GATLINBURG – The South Greene football team wrapped up two days of 7-on-7 work in Gatlinburg on Tuesday, and the Rebels felt like they took some positives steps as it prepares for the upcoming season.
“A lot of the things you are doing in 7-on-7 are not the things you are going to be doing on Friday night, but the biggest thing we want to see are the guys competing,” South Greene coach Shawn Jones said. “We’ve seen some kids step up. We’ve seen some freshmen earn varsity reps. This is a beginner to get us going for the regular season.”
On Tuesday in the Mountain Thicket Thunder 7-on-7 Tournament the Rebels took on North Greene, Grainger and Pigeon Forge. They got a lot of different players involved in the three games and Jones is hopeful that those July reps will help him have a deeper squad on August 21 when South Greene visits Morristown East in its season opener.
“We’re trying to build depth. We have to come together as a team. We have some good leaders, and if these guys will listen to them I feel like we can have a good season,” Jones said. “We open up with a 6A school and a 5A, which is tough, but we have to get ready for that. We know we are going to have to rotate to play with those schools, and the more guys we have ready the better.”
What stood out most for South Greene on Tuesday was the job its defense did in the passing scrimmage where offenses typically have the advantage. In the three games the Rebels only allowed four touchdowns and forced a handful of turnovers. That has the South Greene coaching staff excited for what they can do on that side of the ball once the pads go on.
“It’s big in 7-on-7 to keep teams out of the endzone. Anderson County just put up 60 points on Hampton in one of these games,” Jones said. “We saw some big stuff out of the defense today. I’m really proud of those guys, and that was while rotating a lot of guys.”
On offense the Rebels spread the ball around to several pass catchers with familiar faces like Tripp Neas and Simon Burns pulling in passes. But the player that shined most on offense was sophomore Trent Haynes who was too quick in the slot for any of the defenses to keep up with him.
“Trent played last year as a freshman, but we didn’t use him a whole lot on offense. This year he is a guy we are going to have to rely on,” Jones said. “He is a guy we feel like we can put a load on.”
Delivering the ball on Tuesday was a new face for the Rebels. Last year Nash Rader led the Rebels from behind center and was a big reason they went 8-4. Now sophomore Dawson Ripley has taken over at quarterback and a big focus for the Rebels over the next month will be getting him ready to lead the offense.
“We have a sophomore who is very talented, but he’s learning. We’ve told him it’s ok to make wrong reads out here, because we’re learning with every rep. We’re just working on getting better every day. We went ahead and made him our quarterback in the spring, and hopefully we’ll have him ready by the fall,” Jones said.
