Lely Participates in Unique Spring Jamboree

You may see better running, passing and tackling at other spring jamborees, but it’s unlikely you’ll ever see as many officials at a football game at any level. While most schools are playing their spring games the following weekend, Lely, Barron Collier and Immokalee and host First Baptist Academy (FBA) staged a spring jamboree Saturday morning in part to help out the local officials who were breaking in new crop of officials.

There’s an old saying that spring games are when officials get their practice. On this day, the officials were having as many corrective suggestions hollered at them as the players were. It was a dynamic that worked very well.

Cooperation was so strong that when the public address announcer asked for three volunteers to work on the “chain gang,” he quickly had competent volunteers manning the down and distance markers.

One the field, FBA looked every bit of a Final Four team. They scored in two plays against Lely with precision passing, in a format that allowed each team two, eight play possessions against each team. Teams started each possession on the 40-yard line, heading to the goal line. All four teams were on the field at the same time. There was a lot of energy, between the coaching, the referees coaching, and the players going all out against their cross-county rivals.

Lely head coach, JJ Everage, is entering his fourth season at the helm. He is 13-17-1 overall with the Trojans. Everage has had success at Lely, including the program’s first district win in a while, a 28-26 win over Ida Baker in 2020. Everage had a winning record against Barron Collier, Golden Gate and Palmetto Ridge with defeats against all three. Everage’s teams have also faced some of the toughest teams in the state in Miami Central, Champagnat Catholic (twice), and Ft. Lauderdale Dillard. Of course, no one seems to beat Naples. Everage was generally happy with his team’s performance.

“Just a jamboree,” JJ Everage said after the final whistles were blown. "It’s like a practice. You rotate around. Scrimmage. Hitting somebody besides each other. That’s all it is”

Everage liked a lot of what he saw. 

"I’m confident in them,” Everage said. "It’s one thing when you’re hitting each other all week. You’re going against your buddy. Now you’re going against an opponent. I think that’s the best thing we can take from it. It’s one thing to tell them to practice hard and go fast. When they see it, there’s no more coaches standing beside you telling you how to line up. You’re on your own. That’s the biggest positive we can take from it. That and the game speed. Taking what you’ve been coached and applying it to the game situation.”

Jakeem Tanelus produced Lely’s only points of the day on a long heave.

“Jakeem Tanelus, playing a little backup quarterback,” Everage said, "threw the ball really well for us today. He’s a dual athlete.”

Everage has to feel good having Guerschom Guerrier back for his senior season. Guerrier has been one of the top runners in the area since he was a sophomore.

"We know what Guerschom Guerrier is capable of,” Everage said.

The coach also like the way the offensive line is coming together.

"We saw the pass protection wasn’t bad,” Everage said. "It was pretty good. In past years we’ve struggled with that. Not being able to pass protect. I thought today we protected well enough. We’ve just gotta keep building the quarterbacks up and the receivers up on what we’re trying to do as far as the passing game. Guerschom’s a beast, but our offensive line, we have a lot of new faces. Mikey Lastra, Andrew Martinez, got a true freshman in there at left tackle who everybody knows, Woody Celucien. Those guys, for the first time since I’ve been here, they want to play offensive line. They take it seriously. These guys haven’t played a lot of varsity football, so it was nice to see them open some holes.

Everage seems to like the toughness of this team. He saw his defense getting after people.

"It was refreshing to see that we weren’t afraid to hit,” Everage said. "We looked good up front, our defensive line and linebackers.”

Lely travels to play Lehigh for their spring game on Thursday, May 19. Lehigh features one of the top running backs in the nation in Richard Young, a five-star prospect who has narrowed his college choices to seven: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas A&M.

The Lehigh coach was on the sidelines Saturday. When asked where Young was heading, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “He has a lot of choices.” Young has rushed for 3,591 and 33 touchdowns so far in high school.