E.A. Sports Today

Spring Jam matchups

Spring Garden is this year’s out-of-county invitee to May football festival; could completing cycle bring change?

By East Alabama Sports Today

Spring Garden is the out-of-county invitee for this year’s Calhoun County Spring Football Jamboree at Jax State hosted by Weaver.

The Panthers will play Weaver in the final game of the four-game, two-day football fest May 17-18.

The Spring Jam was a concept started by Wellborn coach Jeff Smith to bring all the teams in the Calhoun County system together at JSU for a spring-game showcase with a different team serving as host each year.

This is the seventh year, so every County school has had a chance to host. There was some talk at Wednesday’s organizational meeting of expanding the concept, perhaps having each team find an opponent and bring them to JSU for a three-day event. Weaver principal Mike Allison asked for suggestions in writing, but has yet to receive any responses.

“The Spring Jamboree is always an exciting time to be able to see yourself against other competition,” Ohatchee coach Scott Martin said. “It is not necessarily a ‘win or lose’ deal with us, but more of an evaluation period going into the summer.

“Not everyone is ever going to be 100 percent happy about the matchups because they involve so many teams that already compete against each other. Hopefully in the future we cantweak it a little bit and let the county schools compete outside of the ‘usual suspects.’ I think after seven years everyone is ready to play someone different.”

Here are this year’s matchups and game times.

May 17
Alexandria vs. Ohatchee, 4:30 p.m.
Saks vs. White Plains, 7:30 p.m.

May 18
Pleasant Valley vs. Wellborn, 4:30 p.m.
Weaver vs. Spring Garden, 7:30 p.m.

On the cover: Ohatchee coach Scott Martin shakes hands with Weaver’s Daryl Hamby (R) at the end of their spring football game last May at Jacksonville State. (Photo by B.J. Franklin/GungHo Photos)

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