A kickoff – literally – for Kenner Discovery’s football program

KENNER – While most of the 300 football playing high schools in Louisiana are using scrimmages this week as a tune-up for the 2018 season, the scene at Muss Bertolino Stadium Thursday evening was different.

Kenner Discovery is getting ready for a 2018 football season as well – the first in school history.

Head coach P.J. Sprunk led the Swamp Owls against outside competition for the first time in a three-way scrimmage with Ben Franklin and Fisher.

Scoring plays and statistics weren’t the story on this cloud-covered evening. This was so much more for a fledgling school and its athletics program.

“You can’t really explain pride and brotherhood and the family bond that can be formed through sports,” said Kenner Discovery principal Candice Schott, a former coach at Pope John Paul and Holy Rosary. “I’ve seen the student body and parents light up in a completely new way.”

Said Sprunk, an assistant at Bonnabel last season: “We have an extraordinary group of kids, and a lot of support in the school, which makes everything a lot easier.”

Things have been slow to get off the ground for Kenner Discovery. Sprunk was hired in May and his team did not get a spring practice. Practice jerseys just arrived in the last few days – still without numbers – and practice pants have been donated by the Saints.

“When you’re building something from absolutely nothing,” Sprunk said, “every day is a bit of an adventure. But it’s great.”

The Swamp Owls roster numbers 45, of which 34 dressed for Thursday’s scrimmage.

“All last year,” Kenner Discovery athletic director Jeryl Fischtziur said, “(the students) kept coming up, ‘We’re gonna do football next year, right?'”

Football means so much more than what takes place between the lines on the field.

“It’s an amazing opportunity for the student body,” Schott said. “The other school organizations that are involved – cheerleaders, dance team, student council – have rallied around this. All of them realize what it can bring to the school and help us get to the next level of being known in the community.”

Athletics was the natural next step for a school that has quickly established itself academically. Kenner Discovery has a waiting list for admissions.

“Academics has already drawn (attention),” said Schott. “We’re an ‘A’ school, and we’re an ‘A’ school for a reason.

“There are a lot of students who hesitate to come to a school that doesn’t have a sports program and doesn’t seem to be established. This shows them we have everything they want in a high school.”

Kenner Discovery will play a junior varsity schedule this fall – the season opener is Aug. 30 against Crescent City – and compete on the varsity level in 2019, when it will have its first senior class.

Based on enrollment numbers, administrators expect to be re-classified as a Class 3A school for the 2019-20 school year, and Sprunk expects to have a roster of perhaps 60 players by then.

In all other sports, the school began competition last year, facing both varsity and junior varsity teams, and will be eligible for the LHSAA playoffs this year as a Class B program.

“I’ve been an athletic director for a long time. It’s been fun to build a program,” Fischtziur said. “P.J.’s doing a great job. The whole school environment is pumped.”

“From Day 1, I told the administration we’re treating this just like varsity,” Sprunk said. “Obviously we don’t play for district (honors) or playoffs, but we put together a nine-game schedule. We want to be challenged.

“I grew up playing for John Curtis, and you always wanted to take on the best. That’s where we  want to get – we want to be that program that everybody wants to come to.”