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Jessamine County makes plans to host bowl games

September 24, 2010|By Jonathan Stark | jstark@jessaminejournal.com

East quarterback David Powers (3) attempted to elude West defender David Sader and the Colt defense during the crosstown battle last year. (Journal file photo)

Starting next season, Jessamine County will play host to a high school football bowl.

Similar to the two bowl games East Jessamine played in at the beginning of the year, the yet-to-be-named bowl would be held on the first Friday of next year’s football season, Aug. 19.

“We feel like it would be a great opportunity to bring this community together,” district Athletic Director Ken Cox said, “where everyone can support Jessamine County.”

At a special session of the Nicholasville Tourism Commission on Thursday morning, Cox presented the plan, which calls for a football doubleheader to kick off the new season. The games would be held at whatever school the East versus West game is not played. Next year’s cross-town match-up is scheduled at West, so the bowl game would be held at East.

The district plans to bring in two out-of-town schools on two-year contracts. In the first year, one would play East and the other would play West; in year two, the out-of-town schools would play the Jessamine County school they didn’t play in year one.

Bringing a bowl game to Jessamine County is the brainchild of East’s and West’s coaching staffs and athletic directors. Cox approached Town Square Bank president Tommy Cobb about the possibility of the bank funding the bowl, and Cobb thought it would be a good idea to bring it before the tourism commission to get the community and more sponsors involved.

“This was something I had great interest at doing at a bank level,” Cobb said. “But I thought this would be something that tourism could get involved in.”

Cobb and the East program saw firsthand this season how well bowl games can do from a community and a monetary standpoint.

“To see the crowds come in and participate, I think it would be a tourism boon for Jessamine County and the city of Nicholasville,” he said.

Cox made his presentation before the commission and requested funding in the amount of $10,000 over the next two years. A motion was made and passed to fund the bowls at $5,000 per year. The money will cover the cost of trophies for winners and losers, MVP awards for each team, T-shirts for each player on all four teams and a $1,000 guarantee per year for each incoming team, as well as other expenses.

“We felt like that to get teams to commit to come in here and get them on a two-year contract, we had to make it relatively attractive financially,” Cox said.

The district is actively contacting schools to invite to next year’s bowls. Cox said he hopes to have the two teams locked down within the next month. A lot of schools are moving toward early-season bowl games, and Cox sees this as the right opportunity to get into the game and promote both programs and earn money.

There is also the possibility that the Kentucky Chapter of the National Football League Players Association Hall of Fame would participate in some fashion.

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