Tiger footballers meet three teams in 7-on-7s
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EDWARDSVILLE – Believe it or not, the last weekend of August – the start of the Illinois high school football season – is fast approaching.
Preparations for the impending season are well under way for teams throughout the state, including Edwardsville, who held the first of three weeks of 7-on-7 drills with opposing schools at Tiger Stadium Monday evening.
7-on-7 drills involve one team's quarterback, a running back and receivers going up against another team's linebackers and defensive backs in passing game situations beginning on the 40-yard line as the offensive teams attempt to score on the defensive teams.
The Tigers took on Cahokia, Gateway STEM of St. Louis and Highland in Monday's drills; Belleville Althoff was also on hand for the evening's drills.
“It's always a growing experience,” said EHS assistant coach Kelsey Pickering following the sessions. “I think we had a great night for it; we'll evaluate the film, but I think the kids competed well. One of the things we talked about is that we're going to come out here tonight and we're not going to know what anyone else is running offensively or defensively.
“You come in blind and you hope you've taught enough to be able to react and respond and adapt; I thought we did a good job with that. Hopefully we'll continue to see the progress for next week and the following week.”
One thing about the 7-on-7 drills are that teams who don't normally play one another get to see each other. “The positive is we get to see a lot of teams we don't normally see,” Pickering said. “We get to see a lot of defenses and offenses we don't normally see that our similar to our (Southwestern) conference as far as what they do.
“It's good for our kids to compete against somebody else besides seeing themselves day in and day out; that gets a little stale; when we can add this in – we actually had a beautiful night (with breezes helping to counter temperatures in the low 90s) – where we have to come out and compete against some really good programs in the area and walk away injury-free for the most part, it's just a really good experience for what we've got.”
The 7-on-7 drills continue at 7 p.m. next Monday and again on July 24 before the start of preseason practice in August; the Tigers' first game is set for 3 p.m. Aug. 26 at home against Naperville North of the Chicago area.
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