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7-On-7 Heaven
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I had a blast last Friday over at St. Pius X High School watching the 10th annual George B. Maloof Memorial 7-on-7 passing tournament. Sixteen teams and close to 500 athletes took part in this day long pigskin passing palooza. I ran into many coaches, players, officials, and administrators that we work with during our GPB Football Fridays in Georgia broadcasts and these coaches already have their game faces on getting ready for the upcoming season. Coach Mark Fleetwood of Peachtree Ridge High School really enjoys coming to this tournament. "It helps get my kids ready, a lot of good reps against good competition and it's always great to see how they line up and compete." Milton athletic director Gary Sylvestri echoed those sentiments. “It’s great to see how your quarterback works with the receiving corps and work on getting the timing down." Coach Paul Standard of the host St. Pius Lions told me that this tournament began ten years ago with just six teams that had a connection to former St. Pius coach George Maloof and that each year this event has grown bigger and bigger....and I might add, better and better. Coach Maloof credits his parent volunteers who he says, do a great job putting on a great show. He also wants to thank Russell Athletics and Pro Sports of Powder Springs for providing each team’s shirts; Riddell All-American and All-American Specialties Inc. for their help. The competition was spread all over the St. Pius campus with four teams competing at the main stadium and other games going on at the baseball and soccer fields. The tournament was divided into four pools of four teams each. Rabun County, Mill Creek, Villa Rica and Norcross made it to the final four and it was Villa Rica beating Mill Creek in overtime to wrap up a great day of 7-on-7 football. I also had the opportunity to talk to several officials from the Georgia Football Officials Association who were donating their time and talent to help make this event a success. Like the players and coaches, they were looking to get the repetitions and start to get up to speed for the upcoming football season. All this did was wet my appetite for the 2015 GHSA football season. I don’t want to wish the summer away, but I truly can’t wait for Football Fridays in Georgia to kick off once again.
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