Believe it or not, the football jamborees are almost upon us as is the high school football season. For those of you who may not be familiar with football jamborees, it's a preseason competition where teams play each other for one quarter, all gathering in the same location and raising money for various reasons including insurance or just funds to help each program.
The big high school jamboree takes place a week before the season starts and is usually held at Finley Stadium. This year twenty teams will participate in the two night event at Finley, meaning there will be ten total quarters of play In 2018, it's called the Best of Preps Jamboree and is sponsored by the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. The Chattanooga jamboree is perhaps the largest one of its kind in Tennessee and will kick off at
5:30 p.m. on
Friday, Aug. 10 and at
4:30 p.m. on
Saturday, Aug. 11.
Even though the Best of Preps Jamboree features 20 teams, there is also the Sequatchie Valley Jamboree held in Jasper at Marion County High School on Aug. 10. This is one of the oldest jamborees around and features teams from the old Sequatchie Valley Conference playing against each other, all in one night. I also bvelieve there are some middle school jamborees as well and some high school jamborees in North Georgia.
Then, there are the little guys. There are several youth leagues in the Chattanooga area, with the Scenic City Youth Football League and the River City Football League being the two largest. The River City group will hold their jamboree on August 18th, and they have invited teams from North Georgia and from the Scenic City league to participate, but only a couple of north Georgia teams have shown any interest.
I'm sure I have left out a few leagues and dates and if I have please accept my apologies. Back in the day when I played a little football there were no jamborees. There are a few people who joked that the only helmets we had, we folded up and put in our pockets when practice was over. That really wasn't the case however, but we enjoyed anytime we could put on the uniform and play.
Football has taken some shots lately due to concussions and the CTE thing, but the game is still a wonderful game. The teaching points in football are without equal. They provide leadership skills and learning how to be a good teammate among others. The game will change over the next few years due to the safety issues. But for now, it's still the game we love and I encourage everyone to get out and support your favorite teams. Of course that starts with the jamborees and that means you get a sneak peak at what's ahead for the next four months or so. I'm ready!