Jamborees offer taste of what's to come in Washington high school football
Abbreviated live-work periods, like the ones held Friday among Kennedy Catholic, Rainier Beach and host Puyallup, are bridge between fall camp and start of regular season
PUYALLUP, Wash. — As a Kennedy Catholic senior, Derek Colman-Brusa knows he can’t hold off the inevitable — his high school career coming to a close.
The jump-start into the 2025 season happened Friday as the Lancers, Rainier Beach and host Puyallup held a live-scrimmage jamboree where they rotated for 10 plays on offense against one school then 10 plays on defense against the other school over 75 minutes at Sparks Stadium.
Colman-Brusa, the state’s top recruit headed to the University of Washington, soaked up every snap, either at left tackle on offense, or either side of the line at defensive end.
“I am super excited for the season,” Colman-Brusa said.
Jamborees happened all over the state Friday, and continued into Saturday as teams prepare for the start of the regular season next week.
“I’ve hosted jamborees every year as a head coach,” new Puyallup coach D.J. Mims said. “And it is really a chance for our kids to hit somebody else.”
Decades ago, this used to be the weekend of “neighborhood jamborees,” as Rainier Beach coach Corey Sampson called them. For many years, the metro schools in Tacoma played in something called the “Grid-Go-Round.”
Now, the way jamborees are set up against out-of-area programs, or schools in different classifications, they are largely just an exercise to get live work, and go home.
“When I played, we had neighborhood jamborees where inner-city schools played each other, and then you looked forward to the season,” Sampson said. “Here (at Sparks Stadium), we’ve got a good team here, good team there, and we butt heads and never see them again.”
Look at all these new players on Puyallup.