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Jaguars, Skeeters head to College Station for state 7-on-7 tournament
By DEVIN HASSON, dhasson@starlocalnews.com
Horn and Mesquite will have an opportunity to win a state championship, of sorts, when they compete in the 2012 State 7-on-7 Tournament starting on Friday at Texas A&M University in College Station.
The Jaguars and Skeeters will be part of a 64-team field in the Division I field, which consists of Class 4A and 5A teams.
The three-day event actually kicks off on Thursday, when the Division II field made up of programs from Class 1A-3A gets started.
North Mesquite won the state championship in 1999, Mesquite was the state runner-up in 2008 and made it to the round of 16 last year and West Mesquite advanced to the second round of the championship bracket in 2010.
Horn punched its ticket at the Mesquite state qualifying tournament in early June. The Jaguars swept through pool play and then toppled DeSoto, one of the state favorites, in the semifinals to earn the qualifying berth.
"They competed well," Horn head coach Rodney Webb said. "Historically, our 7-on-7 teams fizzled as the tournament wore on either in that last pool game or in the elimination game, but not this time. I'm proud of the kids, they showed some backbone and played hard."
Mesquite fell in the semifinals in its hometown tournament, but turned the tables two weeks later in Wylie, where they defeated Plano East in the semifinals to make it to the state tournament for the third time.
"The kids have played well this summer," Mesquite head coach Robbie Robinson said. "We've had some kids that have been in and out at these tournaments, and we will again this weekend, but they have done a good job of maintaining their intensity and focusing on the things that you can in 7-on-7."
Both the Skeeters and Jaguars have the ingredients to be successful 7-on-7 teams.
The each feature several talented, athletic players on the outside that can make plays on either side of the ball.
And perhaps, most importantly, they each have veteran quarterbacks with Alex Cooper of the Skeeters and Destri White of the Jaguars.
But while qualifying for the event is a nice achievement, both coaches were quick to keep things in perspective.
"We try not to make a big deal out of it, so we don't get too excited if we win and we don't get too down if we don't do well," Webb said. "To me it is almost as if they were playing checkers. Of course, you want to win but it doesn't mean anything as far as what kind of football team we are going to be. We have had one of the most prolific passing offenses in the area in the last six years but it hasn't shown through to 7-on-7, so we don't read too much into it."
Robinson can attest to that, seeing his 2008 team that finished as the runner-up at the state tournament and also competed in a national 7-on-7 event went 4-6 and missed the playoffs.
"It (the experience) is beneficial, but you can't get caught up thinking how that translates into Friday nights," he said.
The Division I state tournament will get started on Friday, July 20, with pool play starting at 1 p.m.
Horn is in Pool B along with The Woodlands, LaPorte and Corpus Christi Flour Bluff. Mesquite is in Pool G with Houston Clear Creek, San Antonio Alamo Heights and Lake Travis, which has won five consecutive state titles in the fall.
The top two teams from each pool will advance to the championship bracket, while the other two teams will compete in the consolation bracket, both of which will start on Saturday morning.
The consolation championship is slated for 3 p.m. at Kyle Field, with the championship bracket scheduled to conclude with the finals at 4 p.m. at the same site.
Regardless the outcome, both teams are looking at this as an opportunity for some fun competition before things become more serious next month.
"The kids are really excited about it," Webb said. "It will be a nice experience as far as team building and they get to make that overnight trip to play some of the best teams across the state so the kids are excited about the weekend."
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