The wait for the high school football season to begin is quickly coming to an end.

The days of pep rallys, pom poms, cheers and chants are almost upon us, and it all begins with this weekend’s Red Carpet Bowl Football Classic.

For all the excitement surrounding the Friday night pairings, the classic spans sports, academics and community involvement, all topics Travis Wayne Vance of the Red Carpet Bowl committee discussed at the Vicksburg Kiwanis Club meeting Tuesday.

“It’s 30 people who donate their time to help put on a football game to raise money for our local students,” he said of the classic.

The bowl, which began in 1962 as a fundraiser for a local athlete, didn’t always award scholarships, but after the passing of the original benefactor, Leo Puckett, a Jett High School football player who was paralyzed during a game in 1953, the classic had to adapt.

“We as a Red Carpet Bowl had a decision to make. We could fold at that particular moment or we could carry on, and we did. We decided the graduating seniors we have in Vicksburg and Warren County would be given scholarships,” Vance, who filled in for committee chairman Gary Anderton, said.

In the years since their early 1990s decision, Vance said the Red Carpet Bowl committee has awarded $300,000 in scholarships to local students.

Three scholarships are awarded to students at Warren Central and Vicksburg high schools and one scholarship is awarded to a student at both St. Aloysius High School and Porters Chapel Academy each year, he said.

And it’s all done through volunteer effort.

“The men work their fannies off for nothing except to help the youth in our community,” Vance said of the 30 men who serve on the Red Carpet Bowl committee.

The volunteers cook a meal for all the players and coaches of the two home teams, make food for spectators and handle all other aspects of the classic, he said.

“Behind the scenes you have to deal with the Mississippi High School Activities Association, the coaches, the referees and whoever else we pay to clean up, turn the lights off and everything else,” he said of the committee’s treasurer.

On Friday, the first game between the Warren Central Vikings and the Oak Grove Warriors kicks off at 6 p.m. with the next game between the Vicksburg Gators and the Wayne County Eagles immediately following.

Tickets are $12 at the gate or can be purchased in advance for $10 at River Outfitters, VHS and Warren Central high schools and junior highs, or the VWSD athletic office on Mission 66.