Andy Amey: Friday night lights are back, jamboree and scrimmage style
Aug. 10—It's game time, Indiana high school sports fans — or at least it feels like it is.
Football scrimmages and jamborees are Friday night and actual games and matches start Saturday in all the other sports but golf, which is already a week into its regular-season schedule.
Jamborees are scheduled at two venues: South Vermillion, where the Wildcats host Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South and Northview, and Parke Heritage, where the Wolves entertain Riverton Parke, North Central and Cascade.
At Clinton, the Wildcats and Patriots will play the first quarter, followed by Braves vs. Knights, Braves vs. Patriots and Wildcats vs. Knights. Each team will run 15 offensive plays and there will be no kicking.
South Vermillion finished with a 7-3 record last year, while North was 2-8 and South and Northview both 6-4. The first quarter, incidentally, begins at 6 p.m.
At Rockville, the rivalry quarter is the 7 p.m. opener between the Wolves and the Panthers. The Thunderbirds and Cadets play the second quarter, followed by Panthers-Cadets and Thunderbirds-Wolves. Parke Heritage was 1-9 last year, Riverton Parke 8-3, North Central 1-8 and Cascade 6-5.
West Vigo, 4-7 a year ago, continues its scrimmage rivalry at North Vermillion (6-5 last year). Other scrimmages — all of which begin at 7 p.m., according to the information the Tribune-Star has received — are South Putnam (7-3 last year) at Sullivan (7-5 in 2022), which should be worth watching, and Linton (13-1 last year) at Evansville Bosse (1-9 last fall). On Saturday, Dugger's eight-man season begins with a scrimmage at Whiteland against Purdue Poly and Rock Creek Academy.
Girls golf has gone on long enough to make it obvious that South's Braves are the real deal this fall and they have a chance to show that again Saturday when the host their annual Braves Invitational at Rea Park.
Also in town Saturday is the Valley Cross Kickoff at LaVern Gibson Championship Course, which usually draws powerhouses from around the state for an early look at the state championship cross country course.
Several soccer and tennis season openers take place Saturday, but the two significant volleyball competitions are both out of two — at the Crown Point Invitational, where South checks out the competition in the northern part of the state, and at the Brebeuf Invitational, which Northview visits every year.
Starting Monday, there will be fun stuff to watch every night. Even though your air conditioner is still running, fall is in full swing.
—RIP — Some of the film breakdown from Friday night's scrimmages and jamborees is likely to be postponed for a few hours on Saturday because a significant number of the coaches will be paying their respects to one of their own.
Mike Meyer, the head coach at Greencastle for 13 seasons, including the last eight, passed away unexpectedly last Friday.
His coaching resume is a lot longer than that — he was on the Northview staff for three seasons at one point, coached at several different colleges, and was to be joining Rob Gibson at Avon this fall — and he made a lot of friends along the way. He was often helping out one of his fellow coaches at Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association All-Star games.
Visitation begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at DePauw's Kresge Auditorium, 605 S. College Avenue. Funeral services are scheduled to begin there at 1 p.m.
Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. at 812-231-4276 or 4277; by email at andy.amey@tribstar.com; or by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808. Follow TribStarAndy on Twitter.
