By GEORGE MAHL – Sports Editor

It sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not.

The term Spring Football just doesn’t sound right. When I think of May, the last thing on my mind is football.

When I think of May, I think of baseball, NBA playoffs, horse racing and Mother’s Day.

It might not be a big deal to fans, but it is very important to coaches and players.

It is a time to explore new things and start putting the pieces together to build a successful season. I decided to do some stories on how some area teams Spring practices are doing. I figured that people down here can never get enough football coverage. I learned that real quickly.

The three teams I saw have scrimmages (West St. John, East St. John and St. Charles Catholic) all had their marquee players make impressive plays.

It began for me Thursday afternoon. I was at a gas station when a college coach rolled down his window and asked me “excuse me, do you know how I can get to East St. John?” I replied “Just keep going down this road and the school will be on your right. The guy you are looking for wears number eleven (Ryan Perrilloux).”

I then went over to see St. Charles Catholic mix it up with Franklinton. I stayed there for a couple of quarters and took some pictures of running back Tyrell Fenroy. He looked liked the Fenroy of 2003 on some plays.

There were a couple of college coaches I saw there, but not near the amount I saw at East St. John. It was like a coaches convention. Ole Miss, Tulane, Louisiana Tech, Southern, Grambling, Florida, Florida State and Georgia were there just to name a few. I was told that LSU Head Coach Nick Saban was there the day before. It’s like they have their own private meeting set up or something.

Perrilloux played with a minor ankle injury. He made a nice 25-yard-run on third down to spark one college coach to tell me “If he runs like that with a bad ankle, I would like to see him run with a good one.”

Well said, coach.

After the East St. John scrimmage, I attended the West St. John vs O. Perry Walker spring game the next day.

I must say that running back Patrick Jackson looks like the Patrick Jackson of the last two years. He broke through a tackle and scored twice with the first-team offense.

I think the teams that I saw last week will be in good shape when practice rolls around again in August.

West St. John may not have the size of last year’s team, but they certainly have the talent.

It should be an exciting 2004 prep football season.