Football is in the air and the Fontainebleau Jambo-ree adds to the frenzy tonight at the Dawg Pound. The action gets underway at 6:30 with the St. Paul’s Wolves tangling with the Archbishop Rummel Raiders followed by the Bulldogs hosting the Brother Martin Crusaders.

St. Paul’s Wolves will have their hands full with a quality Archbishop Rummel squad according to 11th year head coach Ken Sears.

Rummel (9-2) made it to last year’s regional round of the playoffs (No. 11 seed) falling to Acadiana 21-14. “Rummel is always well coached and they are consistently near the top of the Catholic League with numerous playoff appearances. We will have to play a mistake free game, which is hard to do in a jamboree,” Sears said.

“Rummel is solid across the board. They are very sound with technique and fundamentals. Sears added.

Coach Jay Roth runs a great system and his players are always prepared.

“He does a good job mixing things up with his play calling (offensive coordinator). They are a great pro zone offense with an outstanding line and running game. Our defense must play well to stop the run,”

Sears said the main thing is that his coaching staff is still trying to evaluate some guys.

“At this stage, it is a dress rehearsal for the regular season.”

St. Paul’s (9-3) made it to the second round (No. 12 seed) last year losing to Thibodaux 25-22.

Sears said it’s a good match up to help prepare his Wolves for a couple of tough season opening games against Karr and Baton Rouge Central both which will be played at home.

“We look to gain some good experience, and hopefully we can come out of the jamboree healthy as we get ready to start the regular season,” Sears said.

Roth, who is in 14th year, coaching the Raiders, said this is not a typical jamboree game for his team.

“St. Paul’s is one of the strongest teams we will face. We have to be ready sooner taking on such a solid opponent,” Roth said.

Rummel scrimmaged Catholic High of Baton Rouge last week.

“We didn’t set the world on fire. We don’t have any returning starters on offense and we struggled, Roth added.

Roth said junior Luke Cartozzo (6-1, 175) gets the nod at quarterback.

Roth said things won’t be easy offensively this week either going against St. Paul’s Houston Bates, who was picked as the best defensive player in the metro area.

Roth, who calls Rummel’s plays, said he is impressed by St. Paul’s defense, especially the highly regarded Bates at his defensive end position.

“You can’t run at him (Bates) and you can’t run away from him. He’s a player. He also has a pretty good supporting cast around him,” Roth said.

“We have to play good football to stay in it against St. Paul’s. We have to make tackles and stop third-down conversions. We also can’t be three-and-out on offense. We have to be able to move the chains against their defense,” Roth added.

Rummel returns five defensive starters led by senior free safety Carvin Johnson (6-1, 190) and senior mike linebacker Phil Helmstetter (6-1, 225), who pace the Raiders’ defense.

Turning to the Fontainebleau-Brother Martin match up, first-year head coach Mike Materne said after watching film from the Brother Martin-West Jefferson scrimmage it shows the Crusaders have some athletes along with size.

“Brother Martin runs a very similar offense and defense to what Jesuit runs, which is who we faced in our scrimmage. They run a spread offense and a 4-3 defense,” Materne said.

Brother Martin, the Catholic League champions (No. 3 seed), advanced to the playoffs regional round last year losing to Central 13-7, the Crusaders only loss in a 9-1 season.

Head coach Mark Bonis, a resident of Slidell, takes over the Crusaders’ head coaching after being with the program for the last three years.

Brother Martin features 22 seniors, but has to replace 14 starters, seven on each side of the ball.

Junior Ronnie Arant (5-11, 152) will operate the Crusaders’ multiple spread offense, while juniors Danté Butler (5-10, 197) and Chris Sutton (5-10, 188) handle the running game.

Brother Martin’s two returning starting receivers are seniors Malcolm Sutleff (6-4, 190) and Kevin Bohte (5-9, 165). Sophomore receiver Nathan Rodgers, who attended Fontainebleau Junior High, will play an integral part of the offense and is the Crusaders’ backup quarterback.

Senior cornerback Karl Butler (6-2, 195), who has verbally committed to Vanderbilt and senior cornerback Patrick Swilling (6-4, 225), the son of former New Orleans’ Saints linebacker Patrick Swilling, are the key members of the defense.

Coach Bonis described Fontainebleau as a team that plays hard.

“They give 100 percent effort. Defensively they fly around to the football,” Bonis said.

Coach Materne said he wants to work on establishing the Bulldogs’ power running game. He said his senior running back Perrin Sims ran the ball with authority early in the Jesuit scrimmage and looks for more from him.

“To run power football, it takes good offensive line play. Our offensive line has shown improvement during the past couple weeks,” Materne added.

Materne said he likes the play of junior left guard Shawne Cayette (6-2, 265), who has demonstrated an aggressive style of play.

Materne said they have worked quite a bit on special teams recently at practice.

“It will be our first time to see special teams play live against an opponent. We plan on emphasizing special teams during the jamboree,” Materne said.

Materne said it would be nice to win, but he is more worried about continuing to evaluate his players.

“We are still trying to find some back up players at certain positions to strengthen our overall depth,” Materne said.

Materne said what he wants to see from the jamboree is overall team improvement from the Bulldogs as they prepare for their season opener on the road against Biloxi High.

“Our offense moved the ball against Jesuit, but ended up stalling whenever we got inside their 20-yard line. Jesuit had some quick linebackers, who were able to get past our o-line, which caused us to stall offensively,” Materne added.