PINETOWN — It’s been 216 days since quarterback Patrick Thompson threw his final pass for the Pam Pack in the final minute of the 2-A state championship against East Lincoln. With start of the 2015-2016 high school football season a little over a month away, local county teams will take to the gridiron for the first time since December for a pair of preseason jamboree scrimmages, showcasing the next generation of Pam Pack, Panthers and Seahawks.

Northside’s Bing Mitchell Stadium will play host to the first of two scrimmages on Aug. 12 at 6 p.m., while Southside will host a scrimmage for a second-consecutive preseason at the same time on Aug. 14.

“When you have all three county teams coming in you expect a good crowd,” said Panthers head coach Keith Boyd. “To have something like this on our side of the county is going to be nothing but positive. We just hope we can go out there and have a good showing.”

Coming off a 4-8 season, losing 10 senior lettermen to graduation, the host team will certainly have its hands full against the defending 2-A state runner up Pam Pack, Southside, Edenton Holmes and Manteo. Boyd sees the scrimmages as prime opportunities to fill voids left by recent gradates on both sides of the ball, while working on his playbook’s foundational schemes. You won’t find any trick plays from the Panthers. Polishing the basics of the power-I, double-wing offense will be priority No. 1.

“It’s not a matter of winning or losing a scrimmage, it’s going out there and finding out where your players can do, who is doing a good job,” Boyd said. “It’s a chance for each coach to evaluate their team and make changes … We have three returning lettermen total on both sides of the football. It’s going to be a chance for us to find out what our young kids can do, play a lot of different kids and see what we come up with.”

And Northside isn’t the only team looking to find its identity. Washington, having lost 26 seniors to graduation following the championship run, will be nearly unrecognizable from last season, though head coach Sport Sawyer does return a few key pieces like linebackers Lexroy Brown and Brandon Jackson.

After participating in a handful of 7-on-7 pick up games this summer, including the Cam Newton Football Tournament in Charlotte last month, Sawyer believes the scrimmages will get the county excited about football after the seven-month hiatus.

“To be able to go against different teams with different looks, you’ll be able to see some things you need to tweak,” he said. “That’s why we’re excited about going there.”

“We’re right down the road and it takes us less than 20 minutes to get there, so it’s a great opportunity for those in Beaufort County to go out there and watch some football.”

Southside, the host of the second scrimmage, is coming off a surprising 10-4 finish and expectations are high. Head coach Jeff Carrow, who has more returning starters on both sides of the ball than any other county team, will use the scrimmages to strengthen and test his offensive and defensive lines against quality, sizable competition like Washington.

“As far as the team is concerned, we always want to go to a multiple team scrimmage so we can get as many looks as we can to give our defense a chance to see multiple offenses, and our offensive a chance to go up against multiple defenses,” Carrow said. “Especially this year, we have a young offensive line and they need to be battle tested. There’s no better way to do that then a jamboree scrimmage.”

Southside will play host to Washington, Northside and Spring Creek on Aug. 14.

For both scrimmages, entry is $3 at the gate and booster club passes will not be accepted. Teams will receive 10 plays on offense to go 40 yards, as the regulation field will be cut in half with two sets of games occurring at once. Other than that, it’s normal high school rules.

The 2015-2016 NCHSAA season opens on Aug. 21 with three home games: Washington vs. Havelock, Northside vs. Creswell and Southside vs. North Duplin.