JASPER, Texas — Football is almost here Southeast Texas.
The Jasper Bulldogs sharpen their skills as they played host to the Vidor Pirates and Nacogdoches Dragons on August 22.
Fans packed the stands for Thursday night action where each team played 15 minute non-stop quarters.
Each team would take turns rolling out their offensive and defensive units.
The first set of teams to touch the gridiron was the Vidor defense and Jasper offense.
Vidor made a few stops, but Jasper moved the ball downfield with precision.
Only six returned on the offense for the Bulldogs, however they will return their now senior quarterback Isaiah Coleman and elite tight end talent Kiotti Armstrong who can give life to a dormant offense.
Head Coach Kendrick Crumedy told 12News in an interview about how much of a threat Armstrong can be saying, "when people try to double him, we can motion him, move him around and get in bunch formations (...) you have to know where he's at."
On the other side of the field, the Vidor Pirates have some underclassmen who will need to step up in 2024 to help move the team forward.
Offensively they retain six as well, but the big names of quarterback Daigen Venable and halfback Riley Marlow will help mentor some of the youth in Vidor.
Jasper is a fantastic opponent to use as a ruler to measure where exactly the program is at, and that was the plan Dubois had when he originally agreed to the scrimmage.
"One of the reasons we wanted to play Jasper and scrimmage them was because they got a lot of speed, lot of talent, and great coaching. We got some young kids back there that were kind of like 'woah these guys are fast' so they learned a little bit," said Dubois.
This week will conclude the 2024 scrimmages across the state as next week football will officially begin this season.
Jasper will host Tyler Chapel Hill while the Vidor Pirates will head to Silsbee to face the Tigers, both games to be played on August 30.