Southeastern 7-on-7 Championship

Seven-on-seven football gives skill position players a chance to test themselves in the passing game during the summer, but it doesn’t include linemen.

However, the players up front aren’t being completely ignored this weekend at The Daily Citizen’s Southeastern 7-on-7 Championship. In fact, they’ll get valuable attention from someone with rings of experience.

Jeff Bostic, a retired NFL center who won three Super Bowl titles with the Washington Redskins, will be one of the intstructors watching and helping high school football talents through a lineman camp from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Broaddus-Durkan Soccer Complex on Smith Industrial Boulevard in Dalton. Bostic will be among those at the camp to help Elite Athletic Events owner Kevin Fitzgerald, whose company is also overseeing a skills combine this weekend in conjunction with the Southeastern.

Linemen will participate in the combine from noon to 1 p.m., then begin the camp. In addition to players from teams participating in the Southeastern, area varsity football players whose teams aren’t in the tournament are also eligible to participate in the lineman camp. Those players can simply show up at noon or register in advance at eaecombines.com.

Area varsity football players from non-Southeastern teams interested simply in doing the combine can show up at 4 p.m.

As for the linemen, they’ll be hearing from someone who knows what it takes to succeed at the game’s highest level.

Bostic was with the Redskins as they won Super Bowls XVII, XXII and XXVI. He was one of “The Hogs,” the nickname given by Redskins assistant Joe Bugel to the franchise’s core group of offensive linemen during the 1980s, a unit that also included George Starke, Joe Jacoby, Russ Grimm and Mark May.

But Bostic, who grew up in Greensboro, N.C., thinks back to his time as a high schooler and how he would have loved to receive tutelage from some of the guys at the top then.

“Everybody at some point was playing high school football that ever wanted to play in college or the pros,” Bostic said. “Unfortunately, I was never in a position where I had a pro who came and took some time to impart some wisdom and knowledge into a young brain. So I had to learn it as I went.”

Fitzgerald is happy Bostic will be there to share.

“Basically with the offensive line, he knows more than I do,” Fitzgerald said. “If he wants to interject anything, he can. I want the kids to get the most out of it.”

Some of the drills Bostic will work on with the teenagers includes stance, feet and hand placement, movement and balance drills. In short, it’s all about the fundamentals.

“I think offensive line play always goes back to fundamentals whether you’re dealing with Pop Warner, high school, college or professional,” he said. “If you see them struggling, it’s usually for a specific reason. It’s either going to be his feet, his hands or his balance. Those are the thing you have to (learn) after repetition and repetition and repetition. It has to be a permanent solution on the field.”

Bostic graduated from Clemson University in 1980. He was named to the school’s All-Centennial Team in 1996, was inducted into the program’s Hall of Fame the following year and is the only Clemson alum to win three Super Bowls. He retired from the Redskins in 1993 after spending his entire career with the team.

“When you have a guy with pedigree and who has been through what he’s been through — a dominant player not only in college but in the pros — when you get guys like that around, it’s great to sit back and say, ‘What do you think?’” Fitzgerald said.

“When you have people at that caliber, you need to use it.”

Bostic said his friendship with Ken Brown, a Dalton High football booster and Clemson grad, got him the word about the combine. Now he is excited to come to Dalton to help some younger linemen gain some of his wisdom.

“It’s going to be hands-on instruction and drills they can go back and use when they go to school,” Bostic said. “I used to do it when I was playing. I used to work in offensive line camps.

“Offensive linemen, they are the engines of your team. The running backs and wide receivers and defensive backs are the wheels, but the offensive line is the engine. If you don’t have a good engine, you aren’t going anywhere.”

And the engine isn’t good if it doesn’t have proper technique, Bostic said. However, he intends to make sure the engines at the combine run smoother after this weekend.

“You want to get into an athletic stance with feet shoulder length apart and stay in it. People don’t know how to get in a good stance. I didn’t even (know) coming out of college,” he said. “I was in a run-oriented offense at Clemson and with the Redskins, we ran it a lot but we threw it a lot, too.

“I’m going to start with the basics and the basics is the stance. Most kids will get it pretty quick, but there will be some who I will spend some more time with.”

The skills combine, which is sponsored by AstroTurf, will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday with local teams competing in the Southeastern going through the drills; walkups will be allowed to test after 4 p.m. On Sunday, the combine will shift to James Brown Park, when players from teams participating in the Southeastern will perform their drills from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information on this weekend, visit southeastern7on7.com.

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Southeastern 7-on-7 Championship

Bostic eager to share his experience at lineman camp

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