For the second year in a row, the Hahnville Tigers have won a 7-on-7 tournament that was sponsored by the New Orleans Saints.
But they aren’t done yet.
Because they beat out 14 other high school teams from the state, Hahnville will represent the Saints at a national tournament in Cleveland. There, they will battle against 7-on-7 squads representing 23 other NFL teams, from the Detroit Lions to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Each team in 7-on-7 consists of 12 players and each game is 20 minutes long with a three-minute halftime. In order to up the pressure at the end of each half, the last two minutes are run in real time.
Instead of playing on a 100-yard field, the field in 7-on-7 is only 40 yards long with a 10-yard end zone. No linemen are involved in the game, which only has a quarterback, running backs, receivers, linebackers and defensive backs.
The ball is thrown on every play.
In the Saints’ double-elimination tournament, Hahnville finished with an overall record of 5-1, knocking off Newman in the final. Last year the Tigers also beat Newman to win the championship.
“The defense played great in the tournament and in our first game actually outscored the offense,” Valdin said.
In fact, all seven members of the Hahnville defense came up with an interception during the six-game tournament.
Because only 12 players are on a team, a few Tigers play both ways. Receiver Ronnie Green and cornerback Jerqwinick Sandolph play on both sides of the ball each game.
“During 7-on-7, we’re basically teaching our defensive players how to play offense and our offensive players how to play defense so that we have more depth on each side,” Valdin said.
The Saints are paying all the expenses connected with the Tigers big trip to Cleveland. Once there, Hahnville will face off against the other 12 teams representing the NFC in a round robin format. The teams with the two best records in the NFC will face off in an NFC championship game.
Win that, and the Tigers will take on the AFC representative in the Super Bowl, which will be held in Cleveland Stadium.
Round robin games and the first two rounds of the tournament will be played on July 8-9 in Berea, Ohio. The conference championships and Super Bowl will be held in the afternoon on July 9.
While most of the teams competing in the national tournament are high school squads, some are All-Star teams from specific areas. Still, Valdin feels his Tigers have a good shot at walking away with the championship trophy.
“It’s hard to tell because we don’t know anything about the teams we will be playing, but I would think we have a pretty good chance because we are so good on defense,” Valdin said.
But even if the Tigers don’t win the national tourney, Valdin said the experience his offensive and defensive playmakers have gained this summer has proven invaluable.
“It helps for our offense to get their timing down because the quarterback has four seconds to get rid of the ball and it also helps from an evaluation standpoint because we get to see our kids go against really good athletes” he said. “It benefits our defense because they have a chance to man up against top talent on offense.
“It’s really better for the kids because they are going against teams out of our division that they have never had the chance to play.”
Both the regional and national tournaments are hosted by NFL High School Player Development, which was started in 2001 to aid in the development of inner-city and under-served areas to develop their football programs and players. It started in New York City with four sites and has grown each year to its current size of more than 100 sites nationwide.
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