El Dorado announced it will host North Little Rock on Friday, Aug. 28 in the varsity football benefit game at Memorial Stadium. The Wildcats will open the regular season the following week against Camden Fairview.
North Little Rock went 8-5 last season and advanced to the Class 7A state championship game.
El Dorado coach Steven Jones was asked about scheduling that level of opponent before the season opener.
“If there was a concern, we wouldn’t put them on our schedule,” he said. “We feel like they’re going to be a good measuring stick to see where we’re at going into the season. I know our kids will be excited.”
The Wildcats had played Nashville for benefit game action in recent years. Jones said North Little Rock fit into the schedule easier. The game with the Scrappers would’ve been on Aug. 20, two weeks before the regular-season opener.
“We were very fortunate to find somebody to fit that time slot. Before we filled everything up with North Little Rock, we had an agreement with Pulaski Robinson. But we were going to have to play a little bit earlier than we wanted to,” said Jones. “So once North Little Rock had that opening and approached us about it, it fit both of our schools. We really get a true trial run going into the season. We’ll play the Friday night before our actual first Friday night game. It’ll be like a normal game week for us and that will help in preparation.
“The thing about Nashville, we were going to have to play those guys two weeks early, skip a week and then play a Friday night game. It just didn’t fit either school, so we left it open until we found a school.”