Moses Lake High School hosted six teams Saturday afternoon for a football jamboree at Lions Field as programs from the North Central Region kicked off their spring season.

Ephrata, Warden and Okanogan opened things up on Saturday morning. Teams alternated offense and defense, with junior varsity scrimmaging on the opposite end of the field.

Each team’s offense got 12 plays before swapping out sides.

The afternoon session featured Moses Lake, Royal and Cascade with the Chiefs offense opening the session against the Cascade defense.

Players and coaches were full of energy. Ephrata senior Tony O’Neel said emotions were high for all the Tigers heading into the jamboree.

“Everybody on the bus was saying they couldn’t sleep last night because they were so excited to play,” he said.

With only five games this season, he said, it’s important to keep that fire going heading into the Tigers’ opener this week against Wahluke.

“That’s what football is, a game of emotions,” O’Neel said. “If you’ve got that momentum on your side, good things are going to happen for the football team, so we’ve just gotta keep that up.”

Senior Tigers receiver Tyler Lybbert said the energy level was high for the whole team, even the non-starters on the sideline. After so much uncertainty, Lybbert said, it was nice getting to hit the field again.

“Now that we have an opportunity to play, I think it brought a little more energy to our seniors,” Lybbert said. “We thought it was over, so we were all amped up.”

Tigers head coach Jay Mills said he liked what he saw from his team Saturday. Mills said they have a lot of depth this season with their upperclassmen, which is a nice perk to have.

“I liked the way we moved around on defense, and defense in these situations is usually easier,” Mills said. “Offense, we’ve got some things to work out still and that can have its hiccups. But overall I’m pleased.”

Mills said the team has some blocking and timing issues to work on for the offensive side heading into their first game this weekend. But, he said that should all become tighter with more reps, week by week.

Offensively, he said they’re working with a smaller package with the shortened preseason and will maybe expand things as the season goes on.

Moses Lake head coach Todd Griffith said the team looked a little rusty in its first action in a year and a half.

“We’re just trying to figure it out,” Griffith said. “This is all the spring football we get, now it’s time to go. But I’m just glad for the kids, glad to be out here and get it going.”

Griffith said the blocking and tackling still needs improvement based off what he saw on Saturday afternoon. He said everything goes back to working on fundamentals as they look to their opening matchup with rival Wenatchee this weekend.

He said he was happy to see the Chiefs didn’t have any silly mistakes or penalties in the jamboree on Saturday, something you might expect given the short time to prepare. Griffith said the approach this week is just getting better than they were on Saturday and continuing to improve as the season moves forward.

Senior Moses Lake quarterback Everett Ashley steps in under center for the second season with the Chiefs. Ashley said it felt good getting back in action and added that the jamboree felt like almost a tease for their opening game.

“I cannot wait to get out under the lights when the time comes to play that first game,” Ashley said.

After a tough season in 2019, Ashley said the team feels improved. He said they still have a lot of work to do, but he’s just happy he and his fellow seniors get to play.

Ashley said it’s nice coming in with some experience under center as a senior, but added he still feels like he’s getting back into the groove after so much time away. Moving forward, he said the Chiefs will just need to work on improving every day.

“We’re just going to take the steps we need to to get better every day and fix the mistakes we made today,” Ashley said.

Moses Lake’s Lerenz Thomas said it was exciting being back out on Lions Field on Saturday afternoon. Thomas said the team was a little flat against Royal and Cascade and will need to work on the rustiness.

“We’re just making the most of every single time we get to play because for all we know we won’t be able to play the next game or the game after that,” Thomas said.

Moving forward, Thomas said his focus this season is doing everything he can to help his team win.