Big Schools Get Going in 7-on-7

Class 5A and 4A teams kick off state 7-on-7 competition Friday

By ADAM BOEDEKER

Updated 7:45 AM CST, Fri, Jul 10, 2009

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Ian McKinnell

With the 3As and below beginning state 7-on-7 play on Thursday and Celina getting off to the hot start in the competition, the bigger schools begin play today at the rec fields at Texas A&M in College Station.

The Fox Sports Southwest Championships will feature a good number of DFW teams in the competition. A complete list of the pools can be found here. The top two teams in each pool will advance to the championship bracket on Saturday, while the bottom two teams will play in the consolation bracket.

One of the marquee matchups to look forward to on Friday is the Pool N game between 4A Denton Guyer and 5A Cedar Hill.

The teams both had a great amount of success on the real football field in 2008, as Guyer enjoyed a breakout season after going 1-19 in its first two seasons before finishing 12-3 last year and making it to the Class 4A Division I state semifinals, where the Wildcats lost to Longview at Texas Stadium despite leading entering the fourth quarter.

The Longhorns went 12-2 before bowing out in the postseason to eventual Class 5A Division II state runner-up Wylie. The Longhorns had one of the better running backs in the area in Ben Malena, who has committed to play football at Texas A&M, and will lead their powerful running attack.

But make no mistake, in 7-on-7 football, passing prevails. In fact, running the football isn't even allowed. So this game is intriguing because of its quarterbacks: J.W. Walsh for Guyer and Driphus Jackson for Cedar Hill.

The two QBs are two of the top in the state in the Class of 2011. Entering their junior seasons, Walsh is ranked 26th in the Texas Lone Star Recruiting Top 100 players. Jackson is No. 57 in the same list.

Adam Boedeker is a sports writer/award-winning blogger for the Denton Record-Chronicle. He thinks Ian just needs a break anyway.