Jamborees provide first taste of real competition

~ The preseason pairings will take place throughout the area.

Depth charts will become clearer, inexperienced players will be tested and most importantly, someone other than teammates will be the opposition.

All six area football teams will be involved in high school football jamborees tonight.

"We're anxious to go," Scott City coach Terry Flannigan said. "We're tired of beating on each other, and practice has started to get monotonous."

The Rams will join Kennett and Portageville at Dexter for a 6 p.m. start.

Scott City is coming off a three-win season, but returns a core of juniors who started last season.

"It will be a good little test for us," Flannigan said. "We'll see where we're at and answer a few questions. We'll have a bunch more questions to answer before our first game."

Central and Jackson visit Farmington, where an eight-team jamboree begins at 6. Jackson, Poplar Bluff, Union and Parkway South will play in the first session. Central, Farmington, St. Clair and Trinity Catholic will take part in the second session at 7:45.

"We want to find out who's going to play hard," Jackson coach Carl Gross said.

Jackson still is making final depth chart decisions after losing a large senior class. The Indians only have one full-time starter returning on defense, and the jamboree will likely go a long way in determining who makes the opening-game start.

St. Vincent will travel to Crystal City for a Mississippi Area Football Conference Blue Division showdown. Joining the Indians and Hornets are conference foes St. Pius and Grandview.

Perryville will play host to East Prairie, Sikeston and district foe New Madrid County Central. The Pirates are coming off a winless campaign.

"We'll be playing our best against their best to find out who our best are," Perryville coach Rick Chastain said.

Also on tap tonight, Chaffee will host Charleston, Malden and Fredericktown.

The regular season will kick off Sept. 1.