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Foresight: Panthers eye results down the road from brief 7-on-7 stints
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
For many football teams, 7-on-7 is a chance to further hone offseason chemistry, retain competitive fire and potentially claim a spot in the Division I FOX Sports Southwest 7-on-7 State Championship Tournament on July 20-21.
And while a trip to College Station for the event would be nice, it's not ultimately what Plano East is looking to take away from its time together over the summer.
"We don't do it, with say, the goal of qualifying to go to (Texas) A&M or state," said Johnny Ringo, East head coach. "When we do 7-on-7, it's about running what we're going to run during a regular football game. It's not a 7-on-7 offense or defense. We're trying to improve fundamentally and technique-wise at each position and it serves its purpose for us."
"Last year, we had some injuries to key guys and didn't want to risk that again," Ringo said. "Plus, with who we had coming back, we were fairly established then at quarterback and receiver."
Without a veteran presence in this summer's 7-on-7 unit, the Panthers have been tasked with baptism by fire as players ease themselves into the varsity experience.
Saturday at the Colleyville Heritage SQT proved no different, with East dealt a harsh entry into the 7-on-7 fray courtesy of an 0-3 mark in pool play against Hebron (44-13), Arlington Martin (44-19) and Southlake Carroll (32-19).
"We had some drops and some opportunities to make things a bit closer," Ringo said. "Hebron was a team that had already qualified (for the state tournament), Martin was a game where we felt like we could have kept it closer than we did and, of course, Southlake qualified the week before, so it was a very good bracket for us."
While slim on experience, Ringo said the Panthers are looking to their returners for big contributions early on. That falls on the likes of Collin Shaw on offense and the duo of Nimoy Tennison and Jackson Garrey on defense. Mario Smalls takes the lion's share of reps at quarterback while receiver Anthony Maioriello has made an early impression.
East has also kept its 7-on-7 time fairly limited, with just one more SQT on the docket (Wylie, June 15).
Before then, East will be on hand at Craig Ranch in McKinney Saturday for a NIKE football event that will include 7-on-7, but only as one part of an all-day exhibition that includes competitions for linemen, receivers, quarterbacks and kickers.
With 16 participants on hand, how each team does will be weighed on a point system to determine the overall winner.
"We felt like it's an opportunity we should take advantage of because it's different," Ringo said. "It involves all of our kids and our goal in all of these things is to improve while playing with class and sportsmanship, so hopefully that's what you'll see from us."
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