Sometimes, a Jamboree represents nothing more than a glorified practice.
Other times, it's almost invaluable.
Tuesday was a case of the latter for the Helias girls soccer team.
After losing eight seniors off last year's squad, the Lady Crusaders have found any time together in the preseason to be a valuable commodity.
"I'm very thankful to (Jefferson City coach) Tom (Guinn), letting us jump in at the last minute," Helias coach Brad Dempsey said after Tuesday's event at the 179 Soccer Park. "We have a young team and our coaching staff was saying, "We need to see somebody before we get going.' We've just been seeing each other all the time and the younger players don't get a grasp of what it's like to play on the big field. So it was great for Tom and the other teams to allow us to get in it."
Helias wasn't too hospitable to those teams once it got in. Playing with a running clock, the Lady Crusaders beat School of the Osage 3-0 in a 40-minute half and then beat Fatima 6-0 in a 35-minute half.
In the opener, Helias didn't score until midway through the contest when senior Julie Harris picked up a goal. Roughly one minute later, freshman Maya Heckart added another and freshman Michalee Sipi later got the final goal.
Against Fatima, the Lady Crusaders scored four goals in the first 71/2 minutes - back-to-back scores by Harris followed by back-to-back goals by junior Kayla Yanskey. Then with 15 minutes left, sophomore Lauren Alexander made it 5-0, and Sipi got the final goal with seven minutes remaining.
"We have some very fundamentally sound young players who understand how to play," Dempsey said.
Helias opens the season Friday against Rock Bridge. To accommodate the boys basketball team playing in the Final Four the same day, the game has been shifted to Columbia and will now start at 5:45 p.m. instead of 6:45 p.m.
"Our expectations (going into the season) are always the same - to play hard, be together, be a team, move the ball, make runs, communicate," Dempsey said. "Maybe we knew less of what to expect of our team (with the turnover), but I was very pleased with what we saw."