By Daniel Evans
The Selma Times-Journal

There were a lot of teachable moments at Southside High School Wednesday, where Dallas County, Selma, Wilcox Central and Southside all participated in 7-on-7 football drills.

“Watch his belly button. He can’t go anywhere without his belly button,” yelled Dallas County Defensive Coordinator Jerry Harrison in his Hornets’ opening 14-7 victory against Southside.

With coaches all over the place and acting as referees, the games were as intense as offseason football can be. Both sides of the football field were used and the clock ran continuously during the 30-minute contests.

Each team had highs and lows during the 7-on-7 drills, so each coach was able to find positives and negatives to build on.

“We are in shape. We are conditioned because I didn’t see any guys bending over touching their knees. [The] guys are ready to go,” Southside head coach Daniel Flowers said. “I guess the conditioning program we have been working on in the summer has been successful.”

Flowers was impressed with his quarterbacks and receivers, along with the overall hustle he saw from his team.

“Our quarterback is getting the ball out pretty quick. The receivers are catching it well once they got the feel of things and the defense reacted to the ball,” Flowers said. “That’s all you are going to see in a 7-on-7 because you don’t have the fronts in front of you so you just want to see guys hustling and moving to the football.”

For Selma head coach Leroy Miles, who is not the biggest fan of 7-on-7 football drills because they lack the threat of a running attack, quarterback Jesse Boggs was impressive.

“Jesse threw the ball well. No pressure, just sitting back there, but he threw the ball well,” Miles said. “I was very impressed with the way he threw the ball.”

In their first game Wednesday, the Saints led 14-0 against Wilcox Central before allowing a long pass to the tie game in the closing minutes. Miles was happy with his secondary overall, but he saw the long passes Wilcox Central was able to complete as teachable moments.

“We started off well.  We got beat on a couple of long balls, so [we are] just making adjustments and getting out there and drilling [the] kids on what’s going on,” Miles said of his overall defensive play.  “We’ll get better.”

For Dallas County interim head coach Barry Colburn, defense was his main concern.

“I was impressed with the secondary.  That’s the big thing for us, working the defensive backs,” Colburn said. “We broke on the ball real well from the safety and had several interceptions.  We are always glad to see that kind of stuff.”

Offensively, the Hornets rotated a lot of guys in and out to keep players fresh and to provide a short rest from the heat.

“The kids are just having a lot of fun. We have a nice little system for our kids,” Colburn said. “We have got two or three different groups going in on offense continuously, keeping fresh legs in and giving them a chance to show what they can do.”

The Hornets are also playing Thursday at Chilton County in a 7-on-7 event. Colburn expects his team to play a total of six quarterbacks between the two days.