FAST-PACED FOOTBALL, ANYBODY?! | Kilgore hosts 7-on-7 state qualifier Saturday, free admission

You’ll have until the final week of August for normal, 107-degree Friday night lights – the rivalries, the concession stand food, and the smack talk, and all of that stuff we commonly think of as Texas high school football tradition, which we love.

But if you want a little taste of it, you might come out to R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium in Kilgore on Saturday, oh, say about 8 a.m.

That’s the site of a qualifying tournament – the Kilgore SQT, as they’re calling it – for the 2024 7-on-7 State Tournament, Division II.

There are two pools for this tournament, and the winner of the entire thing gets an automatic qualifying bid into the Texas State 7-on-7 Tournament at College Station, to be played June 27-28.

Admission is free, and the concession stand will be open.

In pool A, there’s ETBlitz.com-area program Sabine, as well as Chapel Hill, Jefferson and Lindale. And in pool B: two ETBlitz-area schools, Kilgore and Henderson, as well as Crockett and Van Alstyne.

At the end of the pool games, the winner of each pool will face each other to determine who takes the tournament bid. The championship game should begin around noon.

Kilgore’s first game in the tournament is at 8:40 a.m. Saturday, Ragin’ Red coach Clint Fuller said.

A quick 7-on-7 rules education:

In 7-on-7, halves are 15 minutes long, with a 10-minute break between.

All plays must be passes. Offenses move in the same direction, and plays with more than one pass aren’t allowed, although laterals are.

Quarterbacks are allowed four seconds – 4 – to throw the ball. If the ball comes out on time, the play continues, obviously. If the ball doesn’t get out before four seconds expires, then the timekeeper waits until the play is complete, then brings the ball back to the line of scrimmage.

Players typically wear soft helmets, not hard-shell, and the eligible playing field is reduced to 45 yards in length, and 160 feet in width (60 feet to has mark and 40 feet between), and the end zone is 10 yards deep.

Like normal football, there is a play clock (40 seconds between plays). There’s no tackling: a receiver, or the player with the ball, is ruled down when touched with one or both hands of a defender. Excessive force is penalized.

Fumbles are ruled dead balls at the spot of the fumble, but interceptions can be returned. Defensive pass interference is the standard 15-yard penalty.

All teams must have a center, but the center isn’t an eligible receiver. The ball does have to be snapped from the ground.

There are no punts, obviously. The team on offense must gain at least 15 yards in the first three plays or less, or the defense takes over. The only time there’s a fourth-down situation is when an offense gets inside the 15-yard-line cone.

Teams get six points for a touchdown, like regular football. But there are no extra point kicks, and no field goals. You get one point for a successful conversion from the 3-yard-line, and two points if you’re successful from the 10-yard-line.

In the event of a tie after regulation, there’s a coin flip to determine who has first possession in overtime, and teams alternate four-down series from the 15-yard-line. The first team that scores and then stops the other from scoring in its series is the winning team.

If the game goes to a second overtime or more, teams must go for two-point conversions after touchdowns.

The state 7-on-7 tournament has three divisions: Division I is the equivalent of teams that would be in the 5A or 6A classification, or SPC or TAPPS Division I. Division II is the equivalent of classes 3A-DI and 4A in public school and other private schools, and Division III is made up of teams that would compete in public school classifications 3A-DII and below.

Teams can enter more than one qualifying tournament. Kilgore, for example, is entered this week in its own tournament, and is also entered in an area qualifier next Saturday at Chapel Hill.