Outside of his brief stint in Louisiana, Bo Swilley knew nothing but the blue and white of Adams Christian.

Even after he got out of coaching, he remained on the faculty at ACCS as a health teacher before leaving for private business. But when the itch to get back into coaching struck and landed him at Huntington, he got a chance to catch up with some folks Friday night when the Hounds opened the season at home against Adams Christian.

The Class AAA Rebels rolled to a 47-14 win.

&uot;I had a lot of friends over there,&uot; said Swilley, who is an assistant with the Hounds under head coach and school headmaster Hugh Hathcock. &uot;I still love AC and a lot of the folks over there, but this green and gold feels good to me. All of those players who are seniors I taught. I helped with the junior high some and coached them.

&uot;Those are a lot of great kids, but my kids over here &045; we’ve got the some tough ball players and good kids. A lot of those kids go to my church and come out to my house all the time.&uot;

Swilley, who also serves at Huntington’s athletic director, gathered both teams together near midfield following the game to congratulate his former team and lead both squads in prayer.

The gathering put a positive ending to a frustrating night for the Class A Hounds, who were undermanned with their 17 players suited up and may have worn down later in the second half against the bigger school.

&uot;I wasn’t disappointed in the kids,&uot; Swilley said. &uot;We played extremely hard the first half. We’re not in the condition we need to be in. We had to play a near-perfect game to beat them. I’m proud of them.&uot;

SNEAK PEEK &045; WCCA head coach Paul Hayles did not let his Rams get caught up in the sadness of falling a hair short to the defending AA champion Yellow Jackets, 21-14.

With a showdown at rival Centreville Academy slated for Friday, bigger obstacles are ahead. WCCA will attempt to end a 10-year drought against the Tigers.

&uot;Our kids have been thinking about this game since the start of the summer,&uot; Hayles said. &uot;Coach (Bill) Hurst has a machine on the other side of the city. All you do is look at his record and know he’s one of the best I’ve had the privilege to play against. Now I have the task of coaching against him. We’ll do our best.&uot;

With nine starters on both sides of the ball, this year could be the Rams best chance to knock of the Tigers, which have won six state championships under Hurst. The veteran CA coach waxed poetically in two-a-days he always worries about the game against WCCA because his Tigers do not emphasize the rivalry as much as the Rams.

&uot;I think Centreville is a real good team, but it’ll be a good matchup,&uot; Rams running back Travis Allen said. &uot;We haven’t beaten them in 10 years. I have all the faith in the world that we’ll beat them. I want to beat them real bad, and I think we have a realistic shot.&uot;

THAT D…JEUR VU FEELING &045; At this pace people might start catching on to the Rebels, but it may be one of those things &045; knowing what’s coming is one thing, stopping it is another.

Case in point was the Rebels’ 69-yard touchdown pass from Dustin Case to Ray Simpson in the second half Friday night. It was the same play the Rebels called on their first play of the jamboree last week against Trinity, a play that resulted in a 75-yard touchdown pass from Case to Simpson.

Case started by faking a handoff to running back Luke Ogden before hitting a wide-open Simpson for the score. But this time the throw was on the money, and Simpson took off.

&uot;We might have to keep that one around,&uot; ACCS head coach Keith Walters said. &uot;I really thought he could catch it. Ray has pretty good speed. Even though he’s just a junior, he only played two games last year. We’re trying to throw it more. We have to be diversified enough so people can’t key on Luke.&uot;

INJURY REPORT &045; Ogden is still nursing a sore sternum suffered at the jamboree, and he sat out a handful of plays Friday night against the Hounds. The opportunity allowed the Rebels to go with what Walters labeled Plan B &045; moving Case in the backfield and inserting sophomore Timmy Foster at quarterback.

Zach Jones, the big 6-4, 290-pound tackle, also sat out after he sprained an ankle at the jamboree despite suiting up. Near the end of the game Friday night senior Joey Norris went down with an knee injury.

&uot;He (Ogden) got kicked in it the first series,&uot; Walters said of the sternum bruise. &uot;That’s a painful place to have a bruise. With time, it’ll get better. We’ve got to be smart with him. It may linger all year.&uot;

Injuries were a factor for Tensas Academy Friday night as Cody Hill and Matt Vinson each went down with injuries. That forced the Chiefs to really scramble since they brought only 14 players to Porter’s Chapel.

Both, however, returned.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK &045; We’ll start the season by handing out our weekly Monday award to WCCA’s Travis Allen, who logged 150 yards on 17 carries against Oak Forest.

Allen scored the team’s first touchdown when he broke away for a 72-yard run in the second quarter.

Other candidates worth noting were Centreville’s Blake Devall, who had 145 yards on 22 carries in the Tigers’ 30-7 win over Amite School Center; Adams Christian back Luke Ogden, who had 122 yards and thee touchdowns on eight carries in the Rebels’ win over Huntington; and Trinity’s Dudley Guice Jr., who had three catches for 80 yards and two touchdowns in the Saints’ 57-0 win over Chamberlain-Hunt.

(Sports writer

Chuck Corder

contributed to this report.)