“It’s the best 7-on-7 tournament in the state for the money,” said Hutson, adding that in addition to the short drive (from 10 minutes to two hours) and the four games each of the eight teams played, the Sugarland Optimist Club’s members prepared and fed the coaches and players delicious barbecue ” all for free. “That’s a pretty good deal.”
Of course, the work the teams got in was the main attraction for the coaches, five of them from Teche Area schools.
  
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Franklin also participated in the Northwest tournament a couple of weekends ago, tying for fourth place. FSH and West St. Mary have done a lot of summer work together this year, with first-year WSM coach Ryan Antoine’s squad working against the Hornets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Franklin also has done work with Jeanerette.
“We all need the work,” said Ina. “I’ve been talking to Coach Antoine, and we agree the west end of (St. Mary) parish needs to elevate the level of football.”
Loreauville coach Trent Delahoussaye said his team also has scrimmaged a couple of times against WSM and Franklin, and will work with St. Martinville today. His team also will head to the LSU 7-on-7 camp Saturday, and plans to work against Breaux Bridge later in the summer.
“Offensive we didn’t change anything,” said Delahoussaye of Tuesday’s work. “We run the little five- and 10-yard routes we run during the season.
“I’m pleased with the effort. I thought we got tired at the end, but that showed the guys we need to be in better shape.”
Jeanerette coach Terry Lewis said Tuesday’s camp was about the fifth one his team has participated in this year, and the work is primarily for his defense. The Tigers are a run-oriented team that uses play action passing, rather than drop-back or a spread offense. JSH played West St. Mary in the seventh-place game Tuesday.
“Our (offense) is predicated on people trying to stop our running game,” said Lewis. “As a rule we aren’t a dropback passing team.”
However, the defensive work his team gets in learning proper depth and drops against the kinds of passing teams the Tigers will face is a big help.
“Our defensive coaches are pleased with the way our kids are coming along,” said Lewis.
In addition to the players learning the concepts of what the coaches want them to do defensively, the camp also was good work for his quarterbacks, he said.
“Our guys held their own,” he said.
Antoine, whose team has worked against Franklin and Jeanerette during the summer, said the main thing he wants to get from the 7-on-7 drills his team has done is experience for the players. He’s also using the work to teach the players what will be expected of them during the season, and the attitude the coaches want to see.
“The main thing is we saw kids compete (today),” said Antoine. “We put guys in different positions to see where we can play them during the season.”
Hutson said Tuesday’s camp was only the second day of work his team has been able to get in this summer. He gave the Yellow Jackets the first four weeks of the summer off so they could participate in basketball and baseball, and rain has kept his squad from getting in any other outdoor work since.
“We were real rough,” said Hutson. “Our timing was off.”
NISH played LaGrange in the third-place game. Patterson and Northside played for first place.
Though his team hasn’t gotten in a lot of outside work, Hutson isn’t too concerned. NISH is heading to the LSU camp on Saturday and may go to another one in Alabama the week after.
“I feel like the last couple of summers, we’ve been overprepared at this point,” he said.
Comments
coach wrote on Jul 17, 2010 5:50 PM:
MR CLEAN wrote on Jul 15, 2010 2:54 AM:
I'm also impressed with what Coach Antoine and his staff are doing at West St. Mary. Loreauville has an explosive offense with a brilliant offensive coordinator.
Should be an interesting year. Westgate is always good and Catholic has Devin Boutte (and NISH has Kyle Lamothe). "