High School Football Season Begins With Friday Jamborees

High School football around Missouri is set to kick off real soon.

This Friday, after spending the summer hitting the same players and seeing the same faces on the practices fields, players will take the field for jamborees. At 7 p.m. will be hosting its own jamboree.

For the Lions, the jamboree will be the preseason kick-off for the 2012 season. The season, which won't start until Aug. 24, will have a new District look this season. 

The Missouri State High School Activities Association released District assignment earlier this spring for the 2012 and 2013 season. Under the old format, schools were placed in four or five-team Districts and the last three to four weeks of the regular season became the de facto playoffs. A team that 0-7 in the regular season could go 3-0 in Districts and make the State Tournament. 

That system has been scrapped. Now each school is in an eight-team District that places a higher emphasis on every game counting. 

From MSHSAA:

The new format will create a nine-game regular season with schools scheduling all nine of these games. The 10th week will be the beginning of the District Championships. Teams will be placed into districts comprised of eight teams and seeded by a point system over the nine-game regular season.  The third game of the championship series would be the district championship game, eight district champions and eight district runner-ups being crowned.  

Here is a look at the new Districts. 

New Districts: 

Class 6, District 3

• Francis Howell
• Francis Howell Central
• Hickman
• Jefferson City
• Rock Bridge
• Troy Buchanan

Class 5, District 3

•  
• Parkway Central
• Parkway North
• Parkway West

 Class 2, District 5

• Bowling Green
• Clark County
• Clopton
• Highland
• Mark Twain
• Monroe City
• Palmyra