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The Krewe of Town Revelers have announced that this year’s Mardi Gras Ball, with the theme “Cimmer in Love,” will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, at the Grand Opera House.
Tickets for the event must be purchased in advance and will go on sale online Friday at 8 a.m. at https://ci.ovationtix.com/36057/production.1087606.
Crowley will celebrate Mardi Gras Day again this year with Carnival d’Acadie on Tuesday, March 1, according to Mayor Tim Monceaux.
The annual celebration will again be staged on the parking lot of the Enterprise Center on North Parkerson Avenue at the railroad tracks.
Food, refreshments and live music will be featured with the annual Mardi Gras Parade highlighting the day at 3 p.m.
Other public Mardi Gras events scheduled across the Acadiana area to date include:
• Friday, Feb. 18
Krewe des Canailles Walking Parade, Lafayette, 6 p.m.
• Saturday, Feb. 19
Courir de Mardi Gras d L’anse / Mermentau Cove, 7 p.m.
Carencro Mardi Gras Parade, Carencro, 11 a.m.
Krewe des Chiens Dog Parade, Downtown Lafayette, 2 p.m.
Lake Arthur Mardi Gras Parade, 2 p.m.
Krewe of Carnival en Rio, Lafayette, 6:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Feb. 20
Scott Mardi Gras Parade, 1 p.m.
Grand Marais Children’s Mardi Gras Parade, 3 p.m.
• Friday, Feb. 25
Lafayette Kick-off Parade honoring COVID Heroes, TBD
With the return of Le Festival de Mardi Gras á Lafayette, the festival will run from Friday, Feb. 25, through March 1. It will feature a new carnival with a new, more convenient and spacious layout.
• Saturday, Feb. 26
Rayne Mardi Gras Parade, 3 p.m.
Jennings Mardi Gras Parade, 4:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Feb. 27
Courir de Mardi Gras / Church Point, 7 a.m.
• Tuesday, March 1
Tee Mamou - Iota Mardi Gras Folklife Festival (Iota), 7 a.m.

Joe Sloan, a proven recruiter with strong ties to Louisiana, has been named LSU’s quarterbacks coach.
Sloan recently completed his ninth season at Louisiana Tech where he helped produce some of the top offenses in college football. In his nine seasons with Tech, the Bulldogs appeared in seven bowl games, won at least nine games four times and claimed the Conference USA West title twice.
“Joe is an outstanding coach with a proven record of developing players on the offensive side of the ball,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “His ability to teach and develop quarterbacks was instrumental in the explosive offenses at Louisiana Tech for nearly a decade and I know he will do a great job of utilizing the skill players we have at LSU.”
In addition to his coaching duties at Louisiana Tech, Sloan spearheaded the recruiting efforts for the Bulldogs. Tech’s 2020 signing class ranked No. 1 in Conference USA and was listed as the No. 4 class nationally among the Group of 5 programs.
Sloan joined Louisiana Tech in 2013 as inside receivers coach and was elevated to recruiting coordinator in 2014. In 2015 he was named the assistant head coach and prior to the 2019 season, was promoted to co-offensive coordinator. He was named offensive coordinator for the Bulldogs in January of 2020.
Sloan got his start in coaching at South Florida, where he served as offensive quality control assistant for two years (2010-11) followed by a season as a graduate assistant. He spent the spring of 2010 as an administrative assistant with an emphasis on recruiting for East Carolina.

The Iota Lady Bulldogs entered the Christmas break with a record of 9-3 and they were sitting at No. 7 in the Class 3A power ratings.
Additionally, they were about to face three teams in the Top 10 of their respective classes, which could have possibly moved the Lady Dogs up even higher.
Unfortunately, those three games as well as two others have had to be canceled due to a positive COVID-19 test by one of Iota’s players and they are now quarantined for 14 days.
But the news gets worse.
Not only were those games canceled, they go down as forfeits.
“We reached out to the LHSAA to find out the protocol and were told that any games that aren’t able to be played due to Covid reasons are forfeits and they can not be rescheduled,” said IHS head coach Meghann LeJeune. “Obviously, forfeiting five games is detrimental to your season, but also, right before district starts, having to sit out and do absolutely nothing for two weeks is even worse.
“We were kind of peaking and now, nothing. No shooting, no conditioning, nothing.
“You know, those five games could have been big for us. You go from potentially being something like 12-4 going into the second game of District and now we’ll be 9-8. Now, we’re going to be scratching to keep ourselves above water to keep a home (playoff) game.”
In early August, the LHSAA sent out a 12-page memo that stated games not played for COVID-19 reasons would be considered forfeits and that those games could not be rescheduled or made up.
That goes for all high school athletics across the board during the 2021-22 school year, not just football.
The Lady Dogs had to forfeit last week’s scheduled contests against Rayne and Class 2 A’s No. 7-ranked Kinder.
In addition to those contests, the Lady Dogs had to forfeit last night’s contest against Crowley as well as Thursday’s contest at Class 3A’s No. 3 South Beauregard and next Tuesday’s District 5-3A opener against No. 10 Northwest.
Unlike football where teams play once a week for 10 weeks, basketball has a little more leniency in scheduling. Despite that fact, none of the missed games can be rescheduled.
“Every coach that I talked to that I had to cancel with, before we knew the rule, the first thing they asked was when I wanted to reschedule the game for,” said LeJeune.
All teams have until Jan. 29 to add new games to their schedule, but being so late in the season, LeJeune says she isn’t having much luck with finding teams to play.
“We can schedule new games, but everybody that I’ve reached out to so far, either their schedule is full or they’re not trying to schedule games because Covid has exploded again and they don’t want to end up having to forfeit a game because of a game that they put on the schedule late,” said LeJeune.
As of now, per the 14-day quarantine rule, the Lady Dogs won’t be able to take the court for practice until Jan. 12, just two days before their district game at Mamou.
“We’ll only have two days to prepare for Mamou so you hope that the girls are doing things on their own to try and stay in shape at home,” said LeJeune. “You take two weeks off in the middle of the season and try to go back full throttle the way you were going before, that’s when injuries happen so that’s scary in itself.”
As disheartening as the quarantine is, the health and the safety of the players is LeJeune’s main concern.
With that said, the key is to remain positive and overcome the adversity that they have been dealt.
“The season is not over and anything can happen in the playoffs,” said LeJeune, whose team will have nine regular-season games remaining when they return to action. “We still have a lot of season to play and all is not lost. Hopefully this motivates us through the stretch.
“The one good thing is that this happened to us now and not later in the season. You would hate for it to happen in the playoffs and have it end your season in the first round.”