The annual Apple City Jamboree is barely in its second year of existence but the event already feels like it’s been a longtime tradition.
Watsonville High, Pajaro Valley High, St. Francis High and Monte Vista Christian will come together Friday at Emmett M. Geiser Field to participate in a set of friendly scrimmages for the upcoming season. Action is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.
The event is special because the four areas of the city — ranging from the outskirts of Amesti/Corralitos, the shore of Kelly Lake, old downtown Watsonville and the newer developed area of South Green Valley Road — will unite for a unique night of football.
“You kind of pull the reins off a little bit and let them play full speed and they get to go at it,” said Watsonville coach Ron Myers. “We don’t do much full speed at all in practice…Now all of a sudden you get to play.”
Myers said the players have seen the same faces for the past two weeks and have been eager to play someone new.
“They’re chomping at the bit to hit somebody,” Myers said.
The four teams have traditionally been a part of the long-running Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League Jamboree. In 2014, Watsonville tried to break away to host its own scrimmage but returned to the SCCAL Jamboree shortly after.
The four athletic directors came together in 2017 and pitched the idea to the four football coaches, whom quickly gave it the stamp of approval.
“I think it’s great and luckily the four coaches got together with the idea of doing it,” said PV coach Kevin Cordova. “We didn’t wanna get left out in the cold trying shuffle to find things so we said ‘Hey, we got four teams. It’s easy to rotate, let’s do it.’”
Cordova said this year’s jamboree should be even better because the J.V. teams will have a chance to scrimmage on the same day as the varsity teams. J.V. jamboree is slated to begin at 5 p.m.
“You’re going to have all those parents involved in the (J.V.) programs there and right into the varsity programs,” Cordova said. “I just think it’s a great community event for our guys to showcase and they’re going to be going up against guys that they went to the same middle school with…I think it’s fun for our kids and they’ve looked forward to it these last two years.”
M.V.C. coach Jubenal Rodriguez said he recalls there was something similar between Live Oak, Gilroy and San Benito a little more than 10 years ago but he has never seen anything like a one-city scrimmage.
“It’s a night where the community can come together and watch some high school football,” Rodriguez said. “This is kind of neat and I’m hoping the tradition continues to grow.”
Rodriguez said he likes the fact that it’s four different high schools in Watsonville that play in separate divisions but for one night they all get to showcase their talents on one field.
“It’s just an opportunity to get better and I think our kids get tired of going against each other during the whole spring and the whole summer,” Rodriguez said. “Our kids can finally go up against another face, another color, and it’s gonna be nice to see them compete.”
The location of the jamboree was expected to rotate from school to school but the event is returning to Watsonville High.
And like last year, the jamboree is expected to be a round robin format, which means coaches will know when first stringers are playing against first stringers and second stringers are playing against second stringers.
“I think it’s special for our kids,” said St. Francis coach John Ausman. “A majority of our kids are from Watsonville, so they have a bunch of friends.”
Ausman said for many of the teams this won’t be the last time they’ll see each other.
The Pacific Coast Athletic League split the Watsonville schools into three divisions last year, which means some teams will face each other during league play or possibly in a nonleague game.
Pajaro Valley is returning to the Santa Lucia division and joining them is St. Francis after it spent a season in the Cypress division. The Grizzlies and Sharks square off on Oct. 4 at Watsonville High.
St. Francis will also play Watsonville, which went down a level to the third-tier Cypress division, in a nonleague game on Sept. 13.
The Wildcatz and Grizzlies will have their annual meeting on Aug. 30 to play for the Belgard Kup.
M.V.C., which stayed put in the Mission division, is the lone team without a regular season matchup against the other three schools.
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Editor’s Note: This article will be published in the Aug. 23 edition of The Pajaronian.
