A host of area teams head to the state 7-on-7 football tournament.
The Woodlands eyes 2nd straight 7-on-7 football state championship
The Woodlands is heading to the 7-on-7 state tournament for the 11th consecutive year and 18th time overall.
This is its first time going as defending Division I champions.
The state tournament opened Thursday with Division II pool play and continues through Saturday, with the Division I final set for 4 p.m. Saturday at Veterans Park and Athletic Complex in College Station.
“Each group that comes through doesn’t want to be the one that creates a gap … and so they place a lot of emphasis on it,” The Woodlands coach Mark Schmid said. “They take it upon their shoulders to continue the streak, and being at the state tournament is something that they put on their calendar.
“It’s an expectation and our kids plan around it.”
The Division I field features 16 Houston area teams, including Dickinson — which The Woodlands beat 32-26 in last year’s final — Cypress Ranch, Foster, Katy, Lamar, Manvel and Pearland.
Cy-Fair boasts the area’s longest streak, with 18 straight state berths.
The Division II field, which opens bracket play Friday, includes East Bernard, El Campo, Needville and Stafford.
The Division II final is 4 p.m. Friday.
The Highlanders are looking to repeat as state champs – something no Division I team has accomplished since the tourney split into two divisions in 2007. Southlake Carroll won in 1998 and 2013, and Celina won in 2000, before the split, and again in 2007, 2009 and 2012 in Division II.
The only back-to-back champ is Graham in 2013 and 2014 in Division II.
Confidence booster
Success in 7-on-7, which emphasizes finesse over physicality, isn’t necessarily a good indicator of what to expect this fall in the 11-man game, where offensive and defensive linemen set the tone.
But it can bolster skill players’ confidence and improve offensive efficiency.
The Woodlands’ Eric Schmid exited his junior season with the athlete-playingquarterback label but emerged
from 7-on-7 as a state-championship slinger last summer, leading to a prolific senior campaign.
“To be able to do that at the state tournament really helped his confidence, and the chemistry that he was able to develop with the receivers over the course of the summer helped us immensely, too,” Mark Schmid said.
“So I would definitely say 7-on-7 benefited us offensively.”
He says 7-on-7 helped them develop their chemistry and improve their competitiveness, because though it’s a different game, there is a correlation between the top 11-man and seven-man programs.
The Division I field features 26 teams in Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s preseason Class 6A and 5A top 40s.
“Talent shows up,” Manvel coach Kirk Martin said.
“You’re going to find that some of the most talented teams are going to be the ones who make it there and do well.”
Frustrating for coaches
Martin sees good and bad in the journey.
His team is going to air it out — returning QB Kason Martin threw for 3,443 yards and 46 touchdowns last season — and the summer game allows QBs and wide receivers to perfect their timing.
But players also develop bad habits their coaches must correct in August.
“Our spacing is horrible,” Kirk Martin said.
“The last tournament I went to and watched our kids, we’ve got guys lining up inside the numbers, and some of these tournaments won’t even have the numbers marked out there, so it’s rough.
“Linebackers are looking at the quarterback instead of tracking receivers, and that’s frustrating from a coach’s standpoint, too.”
He might be more involved in the future.
The UIL is discussing the idea of allowing high school coaches, currently banned from coaching their players in the offseason, to work with them in 7-on-7 in an effort minimize the influence of “street agents” or less qualified coaches trying to lure them into all-star or select 7-on-7 contests.
Of course, that would mean extending the same privilege to coaches in other sports, too.
“It’s an animal they’re going to have to figure out,” Kirk Martin said.
Value of competition
In the meantime, he’s hoping the 7-on-7 state tourney supplies his son with the same boost of confidence it provided Schmid’s.
The Mavericks are making their seventh trip to College Station.
They went to at least the third round of the championship bracket four of the last five years, falling in the finals in 2012 and 2015.
“It’s really important to the kids,” Kirk Martin said.
“As far as our program goes, we throw the ball a bunch, and so it’s important to me that our team goes out during the summer and participates in competitive environments. That helps you grow leaders, see the commitment level from kids, who’s going to step up, and who’s going to be there, who’s not.
“It reveals some things about what your team might be.”