Lutcher High football coach Dwain Jenkins didn’t say it publicly. But after his team’s second-round playoff victory, he knew his Bulldogs had a real chance to win it all.
The Bulldogs breezed past Wossman in the first round of the Division II nonselect playoffs, but it could’ve been a Pyrrhic victory. That night, star quarterback D’Wanye “Lunch” Winfield, a UL signee, suffered a high ankle sprain.
For most teams, the injury — especially to the catalyst of their offense — would’ve been a fatal blow. Not Lutcher. Winfield battled through the sprain the following week. Sophomore running back Trenton Chaney picked up his slack, amassing 300 all-purpose yards in their second-round win.
And the Bulldogs defeated St. Martinville 49-33, vanquishing the team that knocked them out of the 2021 playoffs. After that, they were on their way to a seventh state title.
They are The Advocate’s Star of Stars boys team of the year.
“What you saw was the rest of the team come together and know that it was gonna be an uphill battle,” Jenkins said. “And you saw people step up, and you saw guys do things that they were probably always capable of doing but would never ask to do it.”
That includes a patchwork offensive line, which returned only one starter, Donovan Arbuthnot, and brought three over from the defensive line: Terryn Harris, Colin Rocques and Reshad Sterling.
Their contributions were crucial to a Lutcher team that relied on the power running game down the stretch, calling options and keepers designed to open holes for Winfield.
“We didn’t have a team full of guys who are college recruits,” Jenkins said. “We didn’t have a bunch of guys that were big in size. But what it came down to was, truly a team that loved and worked with each other and overcame a lot of obstacles.”
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