LaBootleggers 15 and under national champs full of talent

After going winless in five games, the return journey to Louisiana seemed like it lasted seven days. But it gave Preston time to review what he needed to recruit to truly match the nation’s elite stride-for-stride.

“It gave us a blueprint of what was required to compete on that level,” Preston said. “We needed more speed and we needed more than one stud receiver, at least three or four.

“But the main thing was we needed to find taller defensive backs with better man coverage skills. We were trying to defend with linebacker types, which doesn’t fit the 7-on-7 game.

“Since then, we made sure we eyeballed those types of kids we needed to be successful. We really attacked during tryouts what we needed.”

So, when Preston’s team returned to Atlanta last week, it not only had the necessary talents to compete but also the chemistry and confidence to win the whole she-bang.

After a full year of carefully compiling three teams in Baton Rouge/Zachary, Lafayette and New Orleans, former Assumption and Thibodaux High coach Preston designed a feeder system from which he could select a roster for the nationals.

In this case, it was an almost-new LaBooteggers squad who won the 15 and under national championship this past weekend by beating the Miami Immortals in overtime in the title game.

“To there and win it, we knew we were going to need a little luck, we knew we’d have to play tough,” Preston said. “We knew we’d at least go back and make a better showing than last year.”

With five returnees from last season’s squad and an influx of impact newcomers, the LaBootleggers navigated a tough field of competitors.

“We had 17 kids on our team and 16 of them are going to be college football players,” Preston said.

The heartbeat of the offense were four players that Preston said are special.

“These are 14 and 15-year old kids who have the bodies of 17 and 18-year olds,” Preston said. “But we have other kids offensively and defensively who made not have that body type who can make special plays.”

Here’s Preston’s breakdown of the LaBootleggers top players on both sides of the ball:

Offense

Eli Holstein, QB, St. Cecilia (Lafayette), Class of 2023: “Eli is just 14 years old, but it’s obvious he’s grown up in a quarterback household. He’s tall for his age. He sees the field differently, he has great ball placement and great timing. He’s just going into the ninth grade, but the things you see from that kid you know he’s ahead of the learning curve of the normal high school football player.

Shazz Preston, WR, St. James, Class of 2022: “That’s my 15-year old son and he got beat up (in a good way) by his older brother (Shawn Preston Jr., a DB who now plays for Mississippi State). He was a definite little brother who was given the business a lot by his older brother. Big brother gave his little brother his first stitches wrestling with him.

“Shazz has a great hands, big hands for a young kid. He tracks the ball well in the air. Times his jumps, he’s good going after 50/50 throws. Has good hand-eye coordination. Normally if the ball is around him, he’s going to catch it. He’s got a desire to win, he doesn’t like to lose. He takes the game very serious. He does a lot of off-season training things with me outside of football. He’s coachable. He has run 4.6 laser-timed 40 at camps. His big brother didn’t get to that time until he was almost out of high school.”

Jacoby Mathews, WR, Ponchatoula, Class of 2022: “He’s got the best body of the Shazz and Mailk (Nabors). They all catch the hall with their hands. He’s a big target. His catch radius is out the roof. If he gets his hands on the ball, he’s bringing it down.”

Malik Nabers, WR, Comeaux, Class of 2021: “I immediately knew that kid was special the first time I saw him at a tryout. I couldn’t believe he was an unknown. Anytime he’s isolated one-on-one, he can pick apart secondaries. He can run slants, he’s big and you can’t muscle him out the way. He can run the go-route and the fade. He has great jumping ability. He’s probably our best one-on-one receiver. If it’s one-on-one, he’s probably winning. For him, 50/50 balls go to about 75/25.”

Defense

Eric Randall, CB, Baker, Class of 2021: “He’s a big corner who’s constantly getting better. His aggressiveness at the line really helps us.”

Marcus Borne, CB, Archbishop Rummel, Class of 2021: “He’s extremely intelligent. He really understands the game, physically tough. He gave up one deep ball this past weekend.”

Jyaire Brown, CB, Warren Easton, Class of 2022: “He’s our best inside cover guy defending slot receivers.”

Bailey Despanie, Carencro, S, Class of 2021 and Dylan Simmons, Country Day, S, Class of 2021: “We needed two tall safeties and both these guys are 6-3. They both made a huge difference for us. We had height on the backend.”

Prestin said he thought this team would be good when he put it together.

“For the first time, we had a preseason drawing from three teams from different areas,” Preston said. “The hardest thing was narrowing down to the team that we brought to the nationals.”

It was a team that refused to lose. Despite a late-game turnover in the finals against Miami, the LaBootleggers won the title in overtime when the game is decided by which team completes the longest throw.

“Normally, you’re just trying to get a 20-yard throw,” Preston said. “We had the ball first. Eli looked off Malik who he had been throwing to the whole game and came back to Shazz on the right who caught the pass for a TD.

“Since Miami had to score a TD to force another overtime, we felt all we had to do was knock down a pass and we’d win. And that’s what we did.”

And by the way, how was the drive home to Louisiana this past weekend compared last season?

“The drive went much faster,” Preston said with a laugh.