Cougar gridders reach Final Four of national event

Local Sports

July 24, 2010

Harvey Simpson Cordele Dispatch The Cordele Dispatch Sat Jul 24, 2010, 05:28 PM EDT

Cordele — By HARVEY SIMPSON

Dispatch Sports Editor

BRADENTON, Fla. — Break-even results on Saturday’s final day of competition gave Crisp County High a Final Four finish in this week’s National 7-on-7 Football Championships that emphasized the passing game.

“This was a great experience for our kids as the competition here was extremely keen and the facilities were tremendous — unlike anything I had ever seen,” Cougar coach Sean Pender said by long distance while preparing for the long ride home.

“An event like this really opens kids’ eyes up to what it takes to be a winner both on and off the field as in addition to the tournament action itself our players attended some seminars where they learned some valuable information.

“One of them — Combine 360 — stressed to all participants the importance of character, good physical and mental practice habits, overall wellness and good nutrition. We definitely gained some information that we’re going to be adding to our own program.

“Overall, our participation here was very, very beneficial as we learned more than just football. An event like this helps build character and teaches a kid how to be a well-rounded person not just an athlete. It also helps build team chemistry. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to do something like this again.”

Two days of pool play were used to determine the seedings for Saturday’s round held at IMG Madden Football Academy where retired Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden serves as honorary chairman and former Seminole quarterback/Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke as an instructor.

The Cougars started out by winning two of their six games on Thursday.

One of their victims that day was Southeast Florida “B,” a 24-16 loser to the Cougars who in the first round of pool play lost to Southeast Florida “A” 29-18, Manatee, Fla. “A” 49-26, Manatee “B” 24-22 and Wren High of Piedmont,

Please see COUGAR page 2B

S.C., 21-20.

Crisp, which started out seeded fifth among the 32 schools on hand by virtue of an earlier tournament qualifier win at Blackshear, Ga., went 3-0 on Day 2. In doing so, it defeated Crane High 25-20, LaVilla, Tex., 30-13, and Bayshore, Fla., 14-6.

Then in Saturday’s double-elimination format, Crisp sandwiched wins over Manatee “B” and Wren High in between losses to LaVilla and Manatee “A”. The Cougars’ latter conqueror eventually earned the right to play Plant City, Fla., in the title game to be aired by ESPN on Aug. 27.

“Offensively,” Pender said when asked about his team’s overall showing here, “Jontavious Carter and Vantravious Williams were our top standouts. “Defensively, it was a case of where we just played real solid as a team.”

Before leaving home on Wednesday to come here, Crisp had participated Monday and Tuesday in a passing camp at Jacksonville, Ala., where it placed second. A missed two-point conversion attempt sealed the Cougars’ fate in a double- overtime title game duel. In all, the team went 10-3 there.

Pender said Crisp will stay home now for the remainder of its pre-season drills that starting tomorrow will be held from 4-7 p.m. Players will don full gear Monday week in preparation for their Aug. 27 season opener at home against Turner County.

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