Players from Keith, Dallas County, and Southside pushed through temperatures that reached the upper 90’s Monday, in a 7-on-7 that was rescheduled from July 23 due to storms that drenched the area.

In the originally scheduled 7-on-7, multiple teams were on-board, but due to the postponement only three teams were able to make the trip to Southside. The Bears and Hornets joined the Panthers Monday, as the teams rotated opponents all afternoon and coaches got another look at their teams before practices get underway in August.

With the season on the horizon, each coach was able to take some positives out of his team’s 7-on-7 performance.

“What I liked was everyone was lined up in the right position,” Southside head coach Daniel Flowers said. “Any time you get guys lined up and doing their jobs, that’s a start. They executed pretty well.”

For Keith, a team that is known for running the football, the 7-on-7 was a chance to show the world that they can throw the football as well.

“We are known for being a running team. We are really a pulling and trapping team, but we also set up the play action pass,” Keith head coach Harry Crum said. “We need to be able to throw the ball. Last year at times, Maurice [Crumpton] threw the ball around, but we want to let people know that any given moment that we can throw the football. Everybody knows we know how to run the football.”

Crum liked what he saw from the Bears’ passing game.

“I saw a couple of kids that really impressed me with their catching ability,” Crum said. “Maurice made some good throws. Some people really impressed me with their quickness and we picked a couple of balls off. I don’t think it has been a bad day at all.”

Dallas County, led by new head coach Barry Colburn, also likes to run the football and altered their playbook for 7-on-7 games this offseason. Monday, the Hornets started running more of their normal playbook as the team adjusts into regular season mode.

“The quarterbacks threw well. We ran good routes. We caught some great balls. [We were] wonderful on defense,” Colburn said. “We finally got a couple of guys doing what we expect them to do, and we ended up with several interceptions. All in all, it’s a great day. The kids did a great job.”

The Hornets’ up-tempo, fast paced offense — designed for the 7-on-7 — kept two units swapping in and out of the game in-between each play.

“We divide our people up, so we actually run two teams where everybody else runs one. So, we get twice as many people in the game,” Colburn said. “Then, we have a system that lets us rapid fire plays, so we end up running twice as many plays as everybody else.”

Flowers said he likes the way his team competes, even when plays do not go the way they are supposed to.

“I liked how they compete. They get upset when things aren’t going their way,” Flowers said. “That’s kind of fun, because that lets you know they want to win. You also want kids that know how to compete and feel hurt when they lose.”

No official score was kept in the thirty minute contests.

When a team was sitting out, it went to a shaded area and got a half hour of rest before taking the field again and playing two more games.