BATON ROUGE - Last season, the Belaire Bengals hosted their first playoff game in 17 years, going 6-4 on the season. Head coach Byron Wade has made tremendous progress since taking over in 2020.

The Bengals are going to be extremely young this season, graduating 16 seniors in May.

Wade says this is not a rebuilding year, especially when the team has their best player at QB. 

"Lacoreyan Compton, who is our quarterback, he's our best athlete. He's a defensive back. He's a collegiate defensive back. If he commits himself to making the grades he's gonna play in college and sign a letter of intent somewhere," said Wade. "He knows the plays, he knows the offense. I'd rather have somebody that I can trust and that trusts me, you know, running the show, rather than trying to develop somebody."

Wade also said that the secondary, led by Compton, is the best unit on the team. The Bengals return four starters on offense and three on defense.

They will open the season on the road against Live Oak.