While most Class 5A and Class 6A football programs across the state are scheduled to play their first game of the season Friday, the West Brook Bruins and Beaumont United Timberwolves opted for what was an inauspicious Alumni Bowl scrimmage Thursday night.

But for West Brook head football coach Eric Peevey, the Bruins’ 48-7 win over Timberwolves still had the same atmosphere as a normal Alumni Bowl.

“It was a great atmosphere here tonight,” Peevey said. “The people of Beaumont love this game so I knew they were going to be out here. We really missed the bands, but we were fortunate to be playing because of the (coronavirus).”


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Beaumont Independent School District athletic director Ron Jackson decided a few weeks ago to change Beaumont’s most anticipated game of the season to a scrimmage. Jackson cited the lack of post-acclimation period practices leading up to the first game of the season as his reasoning to make the change.

“I felt that we were rushing to get a game in and not giving our student-athletes the amount of time needed to properly condition and acclimate before the first game,” Jackson said in an interview in early September. “With the UIL pushing back Sept. 7, now it is 7-11 days in pads. If the season would’ve started on Aug. 3 as originally scheduled you would’ve had 15-18 days with a scrimmage in between.”

The answer to whether a second scrimmage was helpful for both of Beaumont’s football programs differed between head coaches.

Peevey had no comment when asked, and United head football coach Marcus Graham felt his team needed all the reps it could get.