There’s only so much that a high school football team can accomplish as it practices against itself every day, so for Sapulpa, participating in weekly 7-on-7 scrimmages/practices with other teams serves a valuable purpose.
The Chieftains went up against other teams every Tuesday in June on their home field at George F. Collins Stadium, facing Class 5A rivals such as Bishop Kelley and Collinsville, both teams that qualified for the state playoffs last year, as well as local 2A squad Kellyville.
“We just find other coaches that want to get reps with our kids, so we just kind of meet at a place,” said Sapulpa coach Tim Holt of the weekly 7-on-7 sessions. “We picked Sapulpa this year, and we just practice, try to get better every week.”
They aren’t supposed to feature any contact – that is why the offensive and defensive lines aren’t involved – but it is still a good exercise for the so-called skill players to face good competition that aren’t their own teammates.
“Just one touch anywhere, when we’re at the competition,” Holt said. “It’s good reps for our quarterbacks to be able to throw and our receivers to run routes against somebody different and our defensive backs to cover people. It’s good for everybody.”
The 7-on-7 sessions, in addition to a more formal 7-on-7 tournament featuring multiple other teams of varying competition levels that they participated in at Bixby on June 23, have punctuated a strong summer of progress for the Chieftains.
“This was the third week, and then we’ve got Dead Week and then one more (7-on-7 session) following that, so we’ve gotten a lot of great reps this summer so far,” Holt said. “We did a tournament on Friday at Bixby, we’ve done three of these, so we’ve gotten a lot better as far as our passing concepts and coverages and all that. We just got to keep working, get all the kinks out before August gets here.
Sapulpa is coming off a 2022 season in which they went 7-4 and reached the 5A state playoffs before a lopsided loss to Grove in the first round, and Holt has seen his team make impressive strides during the summer workouts. He has high expectations for 2023.
“You can see it, we’re extremely talented in some parts, we got a lot of good speed and kids have really bought into what we’re doing,” Holt said. “We have a chance to be really good this year.”
