With the 2019 football season creeping ever closer, teams are using 7-on-7 games and tournaments both as a reprieve from the monotony of practice and a gauge of progress so far this summer.
Each local coach values 7-on-7 differently — ranging from little more than an upscale practice to being vital to the mindset for Friday nights — but all four think it’s an important aspect of preparation.
“I like the fact the kids get a chance to compete before you go full pads,” said Owensboro Catholic head coach Jason Morris. “We’re always trying to compete on a day in, day out basis, but sometimes it can get pretty monotonous when you’re always competing against yourselves.”
Owensboro head coach Jay Fallin said in addition to break away from doing the same drills in practice, it’s especially valuable to work on speed of play.
“It allows us to get the closest thing to a live-game situation that we can get during the first three weeks of practice,” he said. “It’s of particular importance for timing. We’re going to have a young quarterback this year, so it’s really good for him to work with receivers in terms of running their routes and knowing what it’s going to be like to stand in the pocket and when to throw the ball.”
Without the presence of lineman, 7-on-7 focuses heavily on the preparedness for skill players. That’s just as well for Daviess County head coach Matt Brannon, as he’s essentially starting from scratch in the backfield.
“It is a good gauge on who can handle the speed of the game and who can handle the complexities of our calls,” he said. “It gives us an opportunity to learn our offensive passing game. It has plenty of positives.”
For Apollo head coach Phillip Hawkins, 7-on-7 isn’t quite as important. With a run-heavy offense, the passing-based tournaments are more helpful to the defense and overall development.
“We’re still doing 7-on-7, but we’re really not set up for those style of tournaments,” he said. “It’s still important for our defensive guys to get reps and we still will throw the ball. It also allows us to spend some time with the kids being competitive.”
So, for Hawkins, winning the summer tournaments don’t really mean much.
“It does give us an opportunity to work all that timing out, but you can’t win district championships in a 7-on-7 tournament,” he said. “You have to understand where the value is and don’t hang your season on where you finished in the local 7-on-7 tournament.”
The approach to 7-on-7 varies widely, with plenty of coaches agreeing with Hawkins’ view. Others, though, fall in line with Morris, who puts a lot of stock in winning each contest.
“To me, that’s a losing mentality,” Morris said of not caring about a win or loss. “We don’t want to do anything with a losing mentality, so anything that we do that has to do with competition, we’re going to try to win.”
So far the Aces have done just that, as they won the McCracken County small school 7-on-7 tournament in a field of 16 teams.
For both Brannon and Fallin, the tournaments are more about making sure they can compete when the regular season rolls around.
“It’s important to make sure the players realize that nobody is going to win or lose a position based on their performance only on 7-on-7,” Brannon said. “It’s a big positive if you’re able to compete against other teams — you’re getting quality reps against starters on other teams — but ultimately the game is won or lost based on who can block and who can tackle. We always keep that perspective with our players.”
Said Fallin: “Some people are really into winning 7-on-7 tournaments. We’re really into winning on Friday night. We want to use 7-on-7 as a simulation to prepare us for playing real football on Friday nights.”
Regardless of their views on the summer games, all four coaches are happy with where their teams stand — a good sign as the season openers are just more than five weeks away.
