New Ozark coach Jeremy Cordell was familiar with jamborees during his 20 seasons coaching in Illinois, but will take part in his first such scrimmage Friday when the Tigers host Nixa and Kickapoo.
The Illinois State High School Association does not allow teams in any sport to schedule jamborees.
“Our neighbors (in Indiana) did it, so sometimes if we were going to play a cross-over opponent, we'd go over and watch their jamboree and feel a little jealous,” Cordell said.
He only sees positives in having a jamboree.
“This opportunity is outstanding,” Cordell said. “To be able to go under the lights and against another team is valuable.”
The jamboree will serve as the third straight Fotball Friday Night for Ozark in which the Tigers will see Nixa The two met in the final week of the regular season last year in the Backyard Brawl and again in their opening game of Districts.
The Eagles will see a much different version of Ozark this time around.
The Tigers will debut the gun rocket offense Cordell has instilled over the summer. He had his offenses operate the rocket, jet and spread offense his last nine seasons in Illinois.
Cordell is pleased how the Tigers have adapted to the changes he’s introduced to them.
"They love it. They see the intricacies behind it,” he said. “We're excited about our offense.”
Ozark is hoping the gun rocket will allow the Tigers to feature a fast, physical, wide-open offense with multiple tempos.
“It puts stress on a defense,” Cordell said. “It's going to stretch the field a little bit. There are a lot of different things we can do out of it. There is a lot of mis-direction.
"You have to pay attention to the details just like you do with any offense, with all the moving pieces,” he added. “It's got its basic principles, like the wing-T and jet offense. This is more out of the gun. A lot of it has to do with the blocking schemes you run up front. Instead of it being under center and more compact, it's spread out. (Defenses) have to adapt to that scheme and a more spread-out style of game.”
Cordell is confident Ozark fans will take a quick liking to the gun rocket.
“I think they will enjoy the tempo we run at and the diversity of the offense,” he said.
