Coaches weigh pros, cons of 7-on-7s

Back in the day, playing high school football in the Wisconsin Dells, Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly’s summer training regimen felt light as a breeze.

“Once a week we would get together in the summer with the quarterbacks and receivers and throw routes against no defensive backs,” Fedderly said. “We’d just throw on air, and it was really pretty boring.”

Now there is no boring in football. The boom of 7-on-7 competitions invigorates summer training and reduces lull.

“As a kid I would have loved having these 7-on-7s,” Fedderly said. “That’s fun.”

Yes, but as the 2012 football season officially kicked off Wednesday with the first prep practices, how do these all-skill position, no-linemen events apply to future success?

Like most things, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

From the perspective of a coach like Aurora Central Catholic’s Brian Casey, who runs a double-wing, ground-based offense whose passing schemes revolve around play-action, the affect, he said, is around “zero.” That’s from a coach who hosted, for the first time, a July 14 passing tournament that drew 19 teams including Geneva, West Aurora, Wheaton Academy and Burlington Central.

Casey said most of his team’s recent passing success resulted from safeties sucking up against the run, then getting burned.

“In 7-on-7 there’s no threat of that,” he said. “In that regard it doesn’t necessarily help us all that much, but the competition is still good, obviously.”

That aspect is a big lure for the boys of Batavia, said Mike Gaspari, the Hall of Fame former Bulldogs coach now in his second year as Dennis Piron’s defensive coordinator.

Facing an opponent — or six of them as Batavia did at the premier Wheaton Warrenville South competition, going 4-1-1 with wins over Glenbard West, East St. Louis, Wheaton North, New Trier, a tie with Montini and a loss to Week 1 foe Glenbard North — breaks up the monotony of drills against teammates.

Batavia’s vastly experienced 2011 squad, including three-year starting quarterback Noel Gaspari, meant an outstanding summer that led to a landmark, state-semifinal season. This year, with Dan Albrecht and Micah Coffey battling for the quarterback job, live evaluation became more valuable.

“I think the 7-on-7s we did this summer for our quarterbacks were really important because we are so inexperienced at that position,” said Mike Gaspari, who prefers nonscoring camps that emphasize instruction over point totals.

“It just gives you a real good handle on getting your passing game together,” he said.

Teams that run spread offenses such as Kaneland or Aurora Christian — which rode Ryan McQuade’s arm to third-place at the Southwest Elite 7-on-7 in Springdale, Ark, and also hosted its own competition — fully benefit.

“It’s an installation of our playbook, really, and it gives the kids an idea of the concepts we’ve got and how to attack the different defenses we see,” said Kaneland’s Fedderly. “It has absolutely nothing to do with wins and losses, but it’s a fun way to teach our passing game.”

There are teams in transition, like Marmion, for which passing leagues are hugely beneficial. Not as big on the line as in recent seasons and returning quarterback Charlie Faunce with good competition from junior Brock Krueger, coach Dan Thorpe’s Cadets will be shifting schemes.

“This year we’re going to be in spread all the time,” Thorpe said. “It’s very valuable offensively.”

But again, for teams that relay on backs like Geneva’s Bobby Hess, or will want to pound a fullback such as St. Charles East, in 7-on-7 the ground game is marginalized and even penalized.

Geneva coach Rob Wicinski joked that when he goes to a two-back set, “they all look at me like I’ve got 12 eyes.”

What he’s found is 7-on-7s may be more valuable for his team defensively — minus a pass rush, of course, which inflates completion percentages into the 80s. Defensive backs and linebackers must constantly be on their toes. While coaches identify who can handle the heat, even that has its drawbacks.

“Your defensive players can really pick up some bad habits, since they don’t honor the run,” said Wicinski, who nonetheless entered the Vikings in competitions at Northern Illinois University, Bolingbrook, West Aurora, Aurora Central Catholic, Mooseheart and a couple confabs with single teams.

A lighthearted yet heated lineman’s version of the 7-on-7 is West Aurora’s annual Battle of the Big Butts, which Blackhawks offensive line coach Mike Powers initiated with Buck Drach at St. Charles High. This year, Batavia’s Marquise Jenkins and Anthony Moneghini went 1-2 in the 40-yard dash and Bulldog Sebastian Vermaas won the medicine ball toss.

Powers sees a connection between this competition and the practice field.

“There will be adversity,” he said. “Like in the tug of war, one guy falls down, you’ve got to pick him up.”

A lot of that went on Wednesday. And maybe that’s the biggest translation from summer competitions to regular-season practices and games — picking up your buddy.

“I just think it’s about being together,” said Blackhawks head coach Nate Eimer, “about being a team, learning about each other and how things work and how you do things together.”