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Friday night at Memorial Stadium, a long-standing Dodge City High School ritual kept going. The annual Watermelon Scrimmage took place, which featured food, fun and of course football.
“It’s a long-standing tradition,” athletic director Jay Gifford said. “The last five or six years we added the introduction of all of the fall sports teams, which has been a hit. Then about three or four years ago, United Way started sponsoring us with the tailgate and food before.”
Basically, the scrimmage has been a part of Demon history for as long as many can remember. The significance is, is to hold a community event the week before the season opening football game. Gifford said it’s called the Watermelon Scrimmage because that’s what everybody used to eat at the end, so they’ve kept with the tradition.
“ At the end of the scrimmage we break out the watermelon,” Gifford said. “And everybody gets to eat some. Back in the day I think it started because there was no tailgate, so all the players and their parents would eat watermelon after.”
Besides the history, the current Demons put on a show for fans on the gridiron. Play in the scrimmage started a little slow with the offense struggling. All three quarterbacks — senior Brandon Blankman, junior Taylor Murphy and sophomore Kelan Newton each saw time behind center. Newton, who had a few mistakes early, came back and tossed two TD’s and added some nice runs as well.
The Demons will have a week to keep working on things as they open up the season on the road Friday against Wichita Southeast at 7 pm.
Friday night at Memorial Stadium, a long-standing Dodge City High School ritual kept going. The annual Watermelon Scrimmage took place, which featured food, fun and of course football.
“It’s a long-standing tradition,” athletic director Jay Gifford said. “The last five or six years we added the introduction of all of the fall sports teams, which has been a hit. Then about three or four years ago, United Way started sponsoring us with the tailgate and food before.”
Basically, the scrimmage has been a part of Demon history for as long as many can remember. The significance is, is to hold a community event the week before the season opening football game. Gifford said it’s called the Watermelon Scrimmage because that’s what everybody used to eat at the end, so they’ve kept with the tradition.
“ At the end of the scrimmage we break out the watermelon,” Gifford said. “And everybody gets to eat some. Back in the day I think it started because there was no tailgate, so all the players and their parents would eat watermelon after.”
Besides the history, the current Demons put on a show for fans on the gridiron. Play in the scrimmage started a little slow with the offense struggling. All three quarterbacks — senior Brandon Blankman, junior Taylor Murphy and sophomore Kelan Newton each saw time behind center. Newton, who had a few mistakes early, came back and tossed two TD’s and added some nice runs as well.
The Demons will have a week to keep working on things as they open up the season on the road Friday against Wichita Southeast at 7 pm.
