ROYAL CITY — The Royal Knights hosted the Ephrata Tigers, Moses Lake Mavericks and the Wenatchee Panthers for this year’s football Jamboree. This gave each of the teams a good feel of how they stack up against players from different conference levels prior to their first game of the season. 

“They played hard,” Knights Head Coach Wiley Allred said. “Plenty of mistakes for everybody, I'm sure, but had some guys in there that haven't seen a lot of time, and it was good to see them playing. We kept a few kids out just because they need to get healed up completely for next week, and so we're excited to get those other guys an opportunity, and they showed up fine.” 

The jamboree was played by each participating team’s varsity, JV and C-team squads, with both offense and defense getting 10 plays each against their opponent.  

A standout player for the Knights on Friday was Dax Jenks, who looks to not have missed a step since a highly productive season last year.  

“He was pretty special last year too,” Allred said. “He's a little bit bigger, about 190, and he's a fast, smooth runner and got a quick twitch too. On both sides of the ball, he stood out a lot.”  

Much like a preseason scrimmage, the jamboree provides players an opportunity to become familiar with what the game speed will ultimately look like once the season starts, said Allred.  

“We need a game or a jamboree like this,” he said. “It helps everybody at least get a little bit of the nervousness (out) and then to not have the coaches on the field is actually a good thing. That pushes the kids to figure out what they're supposed to be doing each play. And again, having some different kids that aren't starting normally out there was really beneficial for them.” 

The Tigers new starting quarterback this season Cooper Vasquez was excited to get some experience ahead of the new season.  

“I felt confident in our game,” Vasquez said. “Felt confident with our line and our receivers that they could catch. Felt like we did pretty decent for the first time playing all together. There’s definitely room to improve but definitely did good today.” 

Tigers Head Coach Patrick Mitchell also said the Jamboree provides an opportunity for players to get any errors out of the way now, where the stakes aren’t as high like in the regular season.  

“For some of the guys, it's their first true starting on varsity,” Mitchell said. “First time out, you're a little bit nervous, but saw some of our younger guys settle down as the scrimmages went on and played really good ball, proud of the boys.” 

With four different teams participating in the jamboree, three levels of Washington high school football were represented. The Mavs and Panthers come from the 4A, the Tigers from the 2A and the Knights in the 1A.  

Each team got an opportunity to play against each other throughout the event, providing players valuable experience of the types of teams they may encounter in their own respective conferences, Mitchell said.  

“You never know who a team, even in your own league, is going to have,” he said. “If they're big or if they're fast or whatever. It's nice to have that variance level of competition and just compete. Who cares who we're lining up against, we're going to go out and compete and give the best effort that we can, and we're going to do our stuff and be who we are.” 

For the Mavs, the jamboree was a great opportunity to tackle someone else other than a teammate.  

“You can see some of the guys flying around. They've been looking forward to it for about 12 days now,” Head Coach Kyler Haneberg said. “Going against a couple of really good teams that are physical as well gets us prepared for the season to come. Seeing those teams really helps, especially with Royal. They're really physical. They kind of match our physicality and our grit, and so it's really nice to see them every spring and every fall.”  

One of the big questions that surrounds the Mavericks heading into the 2026 season is who will take over as the starting quarterback after Brady Jay graduated. While they ran a few players behind center at the Jamboree, Haneberg said they are getting close to picking their guy – we'll just have to wait until their home opener against the Richland Bombers on Sep 4, he said. 

“You can see the guys that get more reps than others, and so our offense is really humming with one specifically, and so we're really happy to see that,” Haneberg said. “Especially today, going down, getting a couple touchdowns, and so we're happy to see that, and just kind of makes the decisions a little bit easier when you get against the other opponents, and they're making those great decisions.” 

Another standout player on offense Friday was Petrah Mackenzie, who got an opportunity to play running back, though he is typically on the defense at linebacker. With starter Elijah Burns a little dinged up, Mackenzie got a chance to show off his powerhouse style of running. 

“He's a guy that some dudes don't want to meet in the hole,” the coach said. “It's nice having him in there, and you can see those gaps open up right up for him, and he's going to run straight through those gaps, and anyone in his way.”  

With week one set to kick off next Friday, Haneberg and the Mavs hope to carry the energy they showed at the jamboree into practice this week and ultimately at Lions Field when they host the Bombers.  

“Our practice can't dip it all,” Haneberg said. “Keeping the energy all the way throughout the week, and our team does a really good job of that. Our captains are all hype energy guys, and so they bring the energy day in and day out, and so it makes it a lot easier for us coaches. They're a player-led program.” 

    Grant Wardenaar shows off his mobility, breaking out the pocket and sprinting downfield against the Wenatchee Panthers defense at the Jamboree.
  

    The Mavs’ Payton Phillips (65) calls out his assignment while lining up against the Royal Knights defense, Friday.
  

    The Knights’ Manny Ruvalcaba (in black) hauls in a deep passing touchdown against the Moses Lake defense.
  

    Mavs Head Coach Kyler Haneberg talks with Caden Barney between plays for the Moses Lake offense at the Jamboree, Friday.
  

    A Tigers player turns toward the sidelines as he tries to outrun the Moses Lake defense at the Jamboree, Friday.