With extensive changes throughout the event, Benton activities director Mike Ziesel had quite a bit to worry about in the days leading up to Friday’s City Football Jamboree.

When the final play was whistled dead at Spratt Stadium, however, Ziesel and fellow organizers breathed a satisfying sigh of relief at the conclusion of the city’s first preseason jamboree, which featured all four 11-man schools for the first time in more than 20 years.

“It was a great start to the school year,” Ziesel said. “I tried to ask people if they really liked it, and most of the people who knew about football liked it quite a bit.”

The main complaint seemed to stem from too much action taking place at once. For the first time, all four city schools took the field simultaneously and ran 12 plays each against each of their St. Joseph counterparts.

Although the crowd wasn’t informed of scores or individual accomplishments, the format drastically cut down on down time between quarters and moved the event along at a steady pace.

Although Ziesel estimated a slight drop in revenue from previous years, he said the event still drew a substantial crowd and should provide a healthy payment to each school despite no official sponsor.

Shortly after his team finished the event with a 2-0-1 record, Central coach Tony Dudik soaked in the postgame atmosphere after four years away from the jamboree.

“I was excited to be in this again and to play the other schools,” Dudik said. “Every one of those coaches and their teams did a great job. That’s the No. 1 thing.

“I am proud of St. Joe, Mo.”

Central’s QB controversy

In 36 plays, neither of Central’s signal callers stated their starting case well enough during last week’s jamboree. So the Indians’ quarterback controversy will spill into the regular season.

Senior Sheldon Farrell likely will start tonight’s game against Winnetonka but will switch off with sophomore Ryan Wallace every other series or so until coaches feel confident with one or the other.

“Both of them bring different things to the table,” Central offensive coordinator Jeff Wallace said. “We thought we’d have enough information to make a decision, but that didn’t happen. We just want one of them to step up to take the job.”

Both players showed to ability to complete routine swing and shovel passes but displayed mixed results while throwing downfield last week.

Regardless of who seizes the opportunity, the Indians will need a consistent effort under center to complement a stout backfield — especially with a tough Suburban League Big 7 slate.

“I know we can run the football. There’s no doubt in my mind,” Jeff Wallace said. “We need to be able to throw the football overall most consistently, and we have not done that to this point.”

Pained Pirates

Injuries scraped Platte County’s backfield thin on back-to-back plays at last week’s jamboree.

During the scrimmage against St. Pius X, the Pirates lost starting running back Marccus Spearman (dislocated elbow) and backup Tanner McLaughlin (broken leg) on consecutive plays — adding even more inexperience to coach Bill Utz’s team.

“I think I’m still reeling a little bit on the whole deal,” Utz said. “But there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. You’ve just got to keep going.”

According to Utz, Spearman should be able to being practice again in three to four weeks, while McLaughlin’s recovery is expected to take at least six. In their stead, receiver Karim Tanus has switched to running back and will be in competition for the starting duty tonight against Belton — the state runner-up in Class 5 a year ago.