Central City News to Broadcast Games Live

For the 7th straight year, the Central City News newspaper will broadcast high school football to local and national audiences live on the Central City News Facebook page. Its first sports broadcast, the State 5A High School Baseball Championship in 2017 drew an audience of 93,000.

Since then, most games draw 10,000 to 15,000, although viewership has sometimes topped 20,000.

The Central City News broadcast Central High and Istrouma games for the past six seasons.

This year, the plan is to broadcast Central Private and Istrouma.

Central Private’s entry into the Louisiana High School Athletic Association has brought new interest to the school, which is booming at its new campus on Gurney Road in Central.

Likewise, historic football powerhouse Istrouma High is the talk of the town since it signed former Louisiana High School 5A Coach of the Year Sid Edwards as its new head coach.

“Coach Sid” grew up in North Baton Rouge and graduated from Redemptorist High School.  He later coached at Catholic High, Redemptorist, Jesuit, Menard, and for the past 16 years at Central High.

The popular coach won two state football championships at Redemptorist and another state basketball championship at Redemptorist.

The Central City News broadcast the Istrouma Spring Game in May and earned more than 17,000 viewers for the intrasquad match.

“Viewer interest in these schools is high!” Central City News editor Woody Jenkins.  

“Central Private has a large following in Central, and it will be fun to watch them play schools which are rarely seen here,” he said.

“Coach Sid has his work cut out for him at Istrouma, but fans may be in for a surprise.  His line at Istrouma averages more than 300 pounds, and they are athletic. It’s the biggest and maybe the best line he’s ever coached!”

Istrouma and Central High have three common opponents — Capitol, West Feliciana, and Brusly.