PEMBROKE — Friday night’s inaugural Robeson County Football Jamboree at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke will help shed some light on this season’s possible power and surprise football teams in the area.

All six Robeson County squads will take the field at Grace P. Johnson Stadium for an early taste of hard-hitting football wrapped in a regular season game-like atmosphere.

The nine-team evening scrimmage provides an opportunity for coaches to work on play-calling and scheme design while players practice on the field against competition other than their own teammates.

Purnell Swett and Fairmont will square off at 6:30 p.m. on field one while Hoke County and North Rowan play on field two. Mike Brill’s Lumberton Pirates follow on field one at 7:30 p.m. against South Robeson. On field two, St. Pauls and Hoke County square off, Fairmont and North Rowan battle on field three and Red Springs and Dillon Christian face off on field four.

The Pirates and Mustangs face Red Springs and Dillon Christian, respectively, in the 8:50 p.m. nightcap.

“I’m going to try and play a lot of guys in the first scrimmage,” Lumberton head coach Mike Brill said. “But, we won’t play a single starter in the late one against Red Springs. The main thing for us right now is staying injury-free. We already lost a starter to a broken arm in practice this week.”

Brill said there’s no need to do much scouting since the future opponents Lumberton will see Friday won't be playing the Pirates until late in the season.

“We don’t see Swett until the eleventh game,” Brill said. “It’s a great event for the fans, but I’m not sure how it helps Lumberton football.”

Each county team except Swett will play twice during the three-hour scrimmage. The Rams have elected to play only once during the event, since head coach Mark Heil’s bunch has already endured a full-contact scrimmage with Seventy-First Wednesday morning and are traveling to Overhills High School for a scrimmage Saturday at noon.

“We would love to play twice Friday like everyone else, but I don’t want to overdo it,” Heil said. “You are allowed seven hours of scrimmage time and even I think it’s a bit much.”

Heil added that the inaugural event is exciting for the community and that his team will be sure to scrimmage twice at the Jamboree in the future.

“I definitely want to do more of these,” Heil said. “UNCP is a great host and if we wouldn’t have signed up for a scrimmage in Harnett County months in advance, we would be playing two times. It’s our home scrimmage.”

UNCP head coach Pete Shinnick is happy to lend his home turf for the event and said he may even stop by for few snaps.

“There are some talented football players here in the area,” Shinnick said.. “I’ll be in and out to watch a few teams play on Friday.”