Demopolis looking for effort in jamboree with Tuscaloosa County

Demopolis will get its final tune-up before the 2014 season Thursday when it travels to face Class 7A Tuscaloosa County High in a jamboree exhibition. A season after graduating some 30 seniors and readying to face a new look Class 5A, Demopolis will have every opportunity to test its mettle against one of the area’s most successful programs.

“Their size, as far as numbers go and physical size, as well as the speed of their team, it is an awesome opportunity to go out and see where we are,” Demopolis coach Tom Causey said. “In the past, they’ve been a 6A playoff team every year and now they’re going to be a 7A playoff team every year. It gives us an awesome opportunity to play in a big stadium in front of a big crowd and correct the mistakes we’re going to make.”

While many teams head into jamboree affairs looking to make last-minute decisions regarding starters, Causey said his team will make those decisions on a weekly basis this season.

“I think this year it’ll be all year long on all (positions),” Causey said. “There are so many unknowns on our team that I don’t think we have an answer to a lot of them.”

Causey said his primary focus heading into Thursday will be making sure his players play at maximum effort.

“We’ve got to play hard, stay on blocks, run to the football and make plays,” Causey said. “We’re going to have missed assignments. I understand that. But we need to play full speed.”

For much of the inordinately young Demopolis roster, Thursday will represent the first dose of real high school action, something Causey said he and his staff will do well to remember this season.

“It’s the first opportunity for a lot of our guys to be on the boundary, to be in the huddle on the field,” Causey said. “We’ll have a few more connections to make this year than we did last year because of the youth. With a lot of our team this year, a lot of the things we do with them will be the first time they’ve done it. Period. We have to remember that moving forward.”

The Tigers are set to kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday at Tuscaloosa County High School.