22nd BB&T Jamboree In The Books

The BB&T Jamboree has raised $830,000 over the years. With that money, they have awarded 396 scholarships worth over $382,000 and have given $417,000 to the participating schools' athletic budgets. Not only that, it gives local fans a chance to see who's who and what's what before the year even starts. Here's what went down, team by team ...

Hoggard Vikings

Quite simply, Hoggard looked dominant. Defense looked tough, offense looked pretty powerful, but the Vikings will get a more formidable challenge than 2A Whiteville in their first game of the season as they face New Bern, the defending 4AA State Champs. The Bears will be looking for revenge after getting throttled in Wilmington a year ago. Surprisingly, Hoggard threw the ball a lot. Brad Busby was in at QB last year on many running plays, but showed off his arm a bit on Friday night. The Vikings lost starting running back SaQuan Coggins for the year, as the senior blew out his knee on the first day of practice with full contact. Hoggard was still able to run the ball effectively, and Busby will carry much of the load on the ground and he got his season kick started with a nice touchdown run. And the kickers keep on coming. Following the Barth legacy, Ian Durham and Marcus Lee hit impressive field goals including a 49 yarder that would have been good from 55.

Hoggard Head Coach Scott Braswell

On The Vikings' Play

"I thought the effort would be good, and I was very pleased the guys' effort. I thought offensively, we've really struggled in practice some of that is a credit to our defense, I was pleased with the way Brad threw the ball and trey caught the ball, i thought the off line held up fairly well... defensively, we thought we had a pretty good defensive team and I think they did a good job. Big thing for us is to come back tomorrow morning and get better. We'd like to throw it around, that's kind of what we want to do, and if we can do that successfully, and with Brad's running ability, that going to put a lot of pressure on people. So that's what we hope to do, throw that ball around. We've got some room for improvement but offensively that's been our best execution all year. I was upset offensively, in that we had some alignment issues, had some penalties that we don't need to have, but it was nice to hit somebody different, we're sick of going against ourselves.

On The Season For The Defending State Champions

"There is tremendous excitement, we've got over 130 kids out for football. There's a lot of excitement, but what we've got to remind our guys of is that doesn't really mean a whole lot; we've got to focus on getting better, or that hoopla will disappear real quick."

On The Loss Of Starting Running Back SaQuan Coggins

"That's devastating, when you have a senior who is such a good kid, I've known him since elementary school and Pop Warner, we've been looking forward to coaching him and this is his year, his shot to step up. To lose him... I think it was the quietest practice I've ever attended."

New Hanover Wildcats

New Hanover looked good in flashes. A great snag by Allante MacIntyre and a few completions on the outside to Jermaine Jones by Jordan Betts was a positive for Wildcat fans. On the ground, Tray Brown looked good at running back. At times, the NHHS offense wasn't exactly clicking, but that's why you scrimmage. The defense was solid. They gave up a deep touchdown on an out and up on single coverage, but generally looked good.

New Hanover Head Coach Kevin Motsinger

On The BBandT Jamboree

"We looked inexperienced and we looked young. They saw this crowd and got fired up... but we've got to settle down. Too much excitement sometimes and you get poor execution. But that's what makes the BBandT so special... this is as game-like as you can get."

On The Defense

"We settled down and for a young team that's a compliment, after that [touchdown] we settled down pretty good."

On The Offense

"We have a quarterback with a good arm and three or four pretty good receivers. For the most part we gave pretty good protection. Early on I wasn't pleased, but they settled down."

And In Summary

"Our kids overall, the number one thing was, the mistakes we made early, we got on the sidelines and fixed and corrected and came back. And for as young as we are, and as inexperience we are, that's a huge compliment in how mature they are."

Laney Bucs

Laney gave up a long touchdown drive to West Brunswick, which looked like a much improved team, and then responded with a touchdown of their own by tailback Shakeem Bryant. Bryant was the leading rusher for the Bucs in '07 and seemed to be ready to pick up where he left off. Laney followed the theme of the night as they too chucked the ball around quite a bit. Senior Andrew Olson will be looked upon in the passing game throughout the season, starting with next week's opener at Buc Town when they welcome Fayetteville Christian.

Laney Head Coach Greg Ditz

On The Bucs' Performance

"I thought our team played pretty well. Our offensive line really stepped up. They are a little light in the butt, they gave Andy plenty of time to throw the foot ball I thought we did a great job offensively. It was tough to prepare for them [team that ran the option] in one day... it's a good team to start with."

On Positives To Take Away From Jamboree

"We played hard. We had no quit in us at anytime. We had some younger guys step up and they did a great job... and the seniors stepped up to be leaders."

On This Week In Practice

"We gotta work just a little harder, we got a lot of guys playing both ways, and getting in game shape is just another level so this was a good eye opener."

On Next Week's Season Opener

"We'll definitely be ready to play. We'll come after it, we'll be a little bit better, our defense will play a little better."

Ashley Screamin Eagles

Ashley lost running back Kenny Morton, but return starting quarterback Zach Finnegan, who looks like he is ready to turn the Screamin' Eagles into the Soarin' Eagles. Finnegan threw some nice passes... good zip, nice touch, and the junior looked more composed in the pocket using his experience. After giving up a rather easy touchdown to South Columbus which benefited from starting at the Ashley 18 as play carries over from the previous scrimmage during the Jamboree, Ashley evened the scoring with a touchdown of their own as Finnegan hooked up with Kyle Larose on a 23-yard pass play. Purnell-Sweet, which went to third round of the NCHSAA West Playoffs and lost to Watuagua - which lost to Mount Tabor - which lost to Hoggard in State Championship game, will be a good test next week for Ashley, as they kick off the season Friday at home.

Ashley Head Coach Dylan Dimock

On Taking The Field For The First Time

"Intensity is something we've been talking about, and I feel like our kids came out and played hard. I'm real proud of our defense...one thing we worked on in the defense is everybody checking in and getting to the football... Best thing about the Jamboree is that whole emotion thing, you learn how to control, even keel. You got a chance in every game if you are steady. Don't get too high, don't get too low."

On Improvements To Make

"We've got to run the ball better if we're going to be successful and we can't have silly mistakes, we had some five yard penalties. I was pleased with some of the things we did in the passing game. We took shots, and we've got to hit some of them, when we hit that one at the end I was pleased, but some of the earlier ones we've got to work on."

On The Running Game

"Our running game has got to be more than one guy. We've got to get it to our tailback, our fullback some flank stuff, we didn't do much of that tonight they had two guys forcing us on the outside... some checks we need to make, but we're not that far off."

On His Defense

"I feel good. It is just checking in, if you get people to the football you're going to be ok. We switching on the reading defense we used last year to more of an attacking defense. People are going to get some plays on us, but they shouldn't be big plays. Instead of sitting back on our hands we're going to go get it."

- Jesse Jones

Photos: Eric Bartsch and Chris Miranda.
To view galleries, go to Quick Action Sports link or to capefearphotography.com.

-- Jesse Jones, CAPE FEAR SPORTS REPORT