BATON ROUGE - There will be a new high school football team in Ascension Parish this upcoming fall.

With the creation of Prairieville High School comes the creation of the Prairieville football team.

“We’re starting from scratch, so we get to design every culture, every piece, every new tradition, they're all new, so that's been probably the strength, and the kids get to be involved in that," head coach Mike Schmitt said.

Student-athletes are coming to Prairieville from other Ascension Parish schools like Dutchtown, East Ascension and St. Amant, as well as private schools.

“There's just natural excitement of Prairieville that kids want to be a part of,” Schmitt said. “We just kind of got that going, and everybody showed up, and our numbers are good.”

The Hurricanes expect to have a Freshmen, JV, and Varsity team, but competing at the 5A level right away will be a challenge.

"From where we are we’re very heavy in the sophomore and freshman classes, juniors aren't bad, but we don’t have a lot of seniors, I don’t really have any major concerns other than just making sure they can physically handle the rigors of being a high school athlete at the 5A level," Schmitt said.

"We're working on that in the offseason, we're spending a lot of time in the weight room getting stronger and teaching them technical aspects that will protect them."