Football is on its way to Sevier County as the Volunteer Chevrolet 13th Annual Smoky Mountain Kick-Off Jamboree will be held Friday, Aug. 12, at Sevier County High School. The official kick-off time is set for 7 p.m.
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All five public high schools — Gatlinburg-Pittman High School, Northview Academy, Pigeon Forge High School, Sevier County High School, and Seymour High School — will compete. This will serve as a chance to come catch these teams in action as they prepare for week one of the regular season.
Highlander’s head coach Brad Waggoner said the event will be a chance for the younger guys to get their first look at playing in front of a packed crowd in a varsity environment.
“The big thing is getting everybody a chance to play. This is a chance to play in front of a good crowd. You get to put on the uniform for the first time,” Waggoner said.
“It gives a lot of those young guys a chance to play in a varsity atmosphere. The good thing for our county is to see all of the players from our county all together in one place,” Waggoner said.
The younger guys will get their chance to take the field first as the event will start with three quarters between the junior varsity teams
The first quarter will be Northview versus Sevier County. The second quarter will be Gatlinburg-Pittman versus Seymour, and the third quarter will be Pigeon Forge versus Sevier County.
After the three quarters of junior varsity play, the teams will take a break and focus on the individual competitions. Each school will have a representative to participate in each of the events: Longest Punt, Longest Kickoff, Longest Throw, 40 Yard Dash-Lineman (Numbers 50-79), 40-Yard-Dash-Backs.
After the halftime events have wrapped up, the varsity teams will get their chance to face off with one another. The fourth quarter of competition will be between Gatlinburg-Pittman and Sevier County. The fifth quarter will be Pigeon Forge versus Seymour. Finally, the sixth quarter will be Northview versus Sevier County.
“It’ll be good to get the guys out in the uniform, under the bright lights,” Pigeon Forge Head Coach Scott Meadows said.
“Just getting our guys out there in front of everybody and out in front of the crowd, and the big thing is getting everybody through it without any injuries to anybody on any team.”
It won’t just be the football teams who are going to be back on the field, as each school’s cheer team will be out to root for their team as well as hand out souvenir programs of all of the teams. The band from each team will also be there, where they will join together to play “The Star Spangled Banner” before kickoff.
Tickets for the event will be $8 for an adult and $5 for students. All of the proceeds will go toward offsetting the cost of catastrophic insurance coverage for the athletic programs in the Sevier County School System.
