New Hope High School second-year football coach Kris Pickle doesn’t downplay the amount of hard work that goes into his school hosting a preseason football jamboree at Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium.
However, Pickle admits he doesn’t have a big hand in a lot of that hard work.
“My job is to bring in the teams and set up the schedule,” Pickle said. “After that, the booster club takes it from there. They do all the heavy lifting. When you have the best booster club possible, you can really put on a great event. They make the job easy. It’s not easy, but they make it look that way.”
New Hope will play host to the sixth preseason jamboree Friday, Aug. 14, and Saturday, Aug. 15. All seven of the games will feature a local team. Five of the six jamborees have been held at Davis Wade Stadium, which has a capacity of 61,337. A year ago, prep football began and ended its season at MSU, as the school played host to the Mississippi High School Activities Association state championship games for the first time.
“The folks at Mississippi State are incredible,” Pickle said. “They roll out the red carpet. They help make this a first-class event. They allow the players to dress in their locker rooms. They just bend over backwards to bring everybody in and to make sure they have a good time.
“It’s a positive experience for the players and for the fans. Realistically, for a lot of players, this will be one of their few chances to play in a Southeastern Conference stadium like this.”
Columbus second-year coach Randal Montgomery — like Pickle — made his debut with his new team at last year’s jamboree.
“For the kids, this is a really great opportunity,” Montgomery said. “Area fans can come out and see a lot of different teams at one time. It’s good exposure for the football programs in our area. You want to take something from the experience. It’s a good chance to see your kids under the spotlight for the first time.”
This season, the jamboree expands to two days and will have seven games for the first time. Amory will play New Hope at 7 p.m. Aug. 14. The six-game Aug. 15, will begin at 9 a.m. with East Webster and Hamilton.
New Hamilton coach Josh Baty will make his debut in that game. New Aberdeen coach Eric Spann will get a first look at his team against Forest at 11 a.m. New Starkville coach Ricky Woods will guide the Yellow Jackets for the first time at 7 p.m. against Grenada.
“Anytime you take over a new program, especially one at the level Starkville’s at, it is exciting,” Woods said. “You just really want to get started. (In the jamboree), you just kook for depth, starters. It’s not like a regular game. You’re just going to see what kind of depth you’ve got on the team and where your starters are at. It’s an evaluation tool.”
The other three games will feature Columbus vs. Louisville (1 p.m.), Noxubee County vs. Holmes Central (3 p.m.), and West Point vs. Kosciusko (5 p.m.).
Each game will include a regulation half for the varsity teams and a regulation quarter for the junior varsity teams.
A year ago, Noxubee County began the season with a victory in the jamboree and returned to Davis Wade Stadium in December to beat St. Stanislaus for its second state championship in three seasons.
“We really used that as a motivational tool,” Noxubee County sixth-year coach Tyrone Shorter said. “We told the guys to soak in the surroundings because we wanted to come back and play there. Even though (the preseason game) doesn’t count, I think it helped us being on that field and in that stadium.
“Different coaches use the preseason game for different reasons. However, I think everybody gets something out of it.”
Shorter returns a bevy of starters on offense, so the jamboree will be an opportunity to fine tune before his team opens the regular season a week later against Starkville. On the other hand, Woods said every practice opportunity is critical for him since he missed spring workouts and is catching up with his personnel on the fly.
Pickle also is anxious to see what he has on the field. The Trojans won 10 games in his first season, but they lost 26 seniors to graduation.
“A year ago, we were busy putting a system into place,” Pickle said. “Fortunately, we are past that point. The players and coaches have a comfort level with one another. However, we have a lot of young faces. The preseason game meant a lot last year because we were learning how to do things. Now we are doing the same things but with new players.”
Regardless of what happens on the field, Pickle knows the event will be a huge success.
“We have brought in 14 good football teams,” Pickle said. “Each team has at least one or two Division I caliber players. In the preseason, you want to play the best opponent possible so your kids can see how they measure up. I think we really have a good thing going. A lot of people step in each year and contribute to make sure it continues to grow.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.