Football is back, and Thursday at Taylorsville High School, several area teams participated in the Tartar Jamboree. There was, however, a twist to the playing field during the jamboree.

In a regular season high school game teams play the whole 100 yards on the football field. In the jamboree, the teams start at the 40-yardline, and they have four downs to score. If they fail to score, the other team has the same opportunity. Instead of regular halves, teams are allowed 12 minutes on offense and 12 minutes on defense. Also, teams don’t kick off, nor are there any point- attempts.

The Laurel Tornadoes began the jamboree in a contest against Bay Springs. The Bulldogs defeated Laurel 7-0. Tornado head coach Milton Smith believes that his ball team still has a lot of work to do.

“Well, we didn’t get anyone hurt,” he said. “We’re going to be a very young team, and we still have a lot of work to do.” In the second game, the Tornadoes fell to Magee 14-0.

The West Jones Mustangs also participated in Thursday’s game by crushing the visiting Vicksburg Gators 42-0. “We haven’t played this well on offense in about three or four years,” Mustang head coach Scott Peirson added. “The offensive line played well, the running backs ran the ball hard, and the quarterbacks stood out.” In the second game of the night, the Mustangs edged the Collins Tigers 14-7.

Cecil Hicks and the South Jones Braves also made an appearance in Taylorsville by blanking the Tigers 14-0. “We were pleased with how fast our guys were,” Hicks said. “We hit folks hard. The offensive line did a great job to create lanes for the running backs to run through. The wins were also important, but the best thing about it was we didn’t allow anyone to score on us.” In the Braves second game of the night, they upended the Gators 14-0.

Northeast Jones and Wayne County will be featured in the Wayne County jamboree that will be held Thursday at the Wayne County High School football field.

Next season, there will be a new classification system in Mississippi high school athletics. Instead of five different classifications, there will be six new classifications. Bay Springs will be part of the new Region 7-2A, Laurel and South Jones will remain in Region 5-4A, while the West Jones Mustangs will be in the new Region 3-5A.