It’s time for football season once again, and four local schools will kick off the season a week early in jamboree games.

The Demopolis Tigers will host the Sweet Water Bulldogs on Friday, Aug. 23 for the annual jamboree matchup between the two teams.

Demopolis head coach Tom Causey said he likes playing Sweet Water in this game because he knows he will get a good game with them and both teams can work on some things they need to work on.

One thing the Tigers will be working on is filling a hole at several positions due to an injury to a star player on the team.

Demetrius Kemp, who was set to start at safety, slot receiver and kick returner, tore a tendon in his left hand in preseason camp, and he is expected to miss the early part of the season. Kemp was The Demopolis Times Player of the Year in 2012.

Causey said Kemp was seeing a specialist Tuesday to find out the extent of the injury, and that he could be back as early as the midway point in the season. Causey added there was the possibility that Kemp could miss the entire season, depending on the severity of the injury.

Also playing in a jamboree will be the Linden Patriots. They will host the Thomasville Tigers and the Pickens County Tornadoes. Linden is the No. 3 team in the Alabama Sports Writers Association Class 1A poll and Pickens in the No. 4 ranked team in the poll. Thomasville is ranked outside the top 10 in Class 4A, but they did receive votes in the poll.

A.L. Johnson travels to Selma on Thursday evening to take on Southside Selma High School. ALJ head coach Mose Jones said the game will be good for his team to get used to the speed of the game again before the season really starts.