MT. AIRY — Clarke Central won the Habersham Central 7-on-7 tournament Friday afternoon under a scorching sky rallying from a 21-6 deficit in the final eight minutes to beat Athens Academy.
But for all 12 of the participating teams -- Athens Academy, Chestatee, Clarke Central, Flowery Branch, host Habersham Central, Jackson County, Jefferson, Madison County, Seneca, Union County, and White County -- wins and losses had nothing to do with how their respective coaches measured their day.
New Chestatee coach Shane Conley, despite his War Eagles coming away winless, felt the day was a positive as they try to implement new systems on both sides of the ball, including a new-look spread passing attack.
“We’re making wholesale changes on offense and defense and it takes time to do that,” Conley said. “Actually I feel we’re right on pace with where I was hoping to be.”
The War Eagles were getting some invaluable experience for junior quarterback Storm Yarbrough, who is making the transition to throwing on nearly every down.
“It’s a process,” Conley said. “He’s picking things up. Our goal is to work on our stuff. Winning is not the object right now, though we always go into a game looking to win.”
White County coach Bill Ballard, who is hoping experience from last season will pay off in 2016 for a still relatively young Warriors squad, said it is more about the learning at this time of the season.
“For us it’s just about trying to get better,” Ballard said. “We’re more of an option team so 7-on-7 isn’t really our game. But, what we do is work heavily on the defense for when we see teams that run it. It’s a big help. We get a lot out of this. We always want to win but sometimes what you learn about yourself is more important.”
Flowery Branch advanced to the semifinals before running out of gas late in the day to the Gladiators in a 38-17 loss. Coach Chris Griffin was pleased with what he saw, especially from junior quarterback Kory Graham and speedy junior receiver Malik Drayton, who already look like a formidable tandem.
“I like what we did overall today,” Griffin said. “I feel like our quarterback and receiver positions may be our strongest areas. Both of those guys made some nice plays. We may be a little further along at this point right now than we were last year.
“That last game I think there was some fatigue. But we also were trying some things. This is the format to do that to see what you have. Like I said, I thought we had some good moments.”
Union County came in with perhaps the biggest hole to fill among the 12 participants with the graduation of Region 8-AA 2015 Offensive Player of the Year in quarterback Joseph Mancuso. Junior Cole Wright, who spelled Mancuso at times last season, is now at the helm.
Coach Brian Allison said there is always an adjustment period.
“We graduated like 25 seniors the last two years so we’re kind of turning the roster over some,” he said. “You don’t replace a guy like Joseph but we feel Cole has a chance to be pretty good. There is still a lot of work to do across the board but the goal is to get better and think that we are.”
Habersham Central coach Benji Harrison is hoping the maturation of junior signal-caller Cole Wilbanks will help the Raiders post their first winning season since 2011 and make a run at a playoff spot.
“This was our third 7-on-7 tournament during the summer and I feel like we’ve improved a lot since the first one,” Harrison said. “I think we competed well. Cole is coming along. We would like to win every time we step on the field but right now we’re more focused on just getting better every day.
"We feel we will be competitive in the region. Our goal this year is to get back to the playoffs."
Harrison felt the tournament as a whole was beneficial for every program.
“The competition was pretty even and there was a lot of good, clean competition going on,” he said. “You can’t simulate the speed and the decision-making in practice. I think everyone got something out of it and learned something about themselves. I know we did.”
Most teams will now move on to padded scrimmages against other opponents over the next month as everyone prepares to open fall practice on July 25, the first day teams are allowed to practice as a whole.
Most teams open the season on Aug. 19 while some will open on Aug. 12 in the Corky Kell Classic.
