
(every decade since the 1940s). Destrehan, Hanson Memorial, Neville, Sacred Heart (Ville Platte) and Westlake.

Schools that made the playoffs every year of a particular decade: (so far, the only decades this has happened in is are the 80s, 90s). This feat was, without question, heavily influenced by the expansion of the playoff format to 32 teams per class.

1980s - (9 schools) Haynesville, Hanson Memorial, John Curtis, Jonesboro-Hodge, Kentwood, Neville, O. P. Walker, Southern Lab and St. Mary's of Natchitoches.

1990s - (17 schools) Amite, Bossier, Carencro, Catholic (BR), Covington, Grambling Lab, Haynesville, Independence, John Curtis, Oak Grove, Ouachita, Riverside, Shaw, St. Edmund, St. Thomas More, West St. John and St. Martinville.

2000s - (There is the possibility for another 10-fold increase in the decade of the 2000s as a total of 27 schools enter the 2009 season having made the playoffs in each of the previous 9 seasons of the current decade.

With a playoff appearance in 2009 those 27 schools will have made the playoffs in each year of the 2000s. Those schools include: Amite, Barbe, Bastrop, Benton, Bossier, Breaux Bridge, Destrahan, Evangel, Hahnville, Haynesville, Independence, John Curtis, Kentwood, Lutcher, Mangham, Neville, Notre Dame, Oak Grove, Parkview Baptist, Red River (Coushatta), Redemptorist, Rummel, Salmen, St. John (Plaquemine), Teurlings Catholic, West Monroe and West St. John.

Schools that made the playoff in half (five or more) years of any decade prior to the expanded wild card/power point system or, in other words, in the decades of the 1920s through the 1970s.

1930s - (north vs. south in two classes) C. E. Byrd High School (6) and Tallulah (5).
1940s - (addition of third class, plus allowance of district champs into playoffs) Lake Charles High School (7); Arcadia, Homer and Ruston (5 each)
1950s - Istrouma - Baton Rouge (8); Delhi, Fair Park and Morgan City (6 each); Ferriday, Lake Charles, Ruston, Vandebilt Catholic and Warren Easton (5 each)
1960s - (district runner up earned playoff spot beginning in 1966). Redemptorist, Reserve and Woodlawn-Shreveport (8 each); St. James (7); Crowley, LaGrange, Jesuit-Shreveport, Mansfield and Tallulah (6 each); Amite, Basile, Catholic (New Iberia), Dequincy, Holy Cross, Homer, Kinder, Neville, Sicily Island, St. Edmund - Eunice and Winnfield (5 each).

1970s - (addition of fourth class. Note also, twenty schools made five or more appearances in the 1960s while 58 schools made the playoffs five or more times during the 1970s. Though that is a much higher number than any previous decade, keep in mind that there were over 200 football-playing schools in Louisiana in the 1970s, so only a little over 25% of those schools made the playoffs even half of the years of the 1970s.

In sum, making the playoffs in the 1970s was still tough and to do that five or more times was still a rarity. The leaders are: Opelousas Catholic and Sicily Island (9); Captain Shreve, Haynesville, Kinder, Neville, Notre Dame (Crowley), Port Sulphur, Richwood, Southern Lab and St. Martinville (8); Cathedral-Carmel (Lafayette), Covington, Elton, Hanson Memorial, John Curtis, Loranger, Lutcher, Newman, South Lafourche, University and West Jefferson (7).

Finally fifteen schools made six different playoff appearances in the 1970s and 23 schools made five playoff appearances.

Most Playoff appearances - Past 50 Years (1957 through 2008)

                    43 - Neville
                    38 - Haynesville
                    37 - Kentwood
                    36 - John Curtis
                    35 - Amite, E. D. White, Oak Grove, Winnfield
                    34 - Notre Dame, Springhill, St. Edmund (Eunice)

Most Playoff appearances 1920 through 1956 (37 seasons).
                    16 - Lake Charles
                    12 - Byrd
                    11 - Istrouma
                    10 - Ruston, Tallulah
                     9 - Fair Park, Homer, Jesuit (New Orleans), Warren Easton
                     8 - Holy Cross		

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