DESTREHAN – It’s possible Roosevelt Johnson and Dwayne Brown could, or even should, be household names.

By Bradley Handwerger / WWL-TV.com

Wynrick Smothers, right, tries to block Jarvin Smothers' layup in a recent Destrehan practice.

But when you’re at Destrehan – as those two are – and play basketball, it’s a little harder to get noticed.

Especially this year.

“We played 15, 16 games before football finished,” Destrehan head basketball coach Todd Bourg said. “I guess all the focus was on football early in the season. Our football team went to the state championship in the Dome and ended up winning it.”

It was hard to draw fans early on, said Johnson, an all-metro player who is averaging nearly 20 points per game this season.

“When all that was going on, yeah,” he said. “Now people are starting to come watch us, focusing a little bit on basketball.”

And what they’re watching is a product that has quietly begun the season 21-9, including a win against Baton Rouge in the Hall of Fame game.

It’s not like Destrehan has historically been bad at basketball, either. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, the school either won district or was in the playoffs every year.

But lately, the basketball team’s fortunes have coincided with positive play on the football team. It’s hard not to feel like basketball gets lost in the shuffle. This year, the football team went 15-0 and won the Class 5A championship.

“Every game we play, we have to prove something,” said Brown, whom Bourg described as his defensive stalwart, single-handedly keeping opponents out of the lane with his 6-foot-8 frame.

“They won the state championship. We feel like we’ve got to win the state championship.”

By Bradley Handwerger / WWL-TV.com

Destrehan head coach Todd Bourg

No fewer than five of the players on this year’s football team will, at some point, sign to play at a Football Bowl Subdivision school.

That, too, has made it hard on the basketball team. Players who normally would be playing on the hard court are staying away, protecting themselves from an injury that could cost them their future.

“The quarterback (Jordan Jefferson) is 6-foot-5, a great athlete and can jump out of the gym,” Bourg said. “He’s signing with LSU in a couple of days. He could have definitely helped us.”

Jefferson isn’t the only one.

“Running back Jerico (Nelson), he was at Curtis as a freshman,” Bourg said. “He started as a freshman on the basketball team. He came out one day here for tryouts. Very strong, very athletic. He decided his sport was football.”

One player who did come out was Tim Molton, another LSU football commit. But Molton’s switch into a basketball jersey paid dividends for the Wildcats. By his third game, he was scoring in double digits and taking pressure off of Johnson near the basket, Bourg said.

“You’ve got mixed emotions with the kids, but he belongs out there,” Bourg said.

But it’s not like the basketball team was devoid of talent without the football players, of which four are still playing on Bourg’s team.

“We were pretty strong and solid before football came,” Bourg said. “Once football was over and we got those guys, it made us a little deeper.”

By Bradley Handweger / WWL-TV.com

Todd Bourg, in blue sweatshirt at center, talks to his Destrehan team prior to a recent practice. The Wildcats are off to a 21-9 start and looking to defend their district title.

Now, with the District 6-5A race tightening up, that depth could help. Bourg said only three teams of the six in the district will likely make the playoffs.

East Ascension is a lock at 5-0 in the district. But while Destrehan is the only team 3-2, St. Amant, Hahnville and East St. John are 2-3, meaning the Wildcats are no sure bet for the postseason. Only Dutchtown is on the outside looking in.

“There’s no off nights,” Bourg said. “You’ve got to come ready to play every night.”

The second half of the district season begins tonight for Destrehan. The Wildcats take on rival Hahnville, who could be down one of its top players as Laron Byrd is scheduled to go on a recruiting trip to Miami this weekend.

Regardless, Destrehan expects to be in the playoffs this year, a year after losing a home game in the first round of the state playoffs. After starting 21-9 this season, anything less would be unsatisfactory.

“We should go farther than we did (last year),” Brown said. “Go for a state championship.”