The High Point Rockers baseball team has garnered a lot of publicity over the last couple of years, but it’s another area baseball team – the venerable High Point-Thomasville HiToms – that’s working with a storied local business to create a new sports event that doesn’t involve baseball at all.
The HiToms are teaming up with Mickey Truck Bodies to establish the 2021 Triad Kick-Off which is a preseason football showcase event that will feature four games between eight area high school teams
The games will be played as doubleheaders over two nights – Thursday, August 19 and Friday, August 20 – at Simeon Stadium in the High Point Athletic Complex. It will start at 6:30 p.m. on August 19 with a varsity contest at Simeon Stadium and a junior varsity game at an adjacent field.
The teams taking part in the first-ever event are High Point Central, Southwest Guilford, Randleman, North Davidson, Oak Grove, Thomasville, Ledford and Wheatmore high schools.
“Spirit groups” will also be a part of the event. That’s cheerleaders, bands and such rather than ghosts who like football.
Mickey Truck Bodies is a truck body and trailer maker that was founded in High Point in 1904. The HiToms are also proud of their history, which dates back more than 70 years. For 18 of those years, the HiToms have been sponsoring High Point-Thomasville’s American Legion Baseball program – and it was those spring baseball classics that paved the way for this new sports event in the city.
HiTom’s Owner Greg Suire, who’s usually talking about baseball rather than football, stated in a Thursday, Feb. 25 press release that he wants this event to be very special for the players and attendees.
Hopefully, by August, the pandemic will be a thing of the past and there will be no limits on crowd size at high school football games as there is now.
“As a former high school football player,” Suire stated in the press release, “I understand the electricity and passion associated with ‘Friday Night Lights.’ This grueling pandemic has taken so much away from our youth, and the HiToms and Mickey Truck Bodies intend to provide an experience this fall that our area student-athletes, cheerleaders, band members and school boosters will treasure for a lifetime.”
Tickets will be announced after the conclusion of the spring high school football season and will be available at participating high schools.
Ledford High School Head Football Coach Chris Adams said he’s looking forward to it and he hopes it becomes a new yearly tradition.
