Perryville, St. Vincent, and Saxony Lutheran all competed in preseason jamborees on Friday, August 21. Perryville and St. Vincent travelled to Cape Central High School to join the hosting Tigers and Caruthersville. Saxony Lutheran traveled to Sikeston to join the hosting Bulldogs and New Madrid County Central.
Saxony Lutheran head coach OJ Turner said the preseason scrimmage was a good chance to see where the Crusaders were in their preparations for their third varsity season, especially since the Crusaders will be playing New Madrid County Central in their home opener, a last minute change to their original scheduled opener.
“It was really nice just to kind of see where we are at in a full speed environment,” Turner said. “We initially had Veritas Christian on our schedule for week one. So playing Sikeston, playing New Madrid, you know, you really kind of leave it all out there a little bit. But I think because we knew we were going to play each other in week one we both held back a little bit.”
Perryville head coach Brent Roth said that while his team didn’t have the best showing in their jamboree, he is still confident for the coming season. He said that while pre-season jamboree’s can give some insight into what needs to be worked on in practice, he stresses to his players that it is not always a great indicator of how the regular season will go.“it’s always tough to have the players not read into it too much, you know, because they’re kids and they want to, they want to read into everything,” Roth said. “But as coaches we understand that, we’ve had years where the jamborees have looked really good, and then you come out week one and it does not look as good as it did in the jamboree. And then it’s worked the other way too, where things don’t look so good and then you come out week one and play well. So. We don’t read too much into it.”Roth said the main goal of the preseason is to get everyone reps and get everyone healthy. He said that while the Pirates struggled in the jamboree, they are on the right track and will be ready to go come the start of the regular season.
“Give me four more days and we’ll be ready,” Roth said Monday. “But we are on pace for sure. “I don’t think we looked real good at the Jamboree, but we here in the program, we know what we’re capable of, so we’re not too worried about it.”
Roth said the final week of practice before the regular season will be spent watching film and getting final reps in.
Similarly, St. Vincent head coach Tim Schumer said the preseason match ups were good for getting final reps in before the regular season, especially for his underclassmen.
“The jamboree is just good to kind of see some other opponents and not always scrimmage against yourself,” Schumer said. “And then kind of that last minute tune up before we go into the game week and get ready for our first game this Friday. The younger guys got their first taste of football, but the older guys just kind of got back in the groove of things and as the night progressed, I thought we did some good things.”
All three schools start their season this Friday night. Saxony Lutheran begins their season at home against New Madrid County Central at 7 p.m. St. Vincent goes on the road to face DeSoto. Perryville will host Fredericktown at 7 p.m.
