First year Selma head football coach Keon Handley will get a chance to see his Saints in action on Wednesday, less than a month before the regular season gets underway. 

Selma will host Sidney Lanier at 9 a.m. Wednesday for a 7-on-7 at Selma High School. The teams are also going to do some 11-on-11 drills without pads, Handley said.

Although Handley said he doesn’t put a lot of stock in 7-on-7, he said Selma needs to the extra time to work on its transition to a spread offense.

“For me, transitioning to a spread team, it’s important that I see our guys run routes,” Handley said. “Knowing that Selma has been a traditional I-formation team, these guys didn’t really run a lot of routes. They ran basic combination routes but in the direction I’m trying to go in the program … it does a lot for me in seeing what we need to improve upon.”

Selma is in the midst of a team retreat that started this past weekend. The entire team has been staying at the school as part a weekend meant to build unity.

“We’ve had guest speakers come, we’ve lifted, we’ve practiced,” Handley said.

Selma also participated in a 7-on-7 last week at the University of Alabama. Selma faced off against Clay Chalkville, Stanhope Elmore, Paul Bryant, James Clemens and others.

“I learned a lot about my team as far being able to handle the pressure of being on a stage where we’ve never been before,” Handley said. “We’re still learning how to compete with each other, we’re learning how to be teammates to each other, so the biggest thing on my end is to fix the issues of dealing with pressure and being able to handle a bigger stage.”