Semoball

Area football squads see progress in Hayti jamboree

A Hayti High School runner looks for an opening in the Cape Central defense during a football jamboree at Hayti High School on Friday.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

HAYTI – The four-team high school football jamboree conducted Friday at Hayti High School was exactly what one would expect the first opportunity to face another team would be, a mix of great, good, just OK, and uh-oh plays by each of the teams (Hayti, New Madrid County Central, Cape Central, and Kennett).

“We saw what we need to improve on,” first-year Kennett coach Andrew Webster said. “We ran some of our base stuff so we could see what we did. We have a lot of new faces this year.”

None more noticeable than junior quarterback Tanner Pierce.

Pierce took snaps on Friday as he competes to replace All-SEMO Conference South quarterback Bodey Ellis.

“We have six or seven core guys who have been doing this a long time,” Webster said. “But we have a lot of new faces and we’re working them in and seeing what they can do.

“It was good, I think that we gathered a lot of information.”

Kennett hosts Malden next Friday in its season-opening game.

For Cape Central, veteran coach Kent Gibbs wanted to see his players “compete,” which they did… eventually.

“You could tell,” Gibbs said of facing the host Hayti Indians initially, “we were a little shell-shocked or not ready to go through the first six or seven plays, but I thought we competed after that.”

Gibbs cited a number of players who played well and showed great effort, including returning quarterback Morgan Diamond.

“We need to play,” Gibbs said of prepping for the regular-season opener next Friday against Parkway North. “Everybody needs to play at this time of year. We don’t know a whole lot about them, but we need to play.

“It is going to be a deal for us that every game we have to show a little inch-by-inch progress and hopefully we’ll be where we need to be at the end of the day.”

For New Madrid County Central, it too wants to see progress.

Sixth-year Eagle coach Tyler Fullhart has seen steady progress from his program, which is vying for its third consecutive winning season.

“We raise our expectations every year,” Fullhart said. “We’re trying to build on what we did last year.”

The Eagles won six games in 2019 and seven a year ago.

New Madrid County Central had gone six years without winning a postseason game before it broke through with a victory in 2019.

Last season, the Eagles advanced to the MSHSAA Class 2 District 1 championship game before falling to Jefferson (Festus).

“It’s just to get better every day that we show up,” Fullhart said of his focus. “It’s just to get better and as long as we’re doing that, we’ll be alright.”

New Madrid County Central will host Portageville in its opener on Friday.

The host Indians looked as prolific on offense as they have in recent seasons right from the get-go.

Hayti quarterback Trayvon Thomas was throwing bombs over the secondary into the arms of touchdown-scoring receivers.

The Indians have won 54 games in the five seasons under Dominique Robinson and he is going to test his program from the outset on Friday when they host equally tough Thayer.

“They’re a great team,” Robinson said of the Bobcats. “It’s the first test for us.”

A year ago, Hayti beat Thayer in the Week One match-up 30-28. However, the Bobcats thrashed the Indians 52-22 in the MSHSAA Class 1 District 1 championship game.

“We need to just keep getting better,” Robinson said. “Keep getting better every day and working.”

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