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Southside will host the annual Beaufort County football jamboree on Wednesday. Last year, it was held at Northside as the Panthers and Seahawks flip the hosting site by year. Games will begin at 6 p.m. at the Southside football field and admission is $5 for spectators.

The jamboree will have six teams competing. It will be Southside, Northside, North Lenior, Gates County, Washington County, and Manteo in the jamboree.

Washington High School competed last year but will not be in it this year. The previous WHS head coach declined to enter the jamboree and by the time Pam Pack made the coaching change, the field of teams was already set.

Current WHS head coach Matt Taylor said they scheduled a scrimmage with Martin County and they will play in the Tarboro jamboree. Southside head coach Jeff Carrow said he hopes to have WHS play in the jamboree next year.

The field will be split in half for the jamboree. Two teams will play on each half of the field and the remaining teams will be on break. “We will play 10-12 offensive plays against the other teams,” Carrow said. “After the set of plays, we will switch to defense while the other team has their set of plays. This will continue until we complete our games.”

Each team will play four games and have two water breaks. The players will be in uniform and it will be the first time they can play against other teams after grinding through the hot summer workouts.

Southside and Northside will play every other team except each other. They want to save everything for their rivalry game in the Anchor Bowl. Because of that, they will have their water breaks at the same time.

Carrow said it will primarily be the starters playing. “It is understood that it will be starters against starters for each game. There might be a couple of plays where the backups can get some playing time if the coaches agree. That will be rare though and the starters will play most of the time,” Carrow said.

The official season will begin the week after the jamboree on August 18.