Local teams get taste of Friday night

EAST PRAIRIE -- With a brand new press box shadowing over the football field at East Prairie high school on Friday night, four teams gave local fans just a little taste of what is to come as they kicked off the season with the East Prairie jamboree.

"We're very proud of what we got," East Prairie head coach Jason Aycock said about their newest addition. "We're proud of our new press box and we're proud of our facilities here. I know that the community of East Prairie our proud of everything that we have here. We're a small school and I feel like we're one of the best held secrets in the state of Missouri."

East Prairie, Sikeston, New Madrid County Central and Perryville each saw time against each other in three different scrimmages. Each team had 12 plays on offense and 12 plays on defense.

New Madrid County Central's Bryan Waters takes a handoff Friday night. Josh Mills, Staff

New Madrid County Central's Bryan Waters takes a handoff Friday night. Josh Mills, Staff

Sikeston had their chance to show off the brand new offense that they will be trying out this upcoming season. But, head coach Kent Gibbs seemed like he was more impressed with the defensive play of his squad.

"Overall I got to believe that our defense played a whole lot better," said Gibbs. "We were really aggressive. We made some hits on people and we tackled people. Offensively I wasn't really impressed. We got a lot to work on with timing. Got a lot to work on up front and those kind of things. It was good to play and we'll learn from our mistakes and go from there."

Gibbs said he did see some glimpses of good within the offense but they will have to get better before the first game of the season.

"I think the mistakes we made on offense is something you learn from," Gibbs said. "I saw some positives when we moved the ball but we made a lot of mistakes both in timing and assignments and things like that. Those are the things that we're going to have to clean up and you learn from on tape and the kids need to accept coaching. You accept coaching and you try and get better for that first game against Fredericktown because we're going to have to be a whole lot better against Fredericktown or we won't like the outcome."

NMCC's head coach Arlen Pixley also saw some mistakes with his team but some ended up being a positive thing.

"I saw a lot of mistakes," Pixley said. "We flew around the ball and made mistakes but we tell our kids all the time if your going to make a mistake make it at 100 miles an hour and good things will happen."

In two instances NMCC's mistakes turned out to be good things.

In one play one player ended up in the wrong spot on the field but made a tackle anyway and also caused a fumble. The other play was when a defender rushed through a wrong gap in the line but ended up forcing an early throw which led to an interception.

"Our mistakes led to some pretty good things but we also made some bonehead penalties which is to be expected right now," Pixley said. "I don't think so much of tonight being an indicator as many kids as you try to rotate around and get a look at. We did go on about an eight play streak with the guys we think we need to go with. We looked pretty solid when we did that. Overall I'm pleased with our effort."

Pixley also said that there were a lot of things that you can take from a jamboree type atmosphere.

"You get to see some kids that you think are probably a little bit better than what they actually are when you line them up against somebody in an opposite colored jersey," he said. "You get those pleasant surprises of those guys that haven't really stood out in practice. But you get them underneath the lights and the motor comes on. You see those things on every squad. All the coaches probably saw a few things that they were impressed when the heat was on.

"Its funny when the lights come on and you step inside the lines who you find and who you really think should be there."

East Prairie was wanting to use the jamboree as a momentum builder for their first game. They're momentum was slightly halted when the projected starting quarterback, Conner Scott, went down with a knee injury. But Aycock still found some things that were positive about the jamboree.

"We seen a lot of good things," Aycock said. "We seen a few negatives that you just have to dissect on the film and correct them. What I want to take from it most of all is momentum. If we can go in with momentum and confidence in the first week then that will be good."

Each team will hope for that good start next Friday as the 2008 football season begins.