Ryan Dvorak of Louisburg leaps into the air and reaches out with an arm to come down with a long pass with tight coverage from Paola defensive back Skylar Hawkins during 7-on-7 held in Paola every Monday night through June with this week added on to make up for a week when the field was too wet. (Photo by Gene Morris)
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Going deep on 7-on-7
Passing name of the game for workouts designed for speed guys, pitting wideouts against backs
By Andy Brown, andybrown@miconews.com
It can be called football on steroids.
Whatever you want to call it, 7-on-7 football has taken off across the nation and, more importantly, right in our own backyard. For the last three years, area schools have traveled to Paola to take part in non-competitive workouts in hopes of getting a jump start on the upcoming season.
Teams from Paola, Louisburg, Osawatomie, Spring Hill, Prairie View and Anderson County made the trip to Paola every Monday in June to take part in the summer volunteer workout.
However, if a player is more than 250 pounds, he need not show up because this one is for the speed guys only. The 7-on-7 session, supervised by Paola football coach Mike Dumpert, pits a quarterback and six wide receivers again several defensive backs and linebackers.
“It is the fun part of football,” Dumpert said. “You get to get out and throw the ball around a little bit, and the bullets aren’t flying so no one is getting beat up too bad. We like it, and the kids like it.
“Our format here is we have taken a non-competitive view and really gone into a teaching mode. We don’t keep score at all, and we are more concerned about reps,” he said. “If you ask any coach that comes through here, they feel that their kids are better when they get done, and that is the whole point.”
Dumpert and Spring Hill football coach Dave Coopman have both seen the competitive side of 7-on-7. The bigger schools in the state and across the country compete in summer leagues and travel all over for tournaments.
Before Paola’s present format, the Panther players traveled and paid to go to other leagues where they actually keep score and a record. They found themselves running plays they would never run in a real game, and finally Dumpert had enough.
“There are plays you can run in 7-on-7 that aren’t really applicable to real football,” Dumpert said. “When you get in those competitive situations, you run plays you are never going to run during the season, and I didn’t want to do that. Plus, it seems you get into fights every other week with schools, and it just wasn’t something I wanted to do.”
Coopman, who coached at Blue Valley West before coming to Spring Hill three years ago, believes 7-on-7 greatly helps the players get ready for the upcoming season. Whether it is defensive players getting more comfortable with coverages or receivers getting used to their quarterback, the extra work lifts some of the weight on the coaches’ shoulders.
“I think it is migrated down this way recently,” Coopman said. “It still is very popular with the bigger schools. I have been at the 5A and 6A level before I came to Spring Hill, and it seems like every year it has gotten bigger and bigger.”
What is 7-on-7?
In most competitive leagues around the country, there is a quarterback, a center and five wide receivers that go against a combination of seven linebackers and defensive backs.
The typical field is just 45 yards long and 160 feet wide, with the end zones 10 yards deep. There is no tackling involved, and players wear only jerseys and shorts.
The quarterback has five seconds to throw the ball. Otherwise, the play will be blown dead and considered a sack or loss of down.
However, Paola doesn’t play those competitive rules and works on just teaching the basics with former players or volunteers, not coaches, sitting in the huddles holding up pieces of paper with plays on them to show what to run.
“It gives you a chance to get to know the receivers,” Paola quarterback Adam Henn said. “You learn what they can do, what they can’t do. What you can do as a player and what you can’t. It is a good team-building experience, getting everyone out and playing. It gets you the reps, and that is the best thing about it. You can work on your timing and your footwork. It helps with everything.”
But the coaches of the respective team must be hands off when it comes to 7-on-7 action, according to Kansas High School Activities Association rules. Coaches are forbidden to be in huddles with teams and can only observe.
“Other coaches bring kids that have just graduated or something like that and come out and hold the play cards,” Osawatomie coach Clint Bailey said. “We just sit back and watch. We get to yell at them a little bit, and if they hear us, that is fine. In Kansas, we are tied down, and we really can’t do a whole lot with the players compared to some of the other football heavy states.”
The boom of 7-on-7
The original concept of 7-on-7 football has seemed to have disappeared and is now becoming a showcase for some of the country’s top athletes
Just last year, Adidas sponsored the first 7-on-7 national championship in California and paid the expense to bring in 10 non-California teams to play in the 12-team event. Other tournaments have been sponsored by Nike as well as many other companies.
National recruiting services even make special trips to the event to help rate the nation’s top prospects.
But in Paola, the teaching concept hasn’t been lost — in fact, it might have been found.
The non-competitive mode helps both sides of the ball get a heads-up before the first day of practice in August.
“It always helps,” said Spring Hill defensive back Beau Cygan. “You are always running different defenses. It gives you a chance to work on it before the season starts.
“You get to see what kind of receivers everyone else has, too. It also helps with your conditioning. You run out here a lot. That is all you do out here is run.”
But don’t expect to see any of the competitive stuff in this area anytime soon.
“We treat this as a teaching mode, and when we are in that mode, we want them to understand it and we go slow,” Dumpert said.
— Gene Morris contributed to this report.
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Whatever you want to call it, 7-on-7 football has taken off across the nation and, more importantly, right in our own backyard. For the last three years, area schools have traveled to Paola to take part in non-competitive workouts in hopes of getting a jump start on the upcoming season.
Teams from Paola, Louisburg, Osawatomie, Spring Hill, Prairie View and Anderson County made the trip to Paola every Monday in June to take part in the summer volunteer workout.
However, if a player is more than 250 pounds, he need not show up because this one is for the speed guys only. The 7-on-7 session, supervised by Paola football coach Mike Dumpert, pits a quarterback and six wide receivers again several defensive backs and linebackers.
“It is the fun part of football,” Dumpert said. “You get to get out and throw the ball around a little bit, and the bullets aren’t flying so no one is getting beat up too bad. We like it, and the kids like it.
“Our format here is we have taken a non-competitive view and really gone into a teaching mode. We don’t keep score at all, and we are more concerned about reps,” he said. “If you ask any coach that comes through here, they feel that their kids are better when they get done, and that is the whole point.”
Dumpert and Spring Hill football coach Dave Coopman have both seen the competitive side of 7-on-7. The bigger schools in the state and across the country compete in summer leagues and travel all over for tournaments.
Before Paola’s present format, the Panther players traveled and paid to go to other leagues where they actually keep score and a record. They found themselves running plays they would never run in a real game, and finally Dumpert had enough.
“There are plays you can run in 7-on-7 that aren’t really applicable to real football,” Dumpert said. “When you get in those competitive situations, you run plays you are never going to run during the season, and I didn’t want to do that. Plus, it seems you get into fights every other week with schools, and it just wasn’t something I wanted to do.”
Coopman, who coached at Blue Valley West before coming to Spring Hill three years ago, believes 7-on-7 greatly helps the players get ready for the upcoming season. Whether it is defensive players getting more comfortable with coverages or receivers getting used to their quarterback, the extra work lifts some of the weight on the coaches’ shoulders.
“I think it is migrated down this way recently,” Coopman said. “It still is very popular with the bigger schools. I have been at the 5A and 6A level before I came to Spring Hill, and it seems like every year it has gotten bigger and bigger.”
What is 7-on-7?
In most competitive leagues around the country, there is a quarterback, a center and five wide receivers that go against a combination of seven linebackers and defensive backs.
The typical field is just 45 yards long and 160 feet wide, with the end zones 10 yards deep. There is no tackling involved, and players wear only jerseys and shorts.
The quarterback has five seconds to throw the ball. Otherwise, the play will be blown dead and considered a sack or loss of down.
However, Paola doesn’t play those competitive rules and works on just teaching the basics with former players or volunteers, not coaches, sitting in the huddles holding up pieces of paper with plays on them to show what to run.
“It gives you a chance to get to know the receivers,” Paola quarterback Adam Henn said. “You learn what they can do, what they can’t do. What you can do as a player and what you can’t. It is a good team-building experience, getting everyone out and playing. It gets you the reps, and that is the best thing about it. You can work on your timing and your footwork. It helps with everything.”
But the coaches of the respective team must be hands off when it comes to 7-on-7 action, according to Kansas High School Activities Association rules. Coaches are forbidden to be in huddles with teams and can only observe.
“Other coaches bring kids that have just graduated or something like that and come out and hold the play cards,” Osawatomie coach Clint Bailey said. “We just sit back and watch. We get to yell at them a little bit, and if they hear us, that is fine. In Kansas, we are tied down, and we really can’t do a whole lot with the players compared to some of the other football heavy states.”
The boom of 7-on-7
The original concept of 7-on-7 football has seemed to have disappeared and is now becoming a showcase for some of the country’s top athletes
Just last year, Adidas sponsored the first 7-on-7 national championship in California and paid the expense to bring in 10 non-California teams to play in the 12-team event. Other tournaments have been sponsored by Nike as well as many other companies.
National recruiting services even make special trips to the event to help rate the nation’s top prospects.
But in Paola, the teaching concept hasn’t been lost — in fact, it might have been found.
The non-competitive mode helps both sides of the ball get a heads-up before the first day of practice in August.
“It always helps,” said Spring Hill defensive back Beau Cygan. “You are always running different defenses. It gives you a chance to work on it before the season starts.
“You get to see what kind of receivers everyone else has, too. It also helps with your conditioning. You run out here a lot. That is all you do out here is run.”
But don’t expect to see any of the competitive stuff in this area anytime soon.
“We treat this as a teaching mode, and when we are in that mode, we want them to understand it and we go slow,” Dumpert said.
— Gene Morris contributed to this report.