NATCHEZ — Several local teams were set to get some much-needed work in Friday night in a couple of local jamboree games, but Mother Nature planned otherwise.

Heavy rain and lightning forced Natchez High School and Cathedral to cancel their Friday night jamborees.

Centreville Academy was also scheduled to play Friday night in the Parklane Academy jamboree, but inclement weather forced that jamboree to be moved to 4 p.m. today, Tigers assistant coach Brian Stutzman said.

While Cathedral’s jamboree matchup with Wilkinson County Christian Academy has been moved to 7 tonight, NHS was unable to get enough teams to commit to coming back Saturday.

NHS head coach Lance Reed said even after most of the rain had moved out of the area, there was still too much lingering lightning for the jamboree games to be played safely.

“It’s really disappointing, because this scrimmage allows us the chance to make corrections and do what we need to do to get ready for what really counts,” Reed said.

“We just have to really evaluate ourselves next week and make sure we really know where we are, and make sure we’re ready to go.”

The Bulldogs were set to host Wilkinson County, Jefferson County, Amite County, Wingfield and Port Gibson. Jefferson County would have played Amite County at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by Wilkinson County versus Wingfield at 7 and NHS versus Port Gibson at 8.

Wilkinson County head coach Kenneth Brown said he was also disappointed the NHS jamboree was canceled, but there was nothing anyone could do about Mother Nature.

“You miss out on an opportunity to see what kids can do against other teams in the area, how they match up besides people you practice against day to day,” Brown said.

And there isn’t much Wilkinson County can do to emulate a game-type atmosphere in practice.

“The only thing we can do now is go back, pull some tape and start working on Natchez,” Brown said.

Wilkinson County opens its season against NHS next Friday.

The Cathedral coaches are at least thankful they can still see some game action today, since the WCCA coaches agreed to come back.

“I think we need to get on the field, whether today or tomorrow,” Cathedral head coach Ron Rushing said Friday night. “We’re fortunate enough that WCCA said they could come back. We would’ve been in a bind had they not.”

While lightning was one reason Cathedral postponed the jamboree, Rushing also said he didn’t want to play on a wet field when it wasn’t a regular-season game.

“As badly as we wanted to play, with 5 inches of rain, we didn’t want to risk injuries,” Rushing said. “That was the biggest thing.”