The high school football season will come one step closer to reality this Friday, Aug. 17, as teams across the state take part in scrimmages or jamborees.
Platte County will be one of three teams in the area that will compete in a jamboree and the only one hosting.
The Pirates, coming off a semifinal run in Class 4 last year, will welcome Excelsior Springs, Pembroke Hill and St. Pius X to Pirate Stadium. The jamboree starts at 6 p.m.
Two of the three teams are coming off winning seasons. Pembroke Hill went 8-3, while Exclesior Springs posted a 7-3 mark last fall.
St. Pius X went 5-6 in its last season in the West Central Conference. Now, the Kansas City parochial school off of Interstate 29 will join the Midland Empire Conference, replacing Smithville.
Two of those setbacks for the Warriors came against Maryville, the Class 3 champions.
The scrimmages for Platte County will be a chance for the revamped offense to continue to gel under new quarterback Spencer Stewart. The transfer from Shawnee Mission Northwest has been honorable mention all-state in Class 6A the past two years. He threw for 2,133 yards as a sophomore and then added 2,507 yards last year.
He is set a first-team all-stater — in both the media and coaches teams — Tanner Clarkson. The Missouri Western walk-on threw a single-season school record of 3,382 and 38 touchdowns last fall, when the Pirates went 11-3.
The other two schools that will be going to a jamboree are North Platte and West Platte.
The Bluejays will travel to Faucett to take part in the Mid-Buchanan jamboree with fellow KCI school Plattsburg and Grand River Valley Conference school Gallatin. Plattsburg has been a traditional run-the-ball type under former coach Ron Musser, but the Tigers hired former St. Joseph Central coach Jeff Wallace, who will bring his high-powered offense to the KCI Conference.
West Platte got a look at Mid-Buchanan earlier this summer when the two teams clashed at the Nate Danneman Football Camp in Weston. Gallatin went 6-3 last year and 1-1 against KCI schools, beating North Platte and losing to Hamilton.
North Platte will head to Oak Grove to take part in a jamboree with Wellington-Napoleon and Kansas City East.
The scrimmage marks the debut for new Panthers coach Reis Wright. The two teams, based on last year’s stats, will provide different looks. Well-Nap went 9-2, while East was 1-9.
One of the Park Hill schools will host a scrimmage on Friday.
Park Hill South will hold a scrimmage at 6 p.m. on the new turf practice field, which was used for the first time on Saturday, Aug. 11 during an intrasquad scrimmage.
“I’m very excited to get back out here, to be with my teammates and put in the hard work,” said Park Hill South running back Ta’Von Tusa, who is entering his second year at the school after transferring from Bishop Miege. “We want to go out Friday night to show everybody how hard we’ve been working.”
Last Friday, Park Hill practiced under the lights to get the game-like atmosphere but will not do anything this week according to the schedule.
The Trojans will look to replace five all-state players who graduated, but have a solid group of returning players on both sides of the ball.