Cumberland county football jamboree video highlights 2025
Here are highlights from E.E. Smith, Westover, Terry Sanford, Cape Fear and more teams at the 2025 CCS Football Jamboree.
The 2025 Cumberland County high school football jamboree has wrapped, with all 10 public school teams suiting up to officially begin their seasons.
This year’s scrimmages were divided into two sites, Gray’s Creek and Terry Sanford high schools, with four 60-minute games played at each field.
With observations made at both sites, here’s what the Fayetteville Observer learned about all 10 Fayetteville-area football teams headed into Week 1 of the NCHSAA season.
Douglas Byrd football still struggling with numbers
It’s a new era on Ireland Drive with alumnus, Dontre Brown, at the head of the Eagles program. But sadly, the Douglas Byrd team continues to struggle with participation numbers, and the effort told their story at the jamboree.
The Eagles started their game against Lumberton with a lot of fight, but after the first 20 minutes of play, bodies began to drop, and bumps, bruises, and fatigue started to plague the Douglas Byrd players.
Byrd gave up a 70-yard pick-six and a slew of touchdowns to Lumberton, who toppled the Eagles, 28-0, after putting up a 20-point second half.
“I need commitment and consistency,” new head coach Dontre Brown said. “I haven’t been getting much commitment, and there hasn’t been much consistency. If I had both of those, then I could do something with that.”
South View vs. Pine Forest
South View came out with intensity that mimicked a game that counted towards the wins column. The Tigers lined up with a new quarterback, former offensive lineman and tight end, Jamal Brown. While his game is still coming together behind center, Coach Rodney Brewington feels that Brown is “poised” and was impressed with how he came in and won the starting job after never playing quarterback in the Tigers’ system.
The Tigers had outstanding performances, especially on the defensive side, from Malyk McLean, who had a pick-six score early on in the scrimmage, Brendan Jones, and TJ Davis held their own and produced big plays at the right time for South View in the 27-0 shutout.
Pine Forest, also under a new head coach, Kevin Inman, had trouble with offensive production in their first showcase as a team, along with difficulty getting consistent stops on defense.
While they continue to iron out all the details of their newly coached squad, the Trojans looked offensively confused in the first couple of drives, except for Rutgers commit, Donovan Johnson. On defense, Uriah Riggins, a top area talent, picked up some solid tackles that gave promise to a young defense.
Seventy-First football hasn’t missed a step
Unlike the rest of the teams that played on Friday, Seventy-First scrimmaged for the first time in the preseason, their first full-team showing since the 3A state championship loss last season — but the Falcons didn’t miss a step.
Apex Friendship took a shot downfield during the first drive of the game, and caught a 25-yard pass to move the chains, but the tables turned quickly when LB Xavieon Gear took an interception to the house to put the Falcons up 7-0 early, and the punches kept rolling afterwards.
With solid snaps from USF commit Jayson Franklin and Shon Pone, who both scored twice on the night with long-distance runs, the Falcons were their dominant selves.
While the Falcons’ quarterbacks have been enthralled in a three-way competition during the preseason, involving Ben Cashen, Rumanni Watson, and Jabari Mwamba, and on Friday, they made it an interesting decision going into Week 1 for Falcons coach, Duran McLaurin.
“It looked like a competition tonight,” McLaurin said after the 42-0 preseason win. “Last year, we had one guy we could put at quarterback. And after our JV guy was hurt in the last game of the season, we didn’t have another guy who could go out there and take another snap. Now, we have three guys that can — it’s good to see them competing with each other, and this is only going to make them better.”
Jack Britt vs. Gray’s Creek
Gray’s Creek closed out the scrimmages with a home game against former conference foes Jack Britt, and coach Jon Sherman was most excited about his “two’s” and the production that they gave on the night.
“I know what my one’s can do, but I was really impressed with my two’s —I’m so happy because some of these guys don’t get the chance, and I told them to take the opportunity tonight to get on the field on Friday nights,” Sherman said.
Jack Britt returned a large core of its offense and defense from a year ago. Emmorian Towns, Liberty commit Jaleel Parker, Charleston Southern commit Javonte Brooks, and Jeremyah McLaurin were all talented guys who made a difference for the Buccaneers.
Running back Eric Payne got a taste of the end zone with a blast to the sideline that turned into six in the first half in the Bucs’ win.
E.E. Smith football has splashy scrimmage
The Golden Bulls kicked off the jamboree on Bill Yeager Field with a 75-yard touchdown pass from Nick Williams to Jalen Mitchell in a splashy scrimmage performance on both sides of the ball.
“I love the execution. Guys did their job,” Golden Bulls coach Te’Vell Williams said after the matchup with J.F. Webb. “I coach effort. Give effort on every play. Don’t leave anything in the tank and be excellent at everything you do, and they exemplified that today. They were flying around every down, weren’t giving up, didn’t take any plays off, and that’s how you win games.”
Williams saw improvement from the squad’s first scrimmage as Smith drove into the backfield for several would-be sacks, tipped passes and picked off three, with Aiden Smith returning one for a TD against Webb, coached by former E.E. Smith and Fayetteville State defensive lineman Keionte Gainey.
The Golden Bulls’ offense, with Williams in command, looks balanced and sharp, with good size on the edges and a ground game led by David Hickmond opponents would be wise to respect.
Westover football’s young offense balanced by strong defense
With a new coach comes a new system at Westover, where a young offense is starting to click and a sturdy defense is further along.
“Defense really showed up, got two turnovers, was really physical, setting the tone,” coach Justin Sherrod said after a jamboree matchup against Red Springs. “That was my whole message over the summer: Set the tone.”
Senior two-way standout Tramell Hankins had one of the Wolverines’ interceptions, and he’s a threat on offense, where Sherrod has the benefit of budding playmakers like quarterback Eric Kline and running back Elijiah Carswell among his young squad.
“A whole new system, it’s just going to take some time,” Sherrod said. “We’re still in Phase 1. … We’re waiting to see who will step up.”
Terry Sanford football auditions X-factors
The Bulldogs sat their starters after having already played two scrimmages and facing two-time reigning regional champ Seventy-First next week.
Coach Bruce McClelland used a jamboree scrimmage against Overhills to size up his backups.
“We’ve been playing a lot of young kids, freshmen and sophomores. They deserve to play, too, and some of them we’ll have to count on at some point in the season,” he said, pointing out the jamboree performance Jon’merr Hayes, who ground out some tough yards for the Bulldogs and recovered a fumble. “Not real big, but he’s got a big heart,” McClelland said.
“Every time we come down to the end of the year, to the playoffs, we’ve used somebody like that to kind of help us get to the next round.”
Cape Fear football still a bruiser
The Colts had headliner aura in front of a cowbell-ringing crowd against Hoke County, but they couldn’t quite make it all click early on.
“We were sloppy,” coach Jacob Thomas said. “We ran some of our stuff well and then we were inconsistent and we’d make a mistake; a missed block, a penalty, an overthrown ball, a bad snap … just very inconsistent and that’s something we’ve got to fix moving forward.”
Three-year starting QB Geronimo Sanchez’s running attack was reined in with preseason rules in place to protect quarterbacks from contact, and a loose whistle made it difficult to gain momentum.
Cape Fear’s defense fared better, terrorizing the Bucks with relentless pressure and keeping them out of the end zone with a goal-line stand.
“They stepped up and responded,” Thomas said of the stand.