YOU WANT 7-ON-7? WE’LL HAVE IT RIGHT HERE. | ETBlitz, Box.County teaming up for state tourney coverage

Want to see how Kilgore and Sabine do in the Texas State 7-on-7 Tournament Thursday at College Station?

ETBlitz.com and Box.County will have you covered, baby. We’ll be there, and ready to go.

In a joint production between the two entities, both will be on hand for coverage of the teams from Kilgore and Sabine in the tournament, being played at Veterans Memorial Stadium at College Station – 128 teams, and three different divisions.

Both Kilgore and Sabine are in the Division II tournament, teams that would normally play in Classes 4A and 3A ball. Everybody plays pool games on Thursday to determine seeding, and then the real tournament begins on Friday – that’s single elimination, though. You lose on Friday… you’re out.

On Thursday, Kilgore plays Kimball at 1:45 p.m., then Graham at 3:15, and finishes pool play with Hamshire-Fannett at 4:45. Kilgore is in Division II’s Pool H.

Sabine will also play at those three times – the Cardinals are in Division II’s Pool A. They’ll play Lubbock Christian at 1:45, Lake Dallas at 3:15, and then finish pool games with one against Hitchcock at 4:45. Hitchcock is the two-time defending state champion from Division II.

The tournament will begin Friday morning anew, and with that, single elimination starts, and they play until there’s a Division II champion.

Also in Division II: Pool B is Alvarado, Austin LBJ, Brookshire Royal, and La Grange. Pool C is Academy, Celina, Somerset, and West Columbia, and Pool D is Lumbert, Ponder, Robinson and Sinton.

Pool E is Beeville, Lorena, Mineral Wells and Needville. Pool F is Dumas, Glen Rose, Panther Creek and West Orange-Stark. Pool G is Bay City, Decatur, Whitney and Yoakum.

Kilgore and Sabine are the only two teams from the ETBlitz.com coverage area that made the 7-on-7 state tournament.

Not that this matters to ETBlitz.com readers, but Division I is the group that has teams that would normally be in UIL Class 6A and 5A classifications; and Division III are the teams from smaller schools.

We will have a wrap-up of the performances by Kilgore and Sabine on Thursday night, and of course after they both finish the tournament, here on ETBlitz.com and on our social media. And there will be video – fantastic video – on both Box.County and here on ETBlitz.com and on Facebook.

Also, for anyone interested in a wrap-up of the complete Texas State 7-on-7 Tournament, the good folks at Dave Campbell’s Texas Football announced the field for all three divisions on Texanlive.com, and there will also be a postgame show live Thursday evening at 6 p.m. on that site.

Now, a few things to know before you go, if you’re planning on going to College Station for this event:

• Veterans Park and Athletic Complex is located at 3101 Harvey Road in College Station.
• There’s no admission.
• There is also no adequate seating for fans, so instead of BYOB, BYOS – bring your own seating.
• Here, again, is a quick few things to know about 7-on-7 football.

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 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.