7-ON-7 UPDATE | Kilgore 2-0, Sabine 0-2, but weather put a halt to day one; tourney concludes Friday
COLLEGE STATION – The lightning came. It rained hard. The wind blew.
And that was just on Dallas Kimball and Graham. Then the real storm came in College Station and put a halt to everything for the day at the Texas State 7-on-7 Tournament.
All kidding aside, Kilgore did look good in two wins in Division II’s Pool H, going 2-0 in the games over Kimball and Graham here at Veterans Park before lightning and hard rain for about 90 minutes forced tournament organizers to put a halt to everything for the night.
The pool play games determine the seeding for the actual tournament that begins on Friday morning, and everybody still had one more round of pool games to play when the storms hit.
Kilgore was set to play Hamshire-Fannett and Sabine had yet to play Hitchcock when stormy weather had other ideas.
Pool play will resume Friday morning, and then the tournament will become single elimination after that. In other words, after your pool games, if you lose, you’re done.
The 7-on-7 tournament is a non-tackle tournament that’s basically two-hand-touch football. See a good description of rules here: 7-ON-7! | Kilgore, Sabine find out pools; state tourney this week in College Station (etblitz.com).
Sabine is 0-2 after losses to Lubbock Christian and Lake Dallas in Division II’s Pool A.
Sabine High School football coach Cody Gilbert is hoping the kids are growing in preparation for something special this fall.
“I’m pleased with how we played overall against some really quality teams,” Gilbert said, of what many – including Dave Campbell’s Texas Football high school football guru Matt Stepp – believe is maybe the most difficult pool in Division II, Pool A. Sabine’s final pool opponent, Hitchcock, won the state 7-on-7 title in both 2022 and 2023. “It’s a great learning experience. We did some really good things. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and continuing to see growth.”
So, the surprise in that pool was Lake Dallas. Hitchcock is actually 1-1, having lost to Lake Dallas handily (28-6). Lake Dallas also beat Sabine, 34-14.
Sabine lost to Lubbock Christian, 38-26.
Hitchcock beat LC, 25-20.
Kilgore opened up with a tight contest against Dallas Kimball that came down to the wire before Kilgore pulled it out late, 19-13. And after a little more than a 35-minute break, Kilgore lined it up against a Graham team that was scrappy, but Kilgore ultimately pulled that one out, as well, 19-14.
Hamshire-Fanett is also 2-0, topping Graham, 40-27, and Kimball, 35-29.
So the winner of Friday morning’s Kilgore-Hamshire game will be the top seed from Pool H.
Division II, as we’ve said in other stories on ETBlitz.com this week, are the athletes who normally play at schools in the classes 4A and 3A in UIL football. Division III, who also played games on Thursday and will again on Friday, are athletes from the smaller schools, although the only two schools from the ETBlitz.com coverage area represented at this state 7-on-7 tournament are Kilgore and Sabine.
Division I – players from teams that are representing schools that would be in UIL classes 6A and 5A – join the party on Friday, and will play their pool games Friday, then their tournament on Saturday.
There’s no admission here, but there are lots of lawn chairs and activity chairs, as the fields being used for the 7-on-7 event mostly don’t have public seating.
The tournament is sponsored by HEB, Catapult, Optima Sports Group, NGame Media, Panini, GoRout, and the Texas Army National Guard.