James Kenan Releases Its 2025 High School Football Schedule

James Kenan, on the heels of a great 2024 football season, will try to run it back again in 2025 in a different North Carolina high school classification.

The Tigers are now a 3-A program due to the NCHSAA realignment that doubled the number of classifications from four to eight. That meant big changes in the schedule, which was recently released.

James Kenan was 12-2 last season, reaching the fourth round of the 2-A state playoffs. The playoff run included a third-round thriller over archrival Wallace-Rose Hill. The new conference retains Wallace-Rose Hill. Other schools in the new conference include Goldsboro (3-A), Midway (3-A), Princeton (3-A), Spring Creek (3-A) and Rosewood (2-A). Wallace-Rose Hill is the only school that was with James Kenan in the 2-A conference the last four years.

East Duplin, another top rival, is being retained on the schedule as a non-conference opponent.

Among the key returnees for the Tigers are quarterback Eli Avent, 1,000-yard rusher Jeremiah Hall and defensive back David (Cito) Zelaya, who had six interceptions.

Here is the schedule:

Aug. 22 – at Southern Wayne

Sept. 5 – at Southern Nash

Sept. 12 – East Duplin

Sept. 19 – Spring Creek

Sept. 26 – at Rosewood

Oct. 3 – Midway

Oct. 10 – at Goldsboro

Oct. 17 – C.B. Aycock

Oct. 24 – at Princeton

Oct. 31 – Wallace-Rose Hill