The Daily Times

Jamborees are largely vanilla.

Nobody wants to show too much of the playbook or risk an unnecessary injury before the season truly begins and wins and losses count.

And while the Maryville Orthopaedic Clinic Blount County Football Jamboree was definitely vanilla, it wasn’t the melty, runny kind in a plastic cup. It was that right out the freezer, vanilla bean strong enough to remind you that there is a flavor to the flavor with a few extra crunchy things on top to reward you for touching that frozen bowl with a bare hand.

What sweet treat to see newly minted starting quarterbacks succeed on first drives under the lights.

Peyton Wall dropped back and the 36-yard throw to Malik Love was right on for the night’s first touchdown and it came with an air of confidence that seemed to suit the Alcoa junior quarterback. Maryville’s Nick Myers wasn’t as polished as his predecessor at the Rebel quarterback position, but then who is? Instead the senior went about with an intensity and enthusiasm visible from the top row of the stands as he made Maryville just as efficient as ever on a 2-minute drive mixing pass and run.

“I think that’s what we’re going to do. We obviously have to run it some,” Maryville coach George Quarles said. “Don’t think we got anybody hurt and that’s a plus. Then we had some success.”

Greenback’s Eric Anderson seemed able to mix it up and while there was a heft dose of Richard Seymour to the left, Richard Seymour to the right, there was that nice long throw to Landon Disney and Anderson’s quarterback sneak for the score.

“We got in a couple of situations where we had to go outside the box a little bit, that’s not trying to be vanilla, it’s what we want to do, it’s part of our offense,” Greenback coach Justin Ridge explained. “When you only have to do go outside the box a couple times that’s what you want to be able to do.”

William Blount’s Tim Green showed versatility against Alcoa then a big time arm in the skills competition by winning the longest throw. Heritage used both RT Byrd and Jake Olvey and both showed flashes of success against Maryville.

“We weren’t too basic. We were trying to do all those things we normally do establish the run and those things we all say with those coaching cliches,” HHS coach Tim Hammontree said.

There was even a few sprinkles of fun. Braylon Young’s fumble return for the Tornadoes, the exchange of fumbles around the goal line by Maryville and Heritage and the interception that was fumbled away.

Toss in a good first showing by Greenback sophomore kicker Masey Fox — who really is more remarkable as the twin filling in for injured twin, rather than the fact she happens to be a girl — and there was a lot to see at Maryville Friday besides admiring the new turf and video board.

So even if it was supposed to be vanilla — and with the seven-foot multi-colored ice cream cone mascot wandering the stands vanilla wasn’t the first flavor to come to mind — it was that good kind that ends up creating 20-minute detours in a day just to stop by that particular place to have it again.

Marcus Fitzsimmons is sports editor at The Daily Times, who enjoys reading comments posted to this column at http://thedailytimes.com