Wildcat football jamboree

The calendar may say August, but Friday night at Hillcrest High School the Logan Rogersville Wildcats gave us all a reminder that Fall is Coming. The Wildcats participated in a football jamboree. If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s basically high school preseason. A jamboree involves multiple football teams in a live scrimmage environment. For this jamboree there were four teams, Hillcrest, Central, Strafford and Logan Rogersville. Each team got 12 offensive plays and 12 defensive plays against each opponent (8 plays for the Varsity and 4 for the JV). It’s essentially a high intensity practice where the boys put on the game uniforms, fans are in the stands, officials are on the field, and we can get a taste of how they stack up against other local teams before the season begins.

Rogersville is going to be much younger than in previous seasons. There are only 7 seniors to help lead this squad. The line being anchored by Lucas Parris and Brayden Kent and Damari Barr. Jacob “Shink”, Eli Craft, Jason Sales, and AJ Muncy are seniors the team will need to lean on. Muncy had two receiving TD’s during the jamboree. But make no mistake the youth movement has started.

This freshman class of 2028 has long been touted to have some exceptional athletes, and they put it on display on Friday night. There is a trio of Kaz Manczuk QB, Gage Hale WR, and Skye Vaughn WR on the offensive side that should be exciting to watch for the next several years, but will undoubtedly contribute as freshman. Gage Hale had a coming out party with 3 TD’s and 1 interception. Remember that the varsity offense only had 24 plays on offense. That’s a pretty high ratio of TD’s to total team plays. Kaz split reps with junior Sam Frieze on offense at QB, and they both showed well. Kaz has one of the most beautiful deep balls at the high school level in the state. The passing game was on full display against all 3 teams the Cats faced. Skye had a TD catch overruled, that sure looked like he got a foot down. Look for those three freshmen to contribute in this 2024 campaign.

The sophomore class has been known for their size for a couple of seasons now. When you put out 5 kids in one class that weigh in north of 265 and a few that have good feet to go with the size, hopes of what could be tend to follow. Two of those big bulls are currently starting for LR, Carson Stinnet DL on defense and Parker White OL on offense. The other three in Jesse Robirds, Cain Bargo, and Chase King will get some rotational work also.

The junior class offers the most players and are highlighted by Sam Frieze, Jack Cole, Damari Barr, Keziah Queen, Vance Nally and others. This group will be crucial in leadership to this upcoming campaign.

So how did the Cats perform against the other schools? They outperformed all three opponents. They handled Hillcrest and Central handily. The defense didn’t allow a score and the offense put up a couple of touchdowns against both. Against Strafford, they technically tied, but LR was the dominant looking squad. The defense gave up one long passing TD against Strafford, and allowed one other decent chunk running play. Varsity offense scored against Strafford and then moved the ball down inside the 5 before giving way to the JV squad for their four plays.

On the whole, there was a lot to be pleased with on the night and hopeful for the future season. There are some things to be worked on and some things the fans didn’t see on Friday night due to the format. Hiking the ball was an issue a year ago, and it showed up as a problem at times on Friday night. There is no kicking game in the jamboree format, so no idea of what to expect on special teams as of yet. Passing was on display, and it will be interesting to see if they keep that ratio of pass to run plays, because we really saw very little of the run game on the night.

LR will be playing in a brand new conference this season and will face some teams they don’t play year in and year out. In a 9 game regular season schedule, I’m going to be optimistic and predict a 7-2 campaign. It all starts this Friday at home against Reed Springs at 7:00. Come out and support the team, and a shameless plug that the Missouri State Championship Band in 4A will be playing at halftime on Friday night.