State of Play
7-on-7 scrimmage chance to evaluate talentBy JIM BUTTA, jbutta@newsandsentinel.com
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PARKERSBURG-With the end of the three-week summer workout period slated for today, Parkersburg High School played host to five other local schools on Thursday for a final round of 7-on-7 passing.
"This is our fifth or sixth year hosting this," Big Reds head coach Bernie Buttrey explained. "We started with four teams a couple of years ago and now it's six and there are some other teams wanting to get in it (the league) next summer."
Joining the Big Reds for Thursday's final session were Williamstown, St. Marys, Parkersburg Catholic, Tyler Consolidated and Belpre.
"This gives you more than 300 plays through the course of the three-week period to evaluate your players and see what kids can do what," Belpre head coach Curt Shriver said.
Each team gets two offensive possessions against two opponents during a rotating schedule. Each possession is made up of 10 plays beginning around midfield.
No tackling is allowed, so when a catch is made, the player is downed when he is touched by a defender.
"It's pretend football," continued Buttrey. "Real football doesn't start 'til we put the pads on."
Despite the lack of tackling, the approximately 30-minute scrimmages do provide coaches on both sides of the football an opportunity to evaluate players.
"I think it (7-on-7) is very important as far as evaluating your talent on both sides of the football," Williamstown head coach Terry Smith said. "It doesn't allow you to judge if they will be good tacklers, but it does give you a read as to whether or not they can catch the football or defend the pass."
A feeling echoed by Parkersburg Catholic's Danny Tennant.
"It helps you find kids that can play certain positions and it gives the younger kids an opportunity to learn so that when the season comes along you aren't having to do as much teaching," said the Crusader coach.
Teams are not allowed to rush the passer, but quarterbacks are limited in the amount of time they have to attempt the pass.
Following a team's offensive possession, the two teams switch with the one on defense getting an opportunity to run its offense.
"A lot of fundamentals," explained Tyler Consolidated head coach Rob Caldwell.
"That's basically what we concentrate on during the summer and these scrimmages give us the chance to evaluate what the kids have learned and what we will need to review when they return in August."
An evaluation process that has really paid dividends for schools that have lost a lot through graduation.
"We graduated 13 seniors," said St. Marys head coach Jodi Mote. "Our entire backfield is new so these 7-on-7 scrimmages have given us a chance to experiment with a lot of our younger kids to see just where they will fit in next season."
The three-week summer practice progams ends today and coaches will only be allowed to work with their athletes in conditioning progams until fall practice begins on Monday, Aug. 3.
"I think this period is critical because of the amount of teaching we are able to accomplish with our younger kids," said Buttrey. "Even for a team likes ours-which doesn't throw the football that much-you have to be able to throw the football if you are going to have a chance to win."
