With one week to go before its season opener at Shawnee Mission North, the Free State High football team huffed and puffed its way to a realization Thursday.

“I’m seeing that we’re not in very good shape yet,” coach Bob Lisher said after the jamboree scrimmage at Free State. “We’re going to have to do a lot of work conditioning-wise to get ourselves ready for Thursday night.”

The varsity football scrimmage was the highlight of Thursday’s jamboree, a celebration of the fall sports season. Cross country also went to work, running a mile on the surrounding track.

The football team, despite being fatigued, showed good signs Thursday. The white team scored first when sophomore Ryan Murphy connected on a 56-yard pass to junior Ben Bell for the first-half touchdown.

Sophomore Robert Rose added a score in the second half for the green team, and the two sides settled for a 7-7 stalemate in this year’s first scrimmage in front of their fellow students.

“They like getting out here and performing for people,” Lisher said. “They’re always a little nervous the first time in front of everybody, but I thought the second half we started to pop a little bit better and started to do some things rather than worry about who was watching.”

Now, it’s time to go to work. As if the preseason wasn’t short enough for high school football teams in Kansas with just three weeks of practice, the Firebirds have to start a day earlier than everyone else, playing at 7 p.m. Thursday at SM North. The game was moved up a day because SM Northwest has a home game Friday, and the schools share a stadium.

Today, Free State moves from preseason to game preparation. But Thursday, it was one last chance to flaunt for the home crowd before the Firebirds get down to business.

“We were very basic tonight,” Lisher said. “We wanted to do some fundamental things, get after it and have some fun.”

Free State High running back Brian Murphy (20) tries to elude Firebird defender Nick Ayre during a scrimmage. The Firebirds held their fall sports jamboree Thursday night at Free State.

• Cross country shines: The Firebird cross country team recorded solid times at the mile run, which took place during the second half of the football scrimmage.

Free State had four boys run in a tight, fast pack, with Danny Schneider placing first at 4:35 and Alex Rock, Aaron Trent and Spencer Martin coming in at about 4:37.

“That’s a really fast time for our top four,” coach Steve Heffernan said. “Those guys love the track. Any time they can get on the track, even if it’s during cross country season, they’re going to run hard.”

6Sports video: Free State gives sneak preview

Junior Alysha Valencia led the girls with a personal-best 5:08. Senior Allison Yoder finished in 5:50.

• New additions: Thursday’s jamboree probably was the biggest event Free State’s stadium ever had, and FSHS officials did their best to prepare for it.

Before the crowds filed in, additional bleachers were moved in on each side of the mainstay set at midfield. In addition, a new scoreboard was installed just in time and ran smoothly.

“We got it working about 10 minutes before the sophomore game began,” FSHS athletic director Steve Grant said.