7-on-7 in the middle

Just when you thought seven-on-seven play was finished for the summer, the middle schoolers got in on the action Saturday.

Seven teams participated in the North Whitfield 7-on-7 Invitational at Coahulla Creek High. The games included two 10-minute halves with each team getting one half on offense and one on defense. Each team played once against the others for a total of six games. There was no offensive or defensive line, no running plays and quarterbacks had only a few seconds to make a pass.

The teams who competed were North Whitfield, Ocoee Middle from Cleveland, Tenn., Rossville’s Chattanooga Valley, LaFayette Middle, Christian Heritage, New Hope and Valley Point.

Seven-on-seven competitions at the high school level have developed into a big part of the offseason, and many local high school teams compete in a number of passing-only tournaments and games during the summer. But at the middle school level, it’s a relatively new concept.

“There’s really not (a lot of competitions),” North Whitfield assistant coach and invitational director LaQuentin Taylor said. “For middle school, it’s sort of a new thing, unless you get together with your New Hopes and others. But on this scale it’s a new thing.”

The event, in its first year, came one week after The Daily Citizen’s 32-team high school Southeastern 7-on-7 Championship, which inspired the concept of doing something similar for seventh- and eighth-graders.

“We just did it as an invitational this year and maybe a bigger event next year,” Taylor said. “(It is not) the same as the Southeastern 7-on-7, though. What we’ve done in previous years is have two or three teams come and play. On Wednesday (New Hope) had five teams at Northwest Whitfield High, but we’re going to try and do something on a larger scale on a yearly basis.”

Despite using the high school competitions as a concept launching pad, the reasons for doing it are a bit different.

On the high school level, many coaches are fine tuning passing plays, getting their secondary used to different passing formations and maybe finalizing some 11th-hour position battles heading into fall workouts.

For middle school, it’s about learning how to throw the football in an age level dominated by the run and even improve work ethic.

“The biggest thing is nobody passes in middle school much,” North Whitfield head coach Hal Brooker said. “So this gives them the confidence to use the pass as a weapon. ... The biggest thing I think this helps in the summer is getting them out here to play these games. So we get a lot of reps out here in these games and good practice when we’re doing summer workouts. The thing is, we can’t make these kids come because they can’t drive. High school kids you can make come because they can drive. So (playing against other teams) is the carrot for them to come.”

Even though high school games are still more “three yards and a cloud of dust” than they are the “Oregon spread,” the games are changing.

“We pass more than we did,” Brooker said. “It’s still a run-oriented game because of the skill level. When I was in middle school some 20 years ago, we passed five times a game maximum, maybe five times a season. Now we’re throwing five times a half, maybe 10 times a half. ... And our quarterback is learning progressions, checking off options.”

His quarterback, eighth-grader Jared Teems, did not play football for the Pioneers last year.

“It helps because I get to see the different coverages and learn from my coaches how to read them,” Teems said.

Christian Heritage also competed in New Hope’s invitational earlier in the week and coach Bob Hardaway believes these events have done wonders teaching his players basic conceptual stuff.

“I’ll tell you, after doing two of them (this summer), we are so much further ahead in concept as far as where you’re supposed to line up, where you’re supposed to go,” he said.

Saturday’s play did not include a final score, but that isn’t the most important part. The format used where one team gets as many offensive plays and possessions in for 10 minutes straight serves as another practice with a heightened competition level.

“It’s a good time for coaching,” Hardaway said. “If a guy runs the wrong route, you can stop or slow it down and say, ‘No, instead of a six-yard out, we wanted it to be a three-yard out.’ You can really slow down and make sure they understand.”

Chase Herndon, a Christian Heritage eighth-grader and wide receiver, can attest to this.

“If we get it wrong we can stop and correct it,” he said, noting he played as a seventh-grader but did not get the chance to spend summers practicing in seven-on-seven formats. “When I was a seventh-grader I wish we had this. (The seventh-graders now) are getting so much more ahead than where I was at this time last year.”

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7-on-7 in the middle

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