KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The first week of the high school football season begins on Thursday in East Tennessee.
Austin-East will travel to Fulton to face the Falcons on Friday. This game is special not only because it's the first game of the season, but because it's also the first Zaevion Dobson Memorial Foundation Game.
The game is in honor of the late Zaevion Dobson, who was shot and killed in December 2015 while shielding friends when gunmen showed up in his Lonsdale neighborhood.
Dobson played football at Fulton High School and his jersey number was 24.
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Zenobia Dobson, Zaevion's mom created the Zaevion Dobson Memorial Foundation to give students college scholarships.
The Zaevion Dobson Memorial Foundation was established in 2016 to promote and provide recreational and educational facilities for underserved communities. In keeping with Zaevion’s goals and achievements in his lifetime, the Foundation hopes to provide safe environments for underserved youth to gather, play, and learn together.
"Zaevion wanted to go to college, so that was very important for me to keep his legacy alive," Zenobia told 10News. "He was big on playing football and big on making the grade, so I took that reflection of him and blessed other kids with it."
The game begins at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, August 19.