FRIDAY
Pineland Jamboree
At Homer
First game at 6:30
Lakeside vs. Haynesville
North Webster vs. Lakeside
Minden vs. Haynesville
Homer vs. North Webster
Minden vs. Homer
Minden Medical Center Apache Jamboree
At Glenbrook
First game at 6
Glenbrook vs. Lincoln Prep
Lincoln Prep vs. Ringgold
Ringgold vs. Montgomery
Montgomery vs. Glenbrook
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With scrimmages done, there is just one more big step until the start of the regular season.
Two jamborees involving parish teams are scheduled for Friday.
The annual Pineland Jamboree hosted by Homer starts at 6:30 with Lakeside taking on Haynesville.
That will be followed by North Webster vs. Lakeside, Minden vs. Haynesville, Homer vs. North Webster and Minden vs. Homer.
The Minden Medical Center Apache Jamboree hosted by Glenbrook starts at 6 with Glenbrook facing Lincoln Prep.
That will be followed by Ringgold vs. Lincoln Prep, Ringgold vs. Montgomery and Montgomery vs. Lincoln Prep.
There won’t be many secrets between Minden and Homer.
The Tide and Pelicans faced off last season with Homer taking a hard-fought 33-26 victory at Minden. Homer went on to finish runner-up in non-select Division IV.
Minden will be heading back to Homer for a rematch Sept. 8 in Week 2.
Minden Head Coach Spencer Heard knows both Homer and Class 1A power Haynesville will provide good tests for his team.
The Tide are coming off a solid performance in a scrimmage against Class 5A Benton on the road.
“I thought it was good work,” he said. “I feel like our defense looks good. I feel like we’re flowing to the ball well, tackling pretty well. I think that side of the ball we’re much improved from last year so that’s a good thing.
“Offensively, I though the first drive we were a little off. After that we kind of got into a rhythm and started moving the ball well. I feel like the running game looked good. We worked quite a bit on the passing game and that started coming around too. (Junior quarterback) Hudson (Brown) kind of started to relax in that second or third series, started making some good throws, and the guys made catches for him. He had better protection then.”
Heard is looking forward to seeing just how good he’s team can be.
“I thought overall we have a lot of things to work on and improve as always in a scrimmage,” he said. “But for a first outing I was pretty pleased.
“This time of year you’re just incrementally trying to see improvement each day. I feel like the ceiling on this particular team this year is really high. We’re not even close to it. We’re not even close to it. That’s what I was telling them. The amount of growth we can have from right now to midseason is huge.”
North Webster Head Coach John Ware also liked what he saw from his team in a scrimmage against Mangham, a team that reached the non-select Division iV semifinals last year.
“I thought we got a lot of good work out of it on offense and defense,” he said. Ran the ball well. Had some explosive plays on offense. A couple of things you look for at the beginning of the year for sure.”
Ware wants to see the Knights build on that in the jamboree regardless of the opponent.
“The scrimmage and jamboree you don’t gameplan too much,” Just try to improve on what you do.”
Glenbrook traveled to Jonesboro-Hodge for a scrimmage against the host Tigers and Booker T. Washington.
“I feel really good about it,” Smith said. “We showed that we had been preparing. We executed in most every phase of the game. Had just very few errors and those are easily correctable. I was very pleased.”
The Apaches’ first and second teams both scored once. The first team also had two drives inside the 10.
“We moved the ball up and down the field pretty well,” Smith said.
Smith was very pleased with the performance of junior quarterback Easton Sanders.
“He looks really good,” Smith said. “Their coaches were really complimentary of him. He’s got some pretty rare ability.”
Glenbrook is hosting a jamboree for the first time since joining the LHSAA.
“That’ll be a great moment to do something that hasn’t been done recently at Glenbrook and for the kids to really put on a show for the hometown,” Smith said.