Football teams gear up for jamborees
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Forget spring cleaning, it's time to play football.
Three high school football teams will be in action at two different spring football jamborees Friday night.
The Red Level Tigers travel to Georgiana where they will play in the Battle of Butler County - even though they are the only team from Covington County participating in the jamboree.
The Red Level Tigers replaced the McKenzie Tigers in the field. The McKenzie Tigers do not have a head football coach. Head Coach Shane Smothers left the school to take the head coaching job at W.S. Neal High School in East Brewton.
The Red Level Tigers will play Greenville in first-half action at 6:30 p.m. on Friday night in the Georgiana High School Stadium.
Red Level's second half is slated for 7:30 p.m. when the Tigers battle the Georgiana Panthers.
The Straughn Tigers and Opp Bobcats will both participate in a spring football jamboree being hosted by the Bobcats at Channell-Lee Stadium on Friday. The four-team jamboree begins at 6 p.m. Each varisty game will be 24 minutes and each JV game will be 18 minutes.
The Hillcrest Jaguars will play Luverne at 6 p.m. followed by a junior varsity game between Straughn and Opp.
Opp and Hillcrest will square off in the third game of the night following the JV action.
Straughn will face Luverne and new Head Coach Mike DuBose following the Opp-Hillcrest game. A JV game between Hillcrest and Opp will follow the Straughn-Luverne game.
The final game of the night will pit the two Covington County teams against each other when the Opp Bobcats face the Straughn Tigers.
Straughn Head Coach Trent Taylor said the Tigers have worked hard, but did not look perfect in Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage.
He said the addition of a few new wrinkles has the coaches and players trying to get ahead of the learning curve.
Overall, Taylor said the jamboree will be an opportunity for the Tigers to work on the new stuff.
Opp Head Coach Jeff Rhodes said the Bobcats are ready to hit somebody without an Opp jersey on after two weeks of practice.
Rhodes said the jamboree will serve as a good test for the 48 players who have come out for football.
"We look a lot stronger and faster," Rhodes said about the Bobcats. "They are tired of hitting each other."
The Opp coach also said the Bobcats will use the jamboree to fine tune the basics.
"We are just going to run our base offense and our base defense," Rhodes said. "We are going to work on fundamentals."