Although it won’t count in overall standings, Friday’s Kingwood Jamboree will go a long way in telling the Patriots how much they have progressed during the summer.

“The kids are tired of hitting each other,” said Patriots head coach Gene Allen. “Hopefully this will be good. I am expecting some great things from our kids.”

The Patriots will be joined by Coosa Valley and Evangel, with the Patriots playing each team for two quarters.

“This means a lot,” Allen said. “These are the type of games where we don’t want to lay an egg. We want to know where we stand and what we need to work on. This will give us a good reference point and show us what we need to do.”

Allen hopes this jamboree will give his players the opportunity to move around and get comfortable with positions on both side of the ball.

“We have guys play in different spots,” Allen said. “We have to have the 11 we want on offense and the 11 that we want on defense. We are going to be looking for kids that could give us some quality minutes and be ready to play when the regular season gets here. We are going to look at as many players as we can.”

Last year the Patriots were decimated by injuries. Being able to find depth and to be able lock players in positions is important. Even though they don’t want to get anybody injured, the Patriots won’t hold anything back when the whistle blows.

“We are just going to go out there and play,” Allen said. “We have to get better at what we do. When you start playing at half speed and doing what you are supposed to do you are going to get hurt anyway. We don’t want to lose anybody, but with that being said we need some game experience.”

The Patriots hope to play a complete well-rounded football game on Friday. If they are able to do that it can springboard them towards success early on in the regular season.

“Our kids know they worked hard and that we have a chance to be a pretty good football team,” Allen said. “If we go out and lay an egg then we can get back into that same old mode of here we go again. If we can go and play good we can build some confidence.”

The jamboree will kick off in Alabaster at 7 p.m. on Friday.