“You can see it coming through their pores,” he joked.
The players involved with Temple’s 7-on-7 football team haven’t had a lot of spare time for sofa lounging and Blue Bell.
After enduring a summer full of games and practices in the searing Texas heat, the Wildcats are ready to make their third consecutive appearance in the 7-on-7 State Championship at Texas A&M.
The 64-team Division I bracket for Class 5A and 4A schools is today and Saturday at Penberthy Intramural Fields. Competing in Pool J, Temple will play Lewisville Hebron at 2 p.m. today, Edcouch-Elsa at 4 and North Richland Hills Birdville at 6.
The top two squads will advance to the championship bracket Saturday, while the third and fourth teams fill the consolation bracket. All competition Saturday will use a single-elimination format.
Temple had a 4-1 record and tied for ninth place out of 64 teams in last year’s 7-on-7 state tournament, a year after it went 5-2 and reached the consolation semifinals.
A key player throughout Temple’s run of 7-on-7 state treks, senior Derrick Davis says the Wildcats go back to A&M with one goal.
“Win state,” Davis, a powerful 240-pound linebacker and fullback in the full-contact 11-man game, said Thursday. “I think we’ve gotten more athletic at every position. We’ve got a good chance.”
While conceding that running around in triple-digit temperatures isn’t a whole lot of fun at times, Davis said he and his teammates - who’ve played in three state qualifying tournaments plus weekly games at Waco Midway - are strong enough physically and mentally to overcome the heat.
“You just have to tough it out,” Davis said. “We’re used to it by now.”
Temple senior cornerback Ryan Powell is accustomed to chasing receivers all over the field, and the all-passing 7-on-7 game means even more running for him. If the brutal conditions bother him, however, he’s not letting on.
“It doesn’t matter,” Powell said. “Heat is heat. You just have to keep playing.”
Of course, that’s not to say the Wildcats disregard the heat. Alan Brown, who helps coach Temple’s 7-on-7 squad, said the players have portable shade tents and plenty of fluids to cool them off.
“They’ll be OK. We’ve got a lot of water and a lot of ice,” said Brown, who’s filling in for the vacationing Craig Marshall, coach of all three of Temple’s state-qualifying teams. “We’ve got a couple of tents and they saved our tail in (the qualifying tournament in) Abilene.”
Although coach Bryce Monsen’s Wildcats employ the hard-charging, rushing-heavy Wing-T offense in the fall, Temple has enjoyed success in the 7-on-7 ranks.
Senior tight end A.J. Coulter didn’t have many passes thrown his way during his first two varsity seasons, yet for the second straight summer he’s a huge receiving weapon in 7-on-7. Temple doesn’t have speedy Baylor-bound receiver Tevin Reese anymore, but Coulter and his teammates have picked up the slack.
“We have a good receiving corps,” Coulter said, denying the notion that he’s the “go-to guy” in an offense directed by senior quarterback Isaac Matamoros. “We’ve got Donovan Shumpert, Lache (Seastrunk), of course, Chris Garcia and Derrick.”
One of the nation’s most highly recruited running backs, senior Seastrunk gets to focus on his pass-catching skills along with backfield mate Davis as receivers in 7-on-7.
Meanwhile, defenders such as Davis and Powell don’t get to hit opposing ballcarriers other than perhaps a small bump, but there’s enough contact to tide them over until the pads go on.
“You have to be physical,” Powell said. “If not, you’re going to get beat every time. You have to be on your tiptoes.”
NOTES: Temple did not qualify for the 7-on-7 state tournament in three attempts - until 3A Abilene Wylie won a June 20 qualifier in Stephenville. The Bulldogs chose to go to state in Division II, bumping the Wildcats up to the runner-up spot from the June 13 qualifier in Abilene. “We were thinking it was over, but we still came to practice,” Powell said. . . . Temple’s 7-on-7 coaches along with Marshall and Brown are former Rogers football standout Justin Bane, Temple graduate Jonathan Bane (the Wildcats’ backup quarterback last fall), Paul Matamoros and George Garcia. . . . Copperas Cove, the defending District 12-5A champion, is the only other area team in the Division I bracket. The Bulldawgs are in Pool I and today will play Houston Jersey Village at 2 p.m., Richardson Pearce at 4 and Southlake Carroll at 6. . . . Richland is the defending Division I champion in 7-on-7.
gwille@temple-telegram.com
