By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

It began pretty much as an experiment in 1987 with six teams, a crowd of fewer than 2,000 and a little over $5,500 raised.

It has since grown to 10 teams, crowds up to 12,000 and amassed nearly $767,000 in total proceeds over the past 20 years.
Getting bigger and better every year, the event has provided sizeable college scholarships to 366 of its participants, totaling $352,000.

The BB&T Football Jamboree has become over the past two decades one of the most unique and successful pre-season high school football showcases in the country, utilizing the sights and sounds of Wilmington’s historic Legion Stadium to help usher in the glitz and glamour of fall Friday nights in southeastern North Carolina.

The 21st renewal of the event will be held Friday, and co-founder and chief organizer Randy Huggins of Southport and the rest of the BB&T Jamboree committee are hoping for another record-setting evening.

“It should be another great night of football,” said Huggins, who is a longtime BB&T executive and former football star at old Tabor City High School. “The interest and excitement this event draws is really something special. It is a great way to kick off high school football season.

“The fact that we are now able to award 30 scholarships (to selected senior football players and cheerleaders) each year really helps make the Jamboree the success it has become.”

The South Columbus Stallions and Whiteville Wolfpack will be among the 10 teams participating in the event. They will join South Brunswick, West Brunswick and Wallace-Rose Hill on the visitor’s side of the scoreboard while the home side will again consist of New Hanover, Hoggard, Laney, Ashley and Jacksonville.

South Columbus will take on Jacksonville at 6 in the opening scrimmage of the evening while Whiteville and New Hanover will meet in the second scrimmage.

Other scrimmages will have Ashley taking on Wallace-Rose Hill, Laney squaring off with South Brunswick and Hoggard going against West Brunswick.

The event will kick off at 5 p.m., with the cheerleading showcase. Varsity cheerleading squads from all 10 participating schools will perform.

South Columbus returns with most of its players from last year’s 8-4 team.

Seniors Andrae Jacobs, Dakota Piver, Donovan Watts and Buster James are headed into their third season as fulltime starters and there are more than a dozen other experienced senior players.

“The senior leadership is strong this year,” said Price, whose team played host to West Brunswick in a scrimmage this morning. “We may not have the depth we need at some positions, but we’re getting a lot of good, hard work from all our kids.”

Price heads into his 11th season as Stallion head coach. He has guided the Stallions to 104 wins and seven conference championships during his tenure.

Whiteville, which went 9-3 and gained its first Waccamaw Conference football championship since 1993 last fall, was among the original six-team field of the jamboree and, like South Columbus, continues to bring a huge contingent of fans to the Port City for the event.
“Our kids are really looking forward to Friday,” said WHS coach Mark Little, who heads into his sixth season with the Wolfpack. “Going against a team like New Hanover should give a pretty good indication of where we stand.”

While Whiteville returns with a strong running game, paced by seniors Jarrod McKinney and Tyson Wilcox, it has a lot of holes to fill on the defensive side of the football.

“Several key players on defense have graduated, so we are having to do some rebuilding there,” Little said.

BB&T festivities kicked off Tuesday with a press luncheon at the Wilmington Elks Club. Jack Holley, the winningest high school football caoch in North Carolina history, served as keynote speaker for the event.

Holley, whose coaching careeer included tenures at Wallace-Rose Hill, Tabor City, Hallsboro and South Columbus, gave a synopsis of the two-decade history of the jamboree, recalling its founding and some of the major highlights through the years.

“I coached in 17 of them,” said Holley, who retired from his head coaching position at Wallace-Rose Hill following last season. “This has been a great 21 years, and I plan to be around for at least 21 more.”
Holley’s son Battle is the new head coach at Wallace-Rose Hill.

JAMBOREE SCHEDULE

5 p.m.
Cheerleading Showcase

6 p.m.
Football scrimmages
Jacksonville vs. South Columbus
New Hanover vs. Whiteville
Ashley vs. Wallace-Rose Hill
Laney vs. South Brunswick
Hoggard vs. West Brunswick

(Each scrimmage will consist of two 12-minute periods)
Admission: $3 in advance
$5 at gate