Covington High Jamboree features six teams

The Covington High Jamboree takes place today at Jack Salter Stadium featuring six teams, including the host Fighting Lions, the St. Paul’s Wolves, the Bogalusa Lumberjacks (Class 3A), the Franklinton Demons (Class 4A), the Pine Raiders (Class 2A) and the Varnado Wildcats (Class 1A).

Bogalusa and Varnado tee it up at 5 p.m. followed by St. Paul’s vs. Franklinton, and the jamboree closes out with Covington battling Pine. The jamboree format will include two 12-minute halves in each game and a 20-minute intermission between contests.

The CHS Fighting Lions open their season under the direction of first-year head coach Malter Scobel.

“I’m excited the jamboree is finally here. The players continue to work hard, putting in extra time. The coaching staff continues to see a lot of positives heading into the jamboree. We’re ready to go against another team,” Scobel said.

Scobel said his team had a productive scrimmage last week against the Brother Martin Crusaders.

“I thought we battled with them pretty good. They were picked in the top 10 in the metro polls. I was satisfied to see that we competed with them. We played physical football on defense. Our secondary played solid coverage,” he said.

Scobel said the two teams did a practice-type session, working on some inside drills, some pass rush, one-on-one with the receivers, seven-on-seven before moving on to 24 plays each.

The scrimmage ended with the teams playing one 15-minute quarter, which ended in a 7-7 tie. Lions’ junior running back Phillip Bickham scored the TD.

The Lions are hoping for big things in their running game from Bickham along with his younger brother sophomore Jarius, who returns after recovering from the chicken pox.

The Lions, looking to rebound from their 1-9 campaign last year, are going with junior quarterback Tyler Scott (5-10, 175) calling the signals.

Scobel said his team had moments of success on offense, but its offensive line got beat physically up front.

“That gave us some trouble, but we have made some adjustments and moved some people around to change things up. We need to be able to give Tyler (Scott) more time in the pocket to set his feet,” he said.

The Lions’ defensive unit is led by senior defensive end Barry Grinnell and senior nose guard Casey Hebert.

Scobel said his team had a good week of practice and is ready to get started. He said he watched film of last year’s jamboree when the Lions tied Pine.

“Pine has some good athletes. They are a 2A school, so they have quite a few athletes going both ways. They are learning a new system under a new head coach,” Scobel added.

St. Paul’s

St. Paul’s (10-3), the three-time defending District 7-5A champions, will have senior quarterback Ricky Wendel under center running the Wolves’ multiple option offense. SPS head coach Ken Sears, voted the District 7-5A Coach of the Year after the Wolves went unbeaten in district play, calls Wendel a tremendous leader. Sears said he felt good about his team’s performance in the scrimmage last week against the St. Augustine Purple Knights, particularly on defense.

Sears highlighted the play of defensive end Houston Bates along with the rest of the defensive line rotation that collectively turned in a strong showing.

“They did a great job against the pass and run,” Sears said. “Offensively, we were able to move the chains. We still have a lot of things to work on. We are nowhere near where we need to be, but the effort and intensity was definitely there.”

Sears also said senior linebacker Jordan Bodenheimer, a second team all-district player last year, had a solid scrimmage. Bodenheimer also scored a touchdown on a 1-yard plunge.

Sears said he got a strong effort from sophomore running back Stephon Smith.

“If he can stay healthy, he will be a big plus for us running the ball. The offensive line did a good job in the scrimmage, opening holes. We didn’t have any pre-snap penalties, which was good,” he said.

Sears praised the play of senior offensive linemen Chris Gensler, Jonathan Lilly and Nathan Quick.

Sears said his club would have to be ready for a focused effort against a quality Franklinton squad in the jamboree.

Franklinton (12-1) fell to the eventual Class 4A champion Bastrop Rams, 34-20, in last year’s quarterfinals.