Jamborees will feature many local football teams Friday evening

It won’t count in the standings but several area high school football teams will be in action Friday.

Teams in the region will make their final tuneups Friday (Aug. 17) in the annual Jamboree night.

Two jamborees kick off at 5 p.m. CBC will entertain Wentzville Holt, Gateway Tech, and Francis Howell Central. Parkway West will be hosting Lebanon, St. Charles West and Westminster Christian Academy at 5 p.m. Friday.

Two jamborees begin at 6 p.m. Chaminade,  Trinity and St. Dominic will be playing at St. Charles. MICDS is at Hillsboro  along with Sikeston and Union.

The other jamborees are set for 7 p.m. Friday. Principia, Priory and Winfield will be at Kennedy. Parkway Central is hosting Parkway South, Timberland, and Fort Zumwalt South. Parkway North, De Smet, Fox, and Jackson are at Hillsboro. Marquette, Ritnour, and Normandy are at Fort Zumwalt East. Eureka is at Pattonville along with Webster Groves and Fort Zumwalt West.

The coaches are excited to see how their teams will look against somebody else.

“We absolutely love them as we tell the team there is nothing better than going live against great competition,” Eureka coach Farrell Shelton.

“I’m just looking forward to hitting someone in another jersey finally,” St. Charles coach Joe Leibner said. “The teams there help us prepare for the season well because they’re all high quality teams that run schemes that will help is prepare.”

“We’ll get to see the younger players and work out kinks in new aspects of the offense,” De Smet coach Pat Mahoney said. “Great group of kids, enjoying every minute.”

The jamborees give teams a chance to see somebody they won’t play during the season.

“We like to go against teams we will not typically see during the season,” Parkway North coach Bob Bunton said.

Also, the event gives coaches a chance to look at other players on the roster.

“For us it is really a time to evaluate are No. 2′s and 3′s,” Marquette coach Ryan Thornhill said. “We will not be playing are starters to much during the scrimmages.”

Parkway Central is hosting its first jamboree in many years.

“It’s the first one we’ve done in a long time,” Colts coach Mark Goldenberg said. “We did some before and we battled weather. We’re glad to have it back. It’s probably been seven or eight years ago we tried to do it at our place. The turf we have now makes it a lot easier.”

Having a turf is why Fort Zumwalt East coach Scott Eacret said his school is hosting a jamboree.

” We host because we know we will always have a good surface to play on,” Eacret said. “Rain is not a factor with the turf field. This our fourth year of hosting.”

All of the jamborees follow the same rules. There will be four teams and each team will do 12 plays of offense and 12 plays on defense against each other team. There is no score kept and there is no kicking game.

“It’s a great way to get into a controlled situation to lead up to your first game I think,” Goldenberg said. “Our kids are ready to hit somebody else. I’m ready for us to hit somebody else and see where we are at this point. We want to see if we can execute what we’ve been putting in.

“Obviously, it’s not the big time Friday night lights, but other teams are coming in and we’re excited to be on the field. We need to execute like we do during practice. It’s a good dress rehearsal for the first night of the season.”

At Parkway Central, the admission fee is $2 or two cans of food for food pantry.

Parkway West coach Jeff Duncan said his school is pumped up for the jamboree it is hosting.

“Hosting a jamboree is a great opportunity to showcase our campus and field,” Duncan said. “It is a great thing for our community and other schools to see what a wonderful place Parkway West High is. Once we got our new stadium, we knew that we wanted to host our own jamboree.”

Like other coaches, Duncan has certain things he wants to see from his squad.

“We are looking to compete on each play. We are getting our first look at players at certain positions,” Duncan said. “It’s a great way to start the season and see where we are at before the first week.”

Duncan said his Longhorns are excited about the opportunity to go against someone else after two weeks of practice.

“The boys will be very excited to play at home and see how we measure up against three good teams,” Duncan said.

Like a Parkway Central, Parkway West is asking that people donate a canned good item that will be given to a local food pantry.

There will be more than football at Parkway West this Friday.

“We are hosting our annual Red & Blue Night,” Duncan said. “We start things off with our jamboree and then the other sports are showcased as well the rest of the evening. It’s a great night to see all of the Longhorns in action and support the school.”