Games canceled after incident; third school homecoming will continue

Last week, a fight broke out between two local high school football teams after a game.

This week, a third school is being affected by the fallout from that incident.

The fight happened between football players from Vermilion Parish’s North Vermilion High School and Lafayette Parish’s Comeaux High School. Law enforcement authorities are investigating the incident; read our story about it here.

Today, Abbeville Meridonal is reporting that the Louisiana High School Athletic Association has suspended both teams for one game – this week’s game. To read their story about this, click here.

Vermilion Paris superintendent Tommy Byler confirmed this.

“The LHSAA has suspended North Vermilion and Comeaux High School for this Friday’s games and will await reports from both schools regarding internal discipline and/or actions to make a decision on these teams playing in the coming weeks,” Byler told us. “The North Vermilion administration is currently reviewing the video and will take appropriate action based on school and district policy regarding any additional student discipline.”

Lafayette Parish Schools Superintendent Francis Touchet Jr. confirmed that Comeaux is withdrawing from this week’s scheduled game with St. Thomas More and the players involved are facing disciplinary action.

“Let me be clear: Unsportsmanlike behavior and misconduct will not be tolerated in any of our schools or during extracurricular activities. Students who choose to engage in such actions will face serious consequences,” says Touchet.

We reached out to the LHSAA, but they told us they do not release details about discipline or investigations. We have also reached out to the Vermilion Parish School System and are awaiting their response.

In the meantime, we have checked with the school scheduled to play North Vermilion this week, Teurlings Catholic High School, that they will not have games this week.

Unfortunately, this is homecoming week. We reached out to Teurlings director Jed Hebert, who told us they are doing everything they can to preserve the student experience.

As all activities, including dancing, are already planned and implemented, Teurlings is proceeding with them, he said. The school still has one home game this season, scheduled for Nov. 8, and at that game the homecoming court will be unveiled and the queen announced, Hebert said.

It’s not the best situation, but they are doing the best they can so students can have a homecoming experience, he said.