WILMINGTON, N.C.— The Annual Bash at the Beach Football Jamboree is back again this year. 

What You Need To Know

  • High school football seasons kick off Aug. 18
  • The Bash at the Beach Football Jamboree  replaces the original BB&T Football Jamboree after it was canceled three years in a row
  • The first year of the event was much smaller, with only six teams, but it has expanded to 16

For over 30 years, Jimmy Fletcher has been coaching football at both the college and high school levels. 

He coached 10 of those years for West Brunswick High School before becoming athletic director there. 

“The very first time I actually walked on the stadium at Legion Field and there was probably 10,000 people in the stadium and I just was kind of blown away at the participation and the people, the involvement with the people,” Fletcher said. 

Fletcher recounts his first memory of the historic event. The event started in 1986, but was canceled three years in a row. Because of these cancellations, he wanted to bring it back but make it better. 

“We decided, hey, let's make it the best one in the state and the biggest one in the state. So we basically took our conference, it's versus another, you know, basically eight teams,” Fletcher said. 

Fletcher says this event is for more than just the athletes, it's also for the whole community of Shallotte. 

“We feel like now that we're doing this, I do think a lot of people will actually come to Shallotte and see all the places that we have that that, you know, you can eat or you can do basically anything that you want to do,” Fletcher said. 

But it wasn’t just Fletcher. The brains behind the Bash at the Beach Football Jamboree is TJ Spivey. 

Spivey used to coach baseball at West Brunswick High School, and he also played in the original BB&T Football Jamboree in the early 2000s when he was in high school. 

“Some my best high school memories are playing in the jamboree,” Spivey said. 

At last year's event, there were more than 17,000 viewers both at the game and through streaming. 

Spivey recalls his time as a player, saying, “and when I played back in 2001, '02 and '03, we had 13,000 people come to those games.”

They look to pass those numbers at this year's event.