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Coming off the best season in school history, the Drew Central Pirates enter the 2026 season with several changes.
The biggest change for the 2026 season was replacing head coach Larry White who left the program for another opportunity at a bigger school.
The Pirates would go out and hire Coach Joe Spatafora, the head coach for Union Parish in Louisiana.
Spatafora brings to the program something that the Pirates have not had at the head coaching position, a winning tradition.
Spatafora who has two Louisiana State Championships and several runner-up finishes along with multiple conference championships, would also bring coaches Jarred Singleton and Pete Gutierrez to the Pirate Nation as well to help along with the returning Pirate football staff to start a rebuilding process on a team that loses the majority of their key starters from a season ago.
Having 29 rostered players, the Pirates would get their first taste of live football on Friday, August 21, travelling to Hamburg to face the Lions in the AAA Benefit Scrimmage game.
For the scrimmage the format was for the Hamburg and Drew Central offense to run eight plays from their own 30, followed by six plays from the 30.
The format would then switch to eight plays of offense for both teams from the Redzone followed by six plays, then four plays each from the goal line, and ending with a 10 minute live scrimmage.
Neither team would get a score from their own 30.
Hamburg would get a score from the 20 and one form the 10 with the Pirates scoring from the Hamburg 10.
During the live portion of the scrimmage, the Pirates would get on the board on a 51-yard run by Alex Pitts.
The Lions would tie the contest on their possession on a 50-yard pass play and with the extra point would take a 7-6 lead for the live scrimmage that would be the final score of the live portion.
The Pirates also finished with two defensive turnovers in the contest.
The Pirates will open the season on Friday, travelling to Crossett for a 7 pm kickoff.
