Salmen’s football season came to a heartbreaking end Friday night in the state semifinals when a seldom-called aiding the runner penalty nullified the Spartans’ game-winning touchdown.

But just making it to the semifinals of the Class 4A state football playoffs this season was a success in itself for a team that, prior to 2005, was expected to finish at or near the top of the state rankings each year.

For a team used to winning — the Spartans have won three state football championships, 1994, 1995 and 2000 in previous seasons, the struggles of the past three years were unknown territory.

Salmen coach Jerry Leonard leads his team onto the field prior to the Spartans'€™ quarterfinal game against Northside. (File Photo by Chris Kinkaid)

Just three years ago Hurricane Katrina blew through the area, and its winds and floodwaters destroyed much in its path, including the Salmen High School campus and many of its families’ homes. While Salmen continued on in a makeshift location, many students scattered, leaving the usually-tough Spartan football team in shambles.

Coach Jerry Leonard remembers those first days.

The team’s first practice after the storm was at Pope John Paul II. Only 17 players, along with a parent or two, showed up.

“We did a makeshift practice over there and then just kind of went along wondering how we were going to field a team,” Leonard said. “We didn’t have any equipment. We just had shorts and whatever clothes they (players) hadn’t lost in the storm.”

Salmen Principal Byron Williams remembers it, too, and said he gave Leonard free rein to do whatever he needed to get the football program up and running.

Leonard said the team set up a practice schedule and went from there.

With help from the St. Tammany Parish School Board, companies such as Nike and grants from the NFL, the program started a slow rebuilding process.

Senior David Edgerson remembers how tough those early days were after Katrina ripped his team apart.

“It was kind of hard because everybody was going both ways,” said Edgerson, then a high school freshman. “It was also kind of disappointing not seeing all the people back.”

The team had started the season with high hopes. With the jamboree game out of the way, players were ready to open the season.

But the storm hit before that first game, and what remained of the 2005 season was like nothing Spartan faithful had ever endured.

The team lost all six games it played. It went to the playoffs — it was the only team to compete in its district — but lost to perennial powerhouse Bastrop in the opening round, 46-3.

In 2006, the Spartans went 3-7, but they made the playoffs once again by winning their only district game against Chalmette.

That season ended with a 40-0 first-round loss to St. Thomas More.

Then came 2007. The Spartans were playing in a new district 9-4A and had a new beginning.

“Getting into a district was better because it helped us get better and be competitive,” Leonard said. “We came in third that year behind Franklinton and Holy Cross.”

The Spartans doubled their win total of the previous year and finished 6-4. It was their first winning season since Katrina and a good building block to take the team into 2008.

Salmen made the playoffs as an 18th seed last year and had to travel to Neville. The Spartans played tough, but again they fell in the first round, 13-7.

It was a hump year, Leonard said, and his team had finally made it to the other side.

“Our big thing after 2005 was to see progress,” Leonard said. “We didn’t know how long it would take. People said a bunch of different stuff about how long it would take. We didn’t listen to that stuff, we just wanted to see progress. From the three wins to the six wins was definite progress.”

But improving as it was, not even Leonard knew his team would all but complete its return to prominence in 2008.

Edgerson, now a senior, was more than ready to make the move. Teammates Michael Eason and Nathan Lee, the only players to be with Edgerson on all four Spartan teams since 2005, were ready, too.

Edgerson said the team worked hard in the summer getting ready for 2008.

And “every day at practice, we finished up with two push-ups and said, ‘state champs.’ We believed it,” he said.

Leonard said it’s always a goal for his team to go to the state finals, and through it all his team had never lowered its expectations.

Even so, he said, “You never can tell what’s going to happen in the course of a season. We knew we were limited depth wise, but we felt like we had pretty good talent, we felt we could be pretty decent, but nobody could make the prediction we’d be in the semis. We just took them one game at a time.”

The team was positive. Its senior quarterback, Julien Troullier, had put up big numbers as a junior (he threw for 1,275 yards and 11 touchdowns and rushed for 840 yards and 10 more scores).

The Spartans opened the season against cross-town rival Slidell, and won, 28-7. But they lost the next two games to John Curtis and Independence, and once again, adversity was starting to set in.

But Edgerson said this time they were determined to overcome it.

“Everybody was confident, and that played a big part because it made us play harder,” he said. “Nobody wanted to let the team down.”

The Spartans started winning. And even when Troullier suffered a season-ending knee injury during Salmen’s 18-15 win over Holy Cross, the Spartans kept focused on the goal.

Leonard was focused, too. But he was concerned when Troullier went down.

His backup quarterback, Matt Lipham, had a separated shoulder, so coaches had to turn the offense over to a young sophomore wide receiver, Daniel Sams.

“We felt like he had some qualities that would make him a good quarterback,” Leonard said.

It was a good coaching move. In his first game, Sams led Salmen to a 28-0 victory over East Jefferson.

“He fit into that spot real well, and he relished it,” Leonard said. “He enjoyed being in that spot. He worked hard at it. He brought a lot to the table as far as his leadership and field presence.”

Leonard said he was confident Sams could do the job, but he was young.

“I never doubted his ability to get on the field and be productive,” he said. “Our biggest thing was we didn’t want to throw too much at him at one time. We wanted to give him the offense in bits and pieces, let him absorb it and move on.”

Because Sams was a receiver, he already had a grasp of the offense. And that helped, Leonard said.

His second start came against Pearl River. Both teams were atop District 9-4A with 3-0 records, and the Rebels were 7-0 overall. Sams helped lead Salmen to an 18-13 win. He rushed for two touchdowns and threw for another while accounting for 273 yards total yards.

Then Salmen finished the regular season with a 49-0 win over Riverdale, which earned the Spartans the outright District 9-4A title. This time Sams threw for two TDs and ran for one.

The 7-2 regular season earned Salmen a sixth-seed in the playoffs, and this year the Spartans weren’t going to be one and done.

Bossier was the team’s first post-season opponent. A team effort helped the Spartans win, 34-2. Sams had a pair of rushing TDs, and Errol Scott ran for another.

The magical ride continued in the second round when Salmen held O. Perry Walker out of the end zone on a two-point conversion that would’ve tied the game with 2:47 left. Instead, the Spartans won, 28-26, and moved on to face No. 3 Northside in another road contest.

Salmen traveled to Lafayette the day after Thanksgiving for the quarterfinals to face a 10-1 team, but the Spartans were riding an eight-game winning streak themselves. Salmen forced five turnovers in the first half and won the game, 49-12, setting up Friday night’s semifinal game against Archbishop Shaw, a team that had been to the finals the previous two years.

Salmen trailed, 14-10, with 18 seconds left in the game and had the ball on Shaw’s 49 after a punt. It seemed far-fetched to think the Spartans had some winning magic left, but they did. And what followed won’t be forgotten anytime soon by players, coaches or fans of either team.

Sams launched a pass down field that was tipped by Isiah Tate and into the hands of Jamal Robinson, who nearly scored but was down just inside the 1.

On the next play, Sams scored the apparent game-winning touchdown, but there was a flag on the play. Salmen was called for aiding the runner, a 5-yard penalty rarely called by officials.

The penalty pushed the ball back to the 6 with no time on the clock. Sams hit Scott, who could only get to the 2. It appeared Scott had his facemask pulled on the play, but no flags were thrown, and the game ended.

Leonard said he didn’t sleep at all Friday night.

“It’s like having your heart ripped out. It’s as bad as it can be,” Leonard said. “I saw the newsreels, a little bit from their clips. It isn’t so bad the aiding the runner call was made. That’s fine. I thought that was a phantom call, a little bit, but that’s an opinion thing. But to not throw the facemask penalty after throwing that penalty is inexcusable. It didn’t happen in a crowd, it didn’t happen somewhere where somebody’s vision was blocked. It happened out in the open, in the flat where it was clearly visible.”

If a penalty had been called Salmen would have gotten one more play, and had Shaw stopped the Spartans on that play the loss would have been easier to take, Leonard said.

Still, ending the season in the semifinals was a major accomplishment, considering where the team was in 2005 and how far it has come today.

For Leonard, the coaching staff, the players and the Spartan faithful, 2008 was a magical season.

“One of my coach’s wives said this after the game, ‘That was a miracle finish to a miracle season. Hollywood wouldn’t be able to write a script like that because nobody would believe it,’” Leonard said.