By Tom Dodge

sportsenews@bellsouth.net

The Eunice High Jamboree Classic will be held Saturday at the Bobcat gym with 11 teams from around the area participating in the annual kickoff of the high school basketball season.

“This is an exciting time with the beginning of the season,” Eunice High Robert Trent said of the jamboree. “Everybody is anxious to see what the team is like against other competition.

“It is always a good day of basketball,” the coach said. “It doesn’t matter what classification, there is plenty of talent in the area and they are playing great quality basketball.

“The jamboree has been great for us over the years,” Trent said of his 24th season as the Bobcat head coach. “This should be at least our 28th year or more of hosting the jamboree and it has been great every year.”

“We host a lot of good teams from the parish and surrounding parishes,” he said. “We also get an early look of a couple of teams from our district (Crowley and Northwest).”

The Port Barre Lady Devils will take on the Beau Chene Lady Gators at 9:30 a.m.

The Port Barre Red Devils will face the Beau Chene Gators at 10:30 a.m.

The St. Edmund Lady Jays will entertain the Rayne Lady Wolves at 11:30 a.m.

The host Eunice Bobcats B team will face the Iota Bulldogs in boys action at 12:30 p.m.

The Eunice Lady Cats B team will take on the North Central Lady Hurricanes at 1:30 p.m.

The Crowley Gents will face the North Central Hurricanes at 2:30 p.m.

Northwest and Ville Platte will battle in girls action at 3:30 p.m. followed by the Raiders and Bulldogs boys scrimmage at 4:30 p.m.

The Lady Cats A team will conclude girls action against the Mamou Lady Demons at 5:30 p.m.

The Eunice Bobcats will take on Mamou at 6:30 p.m. in the finale.

“The jamboree is to work on the things we need to work on to get the season off to a good start,” Trent said. “Playing good competition will show us where we are and where we need to be.”

“We have a lot of freshmen out and there are some good athletes in that group that should be able to contribute,” Trent said of his team led by seven seniors will have experience and youthfulness. We have the potential for a good year.”

“We should be very competitive this year in Class 3-A,” Trent said. “Hopefully we can get the season off to a good start even without the football guys playing yet.”

The games will consist of two 10-minute halves with a five-minute halftime.

Admission is $6.